When you cook a whole hog, one thing you should never do is throw out the skin. It’s the key ingredient for one of the tastiest by-products in the world. If you’re not cooking a whole hog, I’m not going to fool you by saying it’s easy to pick up some pig skin, but you might be able to get some from your local butcher or from someone who is cooking a whole hog, a ham, or a pork shoulder and is willing to part with it.

　　

Ingredients

serves 6 to 8

　　Hog skin from a whole hog, ham, or shoulder

　　Kosher salt

　　

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 300˚F.

　　

Step 2

Scrape any fat and meat off the skin, leaving only the skin. Using kitchen shears, cut the skin into cracker-size pieces. Place the skin pieces on top of a cooling rack in a large sheet pan, and sprinkle them with kosher salt. Cook in the oven until the fat is rendered in the bottom of the sheet pan and the skin is golden brown and crispy, usually about 3 1/2 hours.

　　

Step 3

Remove the pan from the oven and place the skins on paper towels to drain and cool.

　　

Step 4

Dust the cracklings with your favorite rub or dip them into your favorite barbecue sauce.

　　Reprinted with permission from Smokin' with Myron Mixon by Myron Dixon with Kelly Alexander, © 2011 Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House. Buy the full book from Amazon or Bookshop.