Shvarki is a real delicacy of Ukrainian cuisine, which is obtained by rendering most of the fat from pieces of lard. Well-cooked cracklings simply melt in your mouth, they are aromatic and very tasty.
The greaves can simply be salted and served as an independent appetizer with black bread and onions, and can be used in preparing other dishes. So, greaves go well with any cereals, potatoes, pasta, first and second courses, giving them a special taste. The cracklings are used to prepare scrambled eggs, they are used to fry potatoes, they are used to make a very tasty pate, and they are used to pour over dumplings. You can even make very tasty cookies from cracklings.
It is best to cook cracklings in a thick-walled frying pan, as the heat is distributed more evenly throughout it and the lard is rendered evenly. The cracklings keep well for several months if you cover them with lard and put them in the refrigerator.
From the proposed amount of lard you will get a fairly large pile of cracklings and almost half liter jar lard.
Cracklings are a food that is very similar to sunflower seeds and is hard to put down. Therefore, today we will teach you how to cook them.
Recipe for delicious lard cracklings
Pork cheeks – 700 g
Salt, ground black pepper, paprika - to taste.
First you need to separate all the available meat from the lard. Place a frying pan on the fire, or better yet a cauldron with a thick bottom.
Cut the lard into small cubes and place in a frying pan. Cover with a lid, set the heat to low and stir occasionally until puffy brown cracklings form.
After cooking, transfer to a dish, add salt, and sprinkle with black pepper and paprika if desired.
How to make from brisket
Pork belly – 500 g
Salt - to taste
Green onions - for serving.
Pork belly should be chosen so that the fat and meat alternate. You will also need some skin.
Rinse the meat, dry it, cut it finely so that each block contains lard, meat and skin.
Place the cauldron on the fire, heat it well and pour lard into it.
Turn on high heat and stir the cracklings every 2-3 minutes. They need to cook for about 20 minutes. You will see browned pieces.
Using a slotted spoon, remove them to parchment paper. Add salt, chop the onion and enjoy as a stand-alone dish.
How to make from skin
They turn out no less tasty.
You will need pork skin, spices as desired and salt.
The skin is washed well and dried so that no moisture remains. Cut into small pieces, approximately 2x2 cm.
Everything is mixed, salted and seasoned with spices.
Place a frying pan with a thick bottom on low heat and immediately transfer the workpieces without heating. Close with a lid.
After some time, the fat will begin to melt. You need to stir rarely, carefully opening the lid.
How long to fry is up to you, it will depend on what consistency you want to bring them to: leave them soft or dry.
We take out the cracklings on a paper towel and try.
This simple dish will delight all household members, and especially men.
What can you cook with cracklings?
— Potatoes, either crumpled or round, can be seasoned with cracklings and fried onions, or stewed together with cracklings to add flavor and satiety to the dish.
- Any soups flavored with this product will be richer and fattier.
— There are many recipes for cooking vegetable stew with cracklings.
— Dumplings and manti, or rather the filling for them, for example with potatoes and/or onions.
- Porridge seasoned with this fried product will not be empty and bland.
— Draniki are fried with cracklings added to the dough.
— They bake pies and rolls with various “crackling” fillings.
“They even make pate.”
Cracklings are an integral part of the Ukrainian flavor! Let you start arguing with me, they say, these fried pieces lard are popular in almost all of central and eastern Europe, but I, as a true Ukrainian, will tell you this: I associate this product with my childhood spent in the Soviet Union, when lard was the most necessary ingredient in every kitchen! There was no vegetable oil as such yet, and if there was, it was impossible to fry food in it - it gave off terrible smoke! Salvation was lard - melted lard. A three-liter jar with a supply of lard rested in every refrigerator: they fried it, baked cookies from it, added it to soup for richness.
Well, where there was lard, there were sure to be cracklings! They gave us them warm, sprinkled with salt and herbs, and we were told to eat them only with bread, so that we wouldn’t feel bad later, because such a product is very fatty!
In my adult life, with the arrival of numerous products in supermarkets, I no longer need lard, but I periodically prepare cracklings to serve with hominy or any other porridge, and now I will teach you how to create them.
To prepare cracklings, you need to purchase an excellent piece of pork belly with skin. The layers of meat and lard in it should alternate - they will fry and become very tasty. Rinse a piece of brisket to remove contaminants in water and cut into two pieces.
Cut each piece into plates, and each plate into sticks, so that there are pieces of meat, fat and skin on them.
Heat a cauldron or container with a non-stick bottom on the stove. There is no need to add vegetable oil - the lard will melt on its own! Just make sure that the container is properly hot, otherwise pieces of lard will begin to stick to it!
Fry the entire contents of the container over high heat for about 15-20 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes with a wooden spatula. Do not cover the container with a lid, otherwise the condensation that accumulates on it during the frying process may get into the hot fat, and it will begin to splash in all directions!
Once your cracklings are properly browned, remove them with a slotted spoon onto a paper towel or parchment paper. Do not leave them in the fat, as it is still boiling and they may simply burn in it.
Sprinkle the fried pieces with salt and finely chopped green onions. If you wish, you can press a peeled garlic clove into them and mix. Now you can taste the cracklings!
Or you can serve it with boiled corn porridge with cream or water.
But I still prefer cracklings as an independent dish - especially men will not refuse them! Have a nice day!
WHAT TO COOK WITH CREASESCracklings- Very tasty dish. We tell you how to prepare them, how to preserve them and how to use them.
Cracklings - also known as fried bacon - have become a real symbol of Ukrainian cuisine. It’s not surprising, because real cracklings melt in your mouth, give any dish a unique taste and go with everything, even with powdered sugar.
What are cracklings?
Heavily fried pieces of lard or very fatty meat, from which most of the fat has been rendered. They are obtained in the process of preparing lard (rendered lard).
WHAT WILL BE NEEDED?
Lard with meat streaks or a piece of very fatty meat. The first is preferable. Plus a cast iron frying pan or a heavy-bottomed frying pan. Heat is distributed more evenly over it, and the lard is rendered better.
There are pork lard cracklings - they are the most famous and widespread. There are also goose cracklings.
HOW TO COOK?
Cut the lard into pieces with a long side of 2 cm. Place the lard in a frying pan; it is advisable to fill it to the brim, but not overloaded. And place the frying pan on medium heat. When the frying pan and the lard warm up, you can reduce the heat and simmer the cracklings on low.
When the cracklings acquire a light brown color and give up most of the fat and become dry, place them in a sieve. The lard can be strained again and sealed in a separate clean and dry container.
Dry the cracklings on a paper towel, add salt if necessary, and use as intended.
CAN IT BE STORED FOR A LONG TIME?
If cooked greaves are poured with lard and put in the refrigerator, they will remain fresh for several months.
WHAT ARE THE CREASES USED FOR?
They are used to cook scrambled eggs, fry potatoes, and add them to porridge. Millet fried with onions and cracklings in lard turns out excellent. And other porridges with fatty cracklings go well together. They make a paste with garlic from the cracklings, add fried onions to them, sprinkle them on national potato pancakes - potato pancakes, and even bake cookies with cracklings!
ARE CREASES HEALTHY?
In very small quantities - yes. Because they contain poly- and monounsaturated fatty acids. But you need to remember about the high fat content and calorie content of the product. And add cracklings to the porridge a teaspoon at a time.
CREAM PATE
2 cups cracklings
1 head of garlic
Step 1. Salt freshly prepared hot greaves to taste.
Step 2. Peel the garlic. Pass the greaves through a meat grinder along with the garlic.
Step 3. Mix. Keep refrigerated.
MAMALIGA WITH SULUGUNI AND CREASES
1 cup corn grits
1/3 cup cornmeal
2/3 cup cracklings
4-5 slices of suluguni
Step 1. Pour 3 cups of hot water over corn grits and cook, stirring constantly.
Step 2. When it thickens, add flour, stir until smooth and turn off.
Step 3. Place a third of the hot cracklings on the bottom of the dish, some of the porridge on them, then again cracklings, porridge - and sprinkle the cracklings on top.
Step 4. Stick pieces of suluguni into hot mamalyga. Serve hot.
An ancient serving option: mamalyga is laid out in pieces on the table, with suluguni stuck into each piece. Sprinkle cracklings on top.
COOKIES WITH CREASES
2 cups of flour
1.5 cups cracklings
2 boiled potatoes in their jackets
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 packet of powdered sugar
Step 1. Pass the cracklings through a meat grinder along with boiled and peeled potatoes. Do this twice.
Step 2. Sift the flour, mix with baking powder, pour it onto a board, make a depression on top, put eggs, salt and sugar in it. Stir until smooth.
Step 3. Add cracklings and potatoes to the dough. Stir. Knead a little with your hands.
Step 4. Divide the dough into 2 parts, roll out 2 layers of them 1 cm thick.
Step 5. Cut the cookies into diamonds, place them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and let stand for 15 minutes.
Step 6. Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Bake the cookies until golden brown, then brush with butter, sprinkle with powdered sugar and place in a basket.
I always fry pork rinds from the pork barrel. Here you have both meat and lard. Of course, if you want to cook lard with the smallest cracklings, then you need to use only lard. But I will talk specifically about cracklings, which are good for potatoes or porridge, and not spread on bread.
The pork barrel always has skins available. To cut it or not depends on your desire and its thickness. Many people like cracklings with the skin, but if it is too thick and tough, then in the end it will be almost impossible to chew it. That's why I always trim it.
We cut the barrel into small pieces with a side of about two centimeters. I always end up with these oblong pieces.
That's it, put our chopped cracklings on a heated frying pan and start frying. It is important that our barrel is not too meaty. The ideal meat/fat ratio is approximately 50/50. Otherwise, there will not be enough rendered fat and the cracklings will dry out rather than fry. In this case, I always add a little finely chopped pure lard, a couple of tablespoons. By the way, I always have chopped fresh lard in the freezer (you can cut it or mince it and simply freeze it in a bag).
So, fry over medium heat, stirring. The fat is rendered and the pieces brown beautifully.
Well, while everything is frying (don’t forget to stir), we’ll peel and cut the onions - we really can’t do without them! We cut into not very small cubes.
When our cracklings begin to turn golden (about 5 minutes), it’s time to add the chopped onion. Fry everything together for about 15 more minutes. I turn the heat to low and make sure the onions don't dry out to thin skins, but remain partially juicy but still nicely browned. Towards the end, add salt and pepper to taste.
