Give Cornbread A Salty, Crunchy, And Flavorful Touch With One Ingredient

If there are two things the South loves with all its heart, they're pork and cornbread. So why not mix the two together? Pork cracklings, the fatty skin leftover from rendering lard, are a perfect addition to savory cornbread. But don't confuse them with pork rinds, another wonderful but different creation made from pig trimmings.

Whereas rinds are dehydrated, fried skins stripped of as much fat as possible, cracklings retain a bit of the subcutaneous fat. When rinds cook, the remaining moisture quickly turns into steam, causing them to puff up. Cracklings, on the other hand, aren't dehydrated first, and are therefore far chewier and more substantial. Thanks to this, cracklings won't become oversaturated by the cornbread batter's moisture or melt in the oven. This is what makes them such a wonderful texture addition to cornbread — they keep their form while still distributing their flavor.

Incorporating almost any addition to cornbread is as easy as folding it into the batter. You won't have to go out of your way to adjust the recipe because cornbread is already a dead simple dish to make. Sean Brock's cast-iron cornbread recipe is a fantastic base that allows you to customize it however you like.

When you make the great decision to add pork to cornbread, you need to consider the texture of your ingredients. Are they airy or solid? How much moisture do they have? Will the flavors complement the cornbread or work against it?

Fortunately, cracklings are solid, low-moisture, delicious firecrackers of flavor. They have chewy exteriors that won't become bogged down with moisture from the cornbread, and they're internally quite dry, so they won't make your bread soggy. Add half the cracklings to the batter, pour it into the pan, and top the bread with the other half to ensure every bite is full of their flavor.

Rinds, on the other hand, work a bit differently. Since they're so porous, moisture from the cornbread and heat from the oven will either make them soft or cause them to melt into the batter. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, if you want the rinds to melt, try grinding them up first and mixing them with the cornmeal to saturate every crumb of the cornbread with a salty, pork flavor.

For extra credit and maximum pork taste, why not do both? Grind up some rinds into the cornmeal, add the milk, eggs, and oil, then fold in some cracklings for an absolute showstopper of a dish. Slather on some chipotle honey almond butter for a flavorful, protein-packed snack, or whip up some honey butter at home for a decadent side dish.