Pork rinds are a staple for Southern snackers – crispy fried pig skin, salty and deep fried. Now, thanks to the efforts of a Richmond man, this humble food is going upscale.
If you frequent the farmers market at Huguenot and Robious Roads in Richmond, the Irish Festival or the Maritime Museum, chances are you’ve seen Marty McCauley dropping small bits of pig skin into a pot of hot oil at the stand he calls The Swinery.
“They’re very small, but they’re like an eighth of an inch thick, about as big as a quarter, and in the 400-degree peanut oil they’ll pop up.," McCauley explains. "Sometimes you have to break them up to get them into the bag. They’re about as big as your hand. It was funny. When I first started it was kind of trial and error. I put way too many chips in too small of a pot, and they blew out of the pot, onto the ground – it looked like a volcano, and I just turned the burner off and stood back.”
But customers closed in quickly for what McCauley refers to swine tastings, pronouncing the snack, "delicious."
Swine Skins come in many flavors.
“I use confectioners’ sugar, and then I use Old Bay, chili and cheese, salt and vinegar, Chipotle and cinnamon, mild barbeque, sweet barbeque, hot barbeque, real cheddar cheese. I think there are about fifteen flavors,” McAuley says.
Customers Ben Hill and Lauren Dilisio they like them all.
“They’re crunchy, don’t taste greasy, have lots of flavor, and the flavor is not overpowering, " Hill says.
"I didn’t used to eat pork," Dilision confesses. " We used to be vegan actually, so we fell off that wagon pretty hard.”
McCauley knows his swine skins are not health food. In fact, his slogan admits as much.
“They’re not really good for you – But they are really good!”
And, in truth, the man in the wide brimmed straw hat recommends his pork rinds for people on certain diets.
“They are zero carbs and high in protein and I fry them in peanut oil,” he explains.
They’re gluten free, and Rebecca Ryan couldn’t be happier to find Swine Skins for sale.
“My husband loves them. He’s on a new diet, so he’s happy he gets something crunchy and tasty.”
And at seven dollars a bag, the price is right.
“I’ve got this tricky sign behind you – seven dollars each, two for fifteen," McCauley says. "That’s just to see if people are paying attention. It’s so funny. My uncle used to have a place with pickled eggs on his bar, and it said ten cents or two for 25, and everybody would get two, and then then they were like, ‘Hey, wait a minute.!””
Sure enough, Hill and Dilisio grab two bags of lemon pepper skins and hand McCauley 15 bucks. He promptly returns a dollar.
“Is 15 right for two?," Hill says, handing McCauley the money.
"No 14," McCauley says with a smile. " It’s a trick sign. Yeah, you’ve gotta’ read and pay attention. A lot of people don’t pay attention, and they hand me fifteen and start to walk off, and I say, ‘Excuse me. You failed the test! And I give them the dollar back, and often they’ll give me the dollar back again.”
He won’t get rich but enjoys meeting in people and turning them on to his products. He’s even gone national, selling 15 bags to a lady who planned to send them to friends in Iowa.
And from an environmental standpoint, McCauley is proud to help farmers use every part of the pig.
“I knew people in the pork business before. They said they used everything but the squeal, and if they figured out how to get that in a jar they would do that.”
At the Irish Festival on Church Hill he earned over $2,000. Twenty percent was supposed to go to charity, but McCauley says he likes to be above average and happily donated 25%. With cooler weather upon us, he’ll take a break and go deer hunting, and then it’s on to share his gourmet wares on November 18th at the exclusive Tides’ Inn Taste by the Bay in Irvington.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.