What's The Difference Between Chicharrones And Pork Rinds?
For some reason, everything fried seems to taste that much better. Great American Country even calls fried food the sixth food group (rightly so). Nowadays, you can find just about anything fried — oreos, twinkies, and deep fried batter in the form of funnel cakes. Thrillist reports that deep frying was invented by the Egyptians around the fifth millennium BC (talk about a long history of frying things), and thanks to the invention of the Dutch Oven, frying became a bit more universal as it opened up the possibility for the masses to fry food as well. Soon things like fried Coke (#confused), fried butter, and fried chicken started popping up.
Another thing that made it into the glorious halls of fry-dom? Fried pork skin, also known as pork rinds, cracklin', fat backs, or chicharrones. According to Indy Week, this magical little morsel was popular in the Southern U.S. around Thanksgiving and Christmastime, which was known to be the "hog killing time" of the year. With all the names surrounding this small snack, is there a difference between the name pork rind and chicharron?
The name difference all depends on where you are from
Healthline defines pork rinds as a fried pork skin snack that has achieved somewhat of a global popularity. The report cites that it is a beloved snack in both the Southern portion of the U.S. (where they call it pork rinds) and in Mexico (where it is called chicharrones). All Recipes backs this up by asserting that there are versions of pork rinds across the globe — all equally delicious, one would presume — each with a varied name based on where they are from.
In a Chowhound forum, one person inquired about the true difference between the two. Many users chimed in how it really all depends on where one is from. User Wawsanham claimed that they are both the same and the true confusion is due in part to translation from one language to the other. User raytamsgv also asserted that chicharron takes on a different meaning depending on where you might be from, explaining that in El Salvador the name refers to shredded pork. iFood.tv details how versions of pork rinds and chicharrones (with varying names) can be found in countries like Spain, the Philippines, Brazil, and Cuba, just to name a few.