Pork-free scratchings: classic pub snack gets a vegan makeover

From theguardian.com/lifeandstyle

Fried soya strips mimic soft and crispy pig fat, say makers, and no chance of icky hairs

They’re a classic British pub snack and a perfect pairing with a pint. Now pork scratchings are the latest unlikely foodstuff to get a vegan makeover.
The new-style snack – made by startup brand Vegan Pig in what it claims is a UK first – is made with soya and has what resembles crispy skin edged with softer fat, but without the ick factor of the occasional strand of hair poking out.
The scratchings are expected to go on sale in independent pubs in the autumn.

     The vegan pork scratchings made by Vegan Pig. Photograph: Anselm Ebulue/The Guardian

The product was devised by Josh Pearce and Sean Johnson, whose backgrounds are in advertising and marketing.
Pearce said: “A couple of years ago, when we were in a pub sharing a particularly dirty pack of pork scratchings, we wondered how close we could get to a scratching using only plant-based ingredients.”

To make the vegan scratchings, soya pieces are flash fried and seasoned with a vegan spice mix.
“It is a is dirty meat substitute that tastes like it’s going to be bad for you, but isn’t actually that bad at all,” said Johnson. “It even has a dual texture so you have both the softer ‘fat’ bit you get in a scratching, as well as the crunchy ‘skin’ layer.”
The product differs from one on sale in the US, Rico’s Vegetal Skins, which has a single texture, Johnson said.

Neither he nor Pearce are vegan, but are among the UK’s growing band of “flexitarians” who are trying to cut down on the amount of meat they eat, for a variety of reasons including concerns over their health, animal welfare and the environment.
Luke McLaughlin, owner of the vegan Spread Eagle pub in Homerton in east London, said: “Traditional bar snacks are essential in any good boozer. We currently serve nuts and specially sourced vegan crisps. Vegan pork scratchings would make an interesting offering … if the demand is there there’s no reason not to stock them.”

The UK market has recently been flooded with faux meat products such as vegan replicas of burgers, steaks, sausage rolls and chicken.
This week Morrisons launched a vegan version of a Cornish pasty. Created using a vegan mince which mimics the meaty taste and texture, the so-called “Corn-ish” pasty also contains the traditional seasoned mix of potato, swede and onion inside crimped rough-puff flaky pastry.

Taste test

Having once tasted vegan steaks made out of soy protein – like eating slabs of salty plasticine – my hopes were not high for these cracklings (“contains: soya, gluten and sulphites”, says the packaging, deliciously). I’m all for cutting down on meat intake, but there are some things that surely can’t be replicated. Would it really be possible to reproduce the crackly exterior, the unsettling fatty ooze in the middle and that occasional bit of hair growing out of the side?
And yet … these weren’t too bad. Crispy, salty and with a flavouring similar to that pub standard Smiths Bacon Fries, they were more like wheaty crisps than actual pork but, hey, who doesn’t like crisps? There was none of the meaty depth you get with real scratchings, nor the gooey fat – this wouldn’t fool a connoisseur. But given that the only acceptable time to eat pork scratchings is around 10pm after at least four pints of beer, there’s a good chance some of us would never even notice.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jul/13/pork-free-scratchings-classic-pub-snack-gets-a-vegan-makeover