Why don't we eat cow cracklings?

[Terrie H.]

We love perfectly roasted chicken skin and pork cracklings, but I'm curious as to why we don't eat the skins of other animals like beef or lamb. What makes their skins inedible?

[Derick]

it may sound bizaar but actually cowskin is one of my favorite, the only problem is it takes too much time to cook by boiling it at least 6 hrs to make it tender. but its worth the effort. we usually cook it with peanut sauce with mixed veggies, locally we call it "kare-kare". but i have my own personal recipes for cowskin.

[huiray]

Their skins are not inedible. Also, as tardigrade noted, "we" appears to refer to Western European folks. Here's a thread that also discusses "krupuk" (deep fried crackers) made from cow/ox skin: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/816928
Not at all chewy (as some others above declare) - when prepared as crackers (basically, "cracklings").

Cathy above also mentioned beef chicharrón. Wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicharr...

[Terrie H.]

Thank you all for sharing your experience. I have never seen other meats done as cracklings where I've been, so this was a several-glasses-of-wine thought.

[RosePearl]

We do, they go in my husband's prizewinning chili.

[Terrie H.]

How you do that, Rose?

[tardigrade]

By "we" I assume you mean European cultures, maybe even western European ones - I can't really speak to other cultures.

My guesses: cows were expensive to raise and cattle had other uses, like pulling plows. People who did eat beef (note the French-derived word, possible indication that it was reserved for the upper classes) may not have had to use every bit of the animal. Cowhide had a lot of use before vulcanized rubber and later plastics became widespread: not only shoes and clothing but bottles, stoppers, waterproof articles, gaskets, parchment, etc. Cows are hairy, and by the time you go through all the trouble to remove the hair you wanted the hide was more valuable as leather than food (for that matter, I don't know of a cuisine that eats lamb skin, because it could be used for parchment). Maybe the people who eat chicken and pig skins are the ones who have to use every bit of the animal when it's slaughtered. Maybe it just doesn't taste as good.

[Terrie H.]

I had thought about all your "maybe" thoughts, too, but wondered if there were specifics. It was just one of those passing ideas and was curious if there were established reasons. Not looking to do cow crackling in the near future... thanks for all of your input.

[GH1618]

You mean shoe leather? I know times are tough, but ...

[ipsedixit]

It's used but not as often as chicken or pork skin.

Reason being is that it is tough, much tougher and chewier than you can imagine.

Also, I'd imagine baseball players would throw a tissy-fit if we started to eat the tools of their trade.

[nofunlatte]

It is used elsewhere. When I was in Cameroon, I found out that the cow skin was used to flavor a stew that I was eating and getting a piece of it in your dish was prized. It was certainly chewy!

[Cathy]

Mexican Markets in the San Diego sell both pork and beef chicharrones in the hot/prepared deli. Beef cost $1/lb more.

[FoodPopulist]

My guess is that a) it takes a long time cooking to make edible and b) we developed other uses for the skin of cattle, so they were less valuable as food.

[sunshine842]

interesting question -- we use pig skin for other purposes, and it takes a lot of work to make cracklings edible...???