Chicharrón

Crystals on rendered skin are the texture and the seasoning at once.

Bitterness and bubbles against pure fat. The pub solved this before chefs did.

Malic acid is the traditional off-switch for pork fat, and this is only fat.

Same acid as the sauce, plus carbonation to scrub between handfuls.

Volatile heat clears the palate faster than any acid can manage.

Camphor in the salt rub. Fried skin takes herb dust better than wet meat.

Toast and grind it into the salt: anethole and pork skin are old colleagues.

Capsaicin is fat-soluble, so the heat builds instead of hitting once.

Dip it. Salt, fat and bitter cocoa is a bar snack impersonating a dessert.

Woody sugar on salt-fat. The candied bacon idea, applied to the better part.

Both are roast and bitter; the salt takes the coffee edge off entirely.

Dust it hot: marine glutamate on pork fat, the same logic as XO sauce.