Hickory strips (Smoked Pork Ears)

Smoked Pork Ears: The Crunchy Beer Snack, Made the Slow Way

Half chew, half crackle. Pork ears are mostly cartilage, which is why they behave like nothing else on a snack board — the outer edge snaps, the middle gives, and the smoke sits somewhere between bacon and campfire. Salt is present but restrained; these are meant to be eaten by the handful, not rationed like a cured meat.

How We Make Them

Four days, most of it waiting. There is no shortcut that produces this texture — cartilage either gets the time it needs or turns to rubber.

• Cleaned and trimmed by hand. Every ear, one at a time. This is the least glamorous step and the one that decides the final texture.
• Simmered in aromatics. Onion, garlic, black pepper, a little sugar. Slow enough that the cartilage softens without collapsing.
• First dry. Low temperature, long hours. This is where the chew comes from.
• Cold-smoked over alder and cherry. Real wood, real smoke, no liquid smoke — here is why that matters.
• Second dry. Locks the flavour in and brings the crisp edge back after smoking.

How to Eat Them

Straight from the pack, cold, is how most people finish a bag. If you want them at their best, give them fifteen minutes out of the fridge first — cold fat is stiff and flattens the smoke.

• With beer. A crisp lager or pilsner cuts the fat; a dark stout leans into the smoke instead. Both work, and they taste like different snacks.
• On a board. Put them next to something plain — bread, pickles, boiled potatoes. They are strong enough to need a break between bites.
• Warmed. Three minutes in a dry pan brings back the crackle if a pack has been open a while.

Keeping Them

Sealed and refrigerated at 32–39°F, they keep one to three months. Once opened, press the air out, reseal, and finish within a week — air is what dulls them long before they spoil. They also freeze at 0°F for up to two months; thaw overnight in the fridge, never on the counter.

Fuller guidance for everything we make is in our storage guide.

Common Questions

Are these the same as the pork ears sold for dogs? No. Ours are made in a food facility for people, seasoned and smoked for flavour. Dog chews are plain and processed to a different standard — please do not treat the two as interchangeable in either direction.

How chewy is chewy? Closer to crackling than to jerky. There is resistance, then it gives. If you like the crisp edge of good pork rind, you will recognise this.

Is there a strong pork smell? No. The simmer and the long dry take it out; what is left reads as smoke and salt.