I have mentioned that I brought back with me from Spain the remnants of the leg of ham we had out there. Today I have been turning it into good heart attack material. That’s pork scratching to the rest of you.

This is a simple process that entails putting the pieces of leg and the bits of fat in a tray and putting that in a low oven. The fat should render away so you are left with the small nuggets of meat, that escaped the sharp knife in spain, and crisped up curls of skin.

It has been in the oven for an hour or so now and the house is filling with the smell of slowly roasted pork fat. I have been picking at the small morsels of dark red meat. They pull easily away from the bone and skin now that the fat is melting away. The pieces of skin still feel quite soft but I think they will crisp up once they are out of the oven and have cooled down.

At this rate I will be lucky to make my half century later this year!