Pastă de Jumări
Pastă de Jumări·(PAH-stuh deh zhoo-MUH-ree)
Cămara Copilăriei (The Weeknight Pantry & Spreads)
It’s a time machine to a freezing December in Romania, born from the beautiful, zero-waste tradition of the winter pig slaughter. This rustic spread relies on a masterful balance of rich pork fat, pungent garlic, and sharp mustard, meant to be smeared thickly over toasted sourdough and topped with raw red onions. The secret isn't just the flavor, it's the texture. It demands the discipline of the pulse button to retain crispy little nuggets of crackling, resulting in an unpretentious, deeply savory pantry staple that tastes exactly like a grandmother's kitchen.
Before you start
Rendering your own cracklins.
If you cannot find proper cracklins at the market, purchase one pound of raw pork belly with ribbons of meat attached, cut into 1-inch cubes, and render in a pan low and slow until the fat is liquid and the cubes are deeply browned and crispy.
Ingredients
- pork cracklins8 oz
- red onion1 small
- garlic3 large clove
- yellow mustard1 tbsp
- coarse Dijon mustard1 tbsp
- sweet or smoked paprika1/2 tsp
- black pepper1 tsp
- kosher salt1 pinch
Method
- 01
Build the aromatic slurry.
In the bowl of a food processor, combine the red onion, garlic, yellow mustard, Dijon mustard, paprika, and black pepper, blending until it forms a smooth, highly aromatic wet paste.
- 02
Pulse the cracklins into the paste.
Add the cracklins to the food processor and pulse the machine in one-second bursts. You are looking for a rustic, coarse paste that holds together but still features small, distinct, crunchy bits of pork—do not let it turn into a homogenized puree.
- 03
Adjust the seasoning to balance the fat.
Taste the mixture before adding salt, as commercial cracklins vary wildly in sodium. Add salt if needed, and if the paste feels too heavy on the palate, add a tiny squeeze of mustard to let the acid cut through the richness.
- 04
Store in glass or serve immediately.
Transfer the paste to a sterilized mason jar where it will keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, or serve immediately smeared on thick rustic bread alongside sharp pickles.
Notes
The absolute rule of pork cracklins.
Do not buy standard, airy bagged pork rinds from the chip aisle; they will turn to dry dust in the food processor. You need denser Southern-style cracklins or Mexican chicharrones con carne with the fat and meat still attached.
From Cook Romanian in America.