Schweinshaxe

Ingredients

• Pork knuckle — about 1 kg each2
• Dark beer1 l
• Onions2
• Carrots2
• Celeriac200 g
• Garlic6 clove
• Caraway seeds2 tsp
• Bay leaves3
• Sauerkraut — to serve600 g
• Potatoes — to serve800 g
• Coarse salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Score the skin in diamonds every centimetre and a half, down to the fat but not into the meat.

   12 min

2. 2

   Rub the knuckles with coarse salt, pepper, caraway and garlic, working it into the cuts.

   10 min

3. 3

   Put them in a pot with the onion, carrot, celeriac and bay, and cover with beer and water.

   8 min

4. 4

   Simmer for an hour, never letting it boil hard.

   65 min

5. 5

   Move the knuckles to a tray, pat the skin dry and roast at 180 °C for an hour and twenty.

   85 min

6. 6

   Every twenty minutes baste with beer from the pot and fat from the tray.

   6 min

7. 7

   Raise the oven to 240 °C for the last ten minutes, until the crackling blisters.

   12 min

About the dish

The skin is scored in diamonds down to the fat but not into the meat. Fat renders out through the cuts and the crackling blisters instead of staying leathery.

The knuckle is first simmered in beer with root vegetables for an hour, then roasted. The simmer softens the meat, the roast makes the crackling — neither alone gives both.

For the last ten minutes it is basted with beer and held at 240 °C. That final heat is what turns the skin to glass, and it cannot be skipped.

Worth knowing

• — Dry the skin thoroughly before it goes into the oven. Moisture is the single reason crackling fails to crisp.
• — Do not cut through to the meat. Juices escape through a full cut and the knuckle comes out dry inside under a perfect crust.
• — Do not throw away the poaching liquid: reduce it by half with a spoon of mustard for the sauce.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

880 kcal

Protein

58 g

Fat

56 g

Carbs

34 g

More from Germany

• Käsespätzle — Swabian egg noodles layered with cheese and buried under fried onion.
• Rinderrouladen — Thin slices of beef rolled around mustard, bacon and gherkin and braised until they give way.
• Sauerbraten — Beef steeped for days in a vinegar marinade and braised in it, with a gravy thickened on gingerbread.