What to cook from pork knuckle for the second. How to cook pork knuckle tasty and juicy. To prepare the side dish you will need

The choice of meat for roasting should be approached with skill. The front leg would be ideal for cooking jellied meat, but we plan to cook juicy, flavorful meat. Therefore, we stop our choice on the fleshy back leg.

When choosing a shank, carefully inspect it: the meat should be quite dense without any darkening, there should not be too much fat, and the skin must be light in color. The smell also plays an important role - a fresh knuckle has a rather pleasant, slightly sweet smell.

Advice. To make the baked meat juicy and soft, conduct a small test by choosing a leg in the store - lightly press on the knuckle. In this case, the meat should spring a little. Then the perfect meal is for you.

Before proceeding with the main preparations, the shank must undergo some preliminary preparation:

  1. Lightly burn the leg over the fire (although it is usually sold already processed, bristles and dirt can still remain on the skin).
  2. Carefully scrape the skin with a knife and wash it under running water.
  3. Pat dry with a paper towel to remove excess moisture.

Now you can start cooking. Go!

Bake the shank in foil (sleeve)

Each country has its own national recipe for pork knuckle. And each is good in its own way. We will focus on the classic recipe with a minimum set of products that will help emphasize the rich taste of the dish and enhance its appetizing aroma.

Cabbage is perfect for pork knuckle as a side dish.

So, in order to cook a delicious shank in foil, we need:

  • pork knuckle - 1 kg;
  • garlic - 3-4 cloves;
  • mustard;
  • spices for pork;
  • salt.

Advice. Pork knuckle is a rather fatty and heavy dish. Therefore, people with various gastric diseases need to be careful about it and not get carried away excessively.

Prepare the marinade: mix chopped garlic, mustard, salt, spices. We take a pre-treated drumstick and carefully spread with the resulting mixture. Leave to languish for 1.5-2 hours.

We heat the oven to 180-200 degrees, wrap it tightly with foil (place it in a baking sleeve) and send it to cook for 1.5-2 hours. The meat is juicy and tender.

The dish is served on the table both hot and cold. As sauces for serving with meat, you can use mustard, horseradish.

Cooking pork shank in the oven

If you are a lover of a fragrant crust, then in this case you can use this recipe without using foil (sleeve). Here the cooking process is somewhat different from the first - the meat must first be boiled. But first things first.

To cook the shank in the oven, we need: pork shank (1-1.5 kg), onions and carrots (a couple of pieces of medium size), allspice and black pepper, parsley, a few tablespoons of honey and soy sauce (optional), a couple garlic cloves, salt (to taste).

Pork leg in the oven

Place the pre-treated pork leg in a deep saucepan and fill with water (the leg should be completely covered with water). We put on medium heat and gradually bring to a boil, periodically removing the foam. Now you can add peeled carrots, ground spices, onions (make small cuts on it), salt well. Cook over low heat for about an hour, possibly up to an hour and a half (the duration of cooking will depend on the size of the drumstick and how soft you would like the finished meat to be).

Advice. For a game-like flavor, try adding juniper berries and marjoram to the water while boiling.

We take out the boiled knuckle from the broth, let it cool slightly. In order for the meat to remain juicy during baking and at the same time give away subcutaneous fat, we make shallow cross-shaped cuts with a sharp knife. In no case do not touch the meat.

Mix honey, chopped garlic and soy sauce into a homogeneous mixture and grease the shank with it (use 2/3 of the mixture). We send the meat to the oven preheated to 200 degrees. After about 20 minutes, when the skin grabs a little, the temperature can be slightly lowered so that the meat begins to crust. Periodically, do not forget to water the meat with rendered fat and juices.

Advice. If you don't like crispy pork skin, don't get rid of it before cooking. It is thanks to her that the meat retains its juiciness.

15 minutes before the end of cooking, brush the meat with the remaining mixture of honey, garlic and soy sauce. The duration of baking is about 35-40 minutes, depending on the quality of the oven and the size of the meat.

As a side dish, stewed sauerkraut, boiled potatoes, young corn cobs, boiled rice with vegetables are perfect for ready-made meat, you can also add mustard sauce or traditional horseradish with sour cream. It all depends on your taste preferences.

As an experiment, try using part of the boiled shank as an excellent side dish at your table. We take out the boiled leg from the broth, leave it for a while to cool down. We make a neat longitudinal incision and take out the bone. We unfold the meat, making a layer out of it, stuff it with garlic and add seasonings to make it more fragrant. Roll into a tight roll and wrap with cling film. After a couple of hours, we take it out of the refrigerator and you can serve it to the table.

Here we have prepared a simple, nutritious and incredibly tasty dish. Do you have these recipes in your culinary piggy bank? Not? Then be sure to try them out. We wish you culinary success and bon appetit!

Pork shank recipe: video

Boiled pork knuckle is a very tasty and nutritious meat dish that everyone should definitely try to cook. Also, pork knuckle is often boiled to make a rich broth for soup, for jelly or for subsequent baking, so many will be interested to know how long and how to cook pork knuckle in a saucepan so that the meat turns out tasty and tender, and also tasty rich broth remains.

How long to cook pork knuckle?

The cooking time of a pork knuckle, like legs, is quite long and depends on what it is cooked for (for subsequent baking, for cooking aspic, for soup, or as a ready-made dish). Let's take a closer look at how much you need to cook pork knuckle for various purposes:

  • How long to cook pork knuckle until tender? If the boiled pork knuckle is to be used as a ready-made dish, it must be cooked for at least 2 hours (the meat should become soft and tender).
  • How much to cook a shank for broth (for borscht or soup)? To prepare the broth from the shank, it will be enough to cook it for 1-1.5 hours after boiling water in a saucepan.
  • How long to cook pork knuckle before baking in the oven? Before baking in the oven, the shank is boiled in salted water with spices for an average of 1-2 hours after boiling water in a saucepan (boiling time depends on the size of the shank), until the meat becomes soft.
  • How much to cook pork knuckle for jelly (jelly)? To prepare jellied meat, the knuckle needs to be cooked for an average of 5-6 hours after boiling water in a saucepan.

Having learned how long it takes to cook a pork knuckle in a saucepan, we will further consider the sequence of its preparation in order to know how to cook it correctly and prepare it for cooking.

  • Ingredients: pork knuckle 1 pc, water - 2 l, salt - 1 tsp, black peppercorns - 3-4 pcs, allspice peas - 2-3 pcs, onion - 1 pc, carrots - 1 pc, garlic - 3-4 cloves.
  • Total cooking time: 2 hours, cooking time: 2 hours.
  • Calories: 294 calories (per 100 grams of product).
  • Cuisine: Slavic. Type of dish: meat dish. Servings: 2.

Depending on the purpose for which the pork knuckle is cooked, the cooking process itself, as well as the cooking time, will differ. Let's consider further how to cook a pork knuckle in a pan, if you use it further as a ready-made dish (the main goal is tasty and tender meat):

  • First of all, the shank must be prepared for cooking, namely, rinse thoroughly in cold or warm water (you can additionally use a clean brush or knife to clean more contaminated places on the surface of the shank).
  • Next, select a large pot, put the knuckle in it and fill it with cold water (the water should completely cover the knuckle and its level should be several centimeters higher than the knuckle itself), after which we take out the knuckle (this procedure was needed to measure the required amount of water for cooking) .
  • We put the pan on the stove and bring the water to a boil over high heat, and at this time the shank itself can be stuffed with garlic (you can use about 3-4 cloves of garlic, peeled and cut in half lengthwise).
  • After boiling the water in the pan, put the prepared shank into it, wait for the water to boil again in the pan, turn off the heat (the water should not boil much) and remove the foam that has formed on the surface of the water.
  • Put a peeled whole onion and carrots in a saucepan, add salt to taste, put a bay leaf (a couple of leaves) and peas (black and allspice, 2-3 each).
  • We cover the pan with a lid and cook the pork knuckle for an average of 2 hours until the meat becomes soft and tender (if the knuckle is cooked for soup, jelly or for baking, then you need to use the cooking time indicated at the beginning of the article).
  • When cooking, periodically remove the foam on the surface of the water, and also, if necessary, add a little hot boiled water if it quickly boils away.
  • At the end of cooking, we check the meat for readiness (it should be soft, juicy and tender) and, if the shank is cooked, we take it out of the pan and carefully cut it into pieces.
  • That's all! Delicious boiled pork knuckle is ready, now it can be served with various salads or side dishes, and you can also prepare a delicious sauce for it.

In conclusion to the article, it can be noted that knowing how much time and how to cook a pork knuckle in a saucepan, you can cook a very tasty and nutritious meat dish for any side dish for yourself and your loved ones. We leave our feedback and useful tips on how to cook pork knuckle (shank) in a saucepan in the comments to the article and share it on social networks if it was useful to you.

Pork knuckle or shank is the tastiest upper part of the leg, adjacent to the knee joint. Most often, housewives take the back knuckle to cook jellied meat. There are a huge number of recipes for using this type of pork meat. And I also have them, I will tell you how to cook pork knuckle at home is simple, tasty and very affordable. These recipes are perfect for winter. In the cold season, our body needs hot, hearty food, and the fried, juicy shank will pamper the homemade, mouth-watering taste of the dish.

Do you think that there is nothing complicated in cooking this part of the pork carcass? This has its own wisdom, and if you do not know the basic cooking techniques, instead of a juicy dish, you can get a piece of unappetizing, tough meat.

The benefits of shank

For good health, the body needs special gelling substances, our joints and bones need them. They are rich in the back of pig legs, in addition, they have a large supply of minerals - iron, zinc, selenium. Also present in pork meat is vitamin B12, arachidonic acid, which is responsible at the cellular level for metabolic processes in the body. We must not forget that this meat is a source of protein. Pork knuckle dishes contain a lot of fat, and therefore are contraindicated for people with high cholesterol. They are high-calorie, for dieters, they are completely unsuitable, this is not a dietary product. Of course, if you want, you can eat a small piece, but only very little.

Shank in a bag for baking in the oven

This dish at home turned out to be a real experiment for me, it turns out tasty, juicy, fragrant, and most importantly, almost all the dishes used almost remain clean.

What you need to prepare:

  • pork knuckle - 1 pc;
  • mayonnaise and tomato paste (sauce) - 1 tbsp each;
  • garlic - 3 teeth;
  • dry rosemary, thyme - each 1 tsp;
  • dry garlic - 2 tsp;
  • salt and pepper - to taste.
  1. In a bowl, mix together salt, pepper, garlic, rosemary, thyme.
  2. With a knife, make notches in the meat, stuff fresh garlic, cut into slices, into them.
  3. Grate the meat with a mixture of spices, transfer to a plastic bag, tie it well so that there is no air left. Pack in 2 bags without air, and place in the refrigerator for a day.
  4. Next, the shank is cooked over low heat in a bag for about an hour, turn off the fire, leave it in the pan for 30-40 minutes. Drain the water, let cool, remove the bags.
  5. We combine mayonnaise with tomato paste, pour in the rest of the spices, grease the knuckle, put it in a baking sleeve, tie it, pierce several holes with a toothpick, put it on a baking sheet.
  6. Further, the preparation of the pork knuckle in the oven in the sleeve takes place at a temperature of 200 degrees, for about an hour. After the sleeve is cut, and the meat is placed in the oven for 5-7 minutes, for ruddy.

Recipe for pork knuckle in the oven

A great dish that does not require any culinary skills or time. It's quick and easy to prepare and eats quickly. With a minimum of effort, you get a delicious, satisfying dish for lunch, dinner, or for a special occasion. Guests and family will certainly appreciate your skill, and only you will know that its preparation is ridiculously simple.

For a kilogram of shank, we need a kilogram of potatoes. We peel the potatoes and boil until half cooked in salted water.

  1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.
  2. In a small bowl, peel and finely chop four cloves of garlic. Finely chop the bay leaf. Add salt and pour in a few tablespoons of olive oil. If you don't have olive oil, you can use sunflower oil. All this is thoroughly kneaded with a crush and mix until a homogeneous mass.
  3. We make cuts in the shank and put the resulting mass of spices there. We lubricate the knuckle with it and leave it to soak for half an hour.
  4. Put the potatoes cut into pieces on a baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and white pepper. We put a wire rack on a baking sheet, and put our knuckle on it.
  5. Baking - 15 minutes at t = 250 gr, after which we reduce the temperature to 170 degrees and bake for another hour and a half. During the time spent in the oven, the shank will acquire a delicious golden brown, and the potatoes will be saturated with juice from the meat, getting amazing taste.

Knuckle in a slow cooker: recipe with photo

Maybe some of the readers will want to use smart devices. I'm talking about how to cook a shank in a slow cooker.

You will need: pork knuckle - 1 pc; onion, bay leaf, garlic, dill (parsley), salt, black pepper (peas or ground), sweet paprika (ground). Take all the listed ingredients according to your taste preferences.

  1. Wash and clean the handle.
  2. Finely chop the garlic and onion with a knife, mix with salt, paprika and ground pepper. Grate the meat with this mixture, leave for a couple of hours.
  3. Transfer the meat to the multicooker bowl, pour in one and a half glasses of water, put a few peppercorns, and a bay leaf.
  4. Set the "stewing" mode, cooking for 50-60 minutes.
  5. Cool, remove the bones, flatten the meat with the skin down, salt to taste, sprinkle with grated garlic and chopped herbs. Tighter wrap in food polyethylene, press with oppression, move to the refrigerator. Boiled pork knuckle roll is ready!

Pork knuckle roll with a photo in a slow cooker

  • Pork knuckle - 1.5 kg;
  • water - 2 liters;
  • coarse salt - 3 tbsp;
  • bay leaf - 2 pcs;
  • allspice - 5 peas;
  • clove buds - 2 pcs;
  • garlic - 3 teeth;
  • carrots - 2 root crops;
  • onion - 1 head;
  • onion peel - a handful;
  • food film and strong thread.
  1. First, we prepare a decoction of onion peel, it will be needed to cook the roll from the shank. Pour 2 liters of water into the multicooker bowl, add onion peel, add onion, allspice, clove buds, bay leaf. Set the mode "cooking" or "soup", time - 30 minutes. Boiled husk after cooking should still stand for 50 minutes.
  2. While the decoction of the husk is being prepared, start preparing the shank. We wash it well, scrape off dirt with a knife, pull out the bone, gradually cutting all attached tendons and muscles from the bone with a sharp knife. If you wish, the meat layer with the skin can be lightly beaten with a hammer to give a smooth surface. To taste - add salt, sprinkle with pepper, coat with garlic crushed through a press. Lay sliced ​​carrots on top.
  3. We shift the meat layer onto a cling film, wrap it neatly in the form of a roll, wrap it with a film, tie it with a strong thread.
  4. Salt onion broth. Poke a few holes in the roll with a knife. This is necessary so that during the cooking process, the salt penetrates evenly into the meat and acquires a beautiful onion color. Place the roll in the multicooker bowl, set the “quenching” mode, time is 2.5 hours.
  5. At the end of cooking, move the roll to a dish, cool slightly, remove the thread. Do not remove the film, lay the roll in a suitable shape, press down with a load. Leave to cool completely in the refrigerator. Then release from the film, cut into the desired pieces in a chilled and compacted form. Serve with various sauces, herbs, vegetables.

What else can be cooked from pork knuckle

In any cookbook, it is not difficult to find a description of pastrami recipes made from chicken, beef or pork. Jews prepare such a meat delicacy from beef, in Romania from pork. I have a slightly different suggestion. I'll tell you how to cook pork knuckle in the oven to make delicious pastrami.

  • pork knuckle;
  • ready-made mustard and spices for meat - 2 tbsp each;
  • black ground pepper - incomplete tbsp;
  • garlic - 4 teeth;
  • honey - 2 tsp;
  • soy sauce - 2 tbsp;
  • vegetable oil - 1 tbsp.

Marinade for 1 liter of water :

  • sugar and salt - each 2 tbsp;
  • allspice and ordinary peppers - 5 peas each;
  • clove buds - 4 pcs;
  • bay leaf - 2 pcs;
  • dried garlic - incomplete tbsp.

Glaze:

  • liquid honey with olive oil - 2 tbsp each;
  • soy sauce with sweet paprika - 1 tbsp each

First, prepare the marinade for the pork knuckle. Salt the water, add sugar, two types of peppers, clove buds, bay leaf, dry garlic, boil, turn off the heat, let it cool.

We wash and clean the shank, put it in a saucepan with marinade, leave to marinate for a day. The next day, we take the meat out of the marinade, dry it well with napkins, carefully pull out the bone.

We combine together: pepper, mustard, spices, crushed garlic through a garlic press, honey, oil, soy sauce. We rub the pork, wrap it in a roll, tie it with a thread, and clean it again until the morning.

Then I place the roll on the wire rack, and put it on a baking sheet, into which I pour a little water. I wrap the entire baking sheet in foil, bake for about an hour at a temperature of 180 degrees.

I remove the foil, grease the meat with glaze. I combine the listed ingredients for the glaze together, put in the oven for 10 minutes.

Again I wrap the shank with foil so that all the flavors are absorbed and the meat comes. I cool, and tomorrow - ready-made yummy on the table!

Watch how to cook pork knuckle in the oven, video:

04.06.2018

The knuckle is a traditional dish for Czech cuisine, but it has long been firmly entrenched in Russian. Of course, pork knuckle is not a product that can be classified as dietary, but you can eat a little. And in order for it to give gastronomic pleasure, you need to be able to properly bake the knuckle in the oven in foil or in a sleeve.

You can bake such meat in 2 ways: after removing it from the bone and stuffing it with something, or on the bone. The latter option is suitable for serving in portions, and the first is mainly used when they want to make a sliced ​​snack from the shank. There is not much difference in the duration and complexity of the work, although meat is baked a little faster without a bone, so housewives should familiarize themselves with all the options in order to choose a more convenient one.

Ingredients:

  • pork knuckles - 3 pcs.;
  • onions - 2 pcs.;
  • carrots - 3 pcs.;
  • bay leaf - 2 pcs.;
  • dark beer - 70 ml;
  • potato starch - 1 table. a spoon;
  • salt - 2 table. spoons;
  • a mixture of ground peppers - 1 tsp. a spoon.

Cooking method:

  1. Remove the skin from the onion and the skin from the carrot. Cut into large pieces of 1 pc. of each vegetable, put in a small saucepan.
  2. Put a bay leaf there, pour 2 liters of water. Let her boil.
  3. Gently lower the washed pork knuckles: they should be completely covered with water. If this does not happen, add more boiled hot water (so that there is no strong temperature difference).
  4. Cook the shank until soft for about an hour, setting the burner to medium power and not covering the pan. The exact time is determined by their value: in some cases, 1.5 hours are required.
  5. Transfer the boiled shanks to the grate, let them flow around. Sprinkle with pepper and salt mixture.
  6. Put the shanks in foil (it is advisable to take a separate sheet for each), place chopped onions and grated carrots next to them (which remained - not boiled), fasten the edges well.
  7. Bake the shank for 1.5 hours at 180 degrees. Then remove the foil and on the wire rack (you need to put a baking sheet under it), brown for another 20 minutes, turning occasionally.
  8. While the shank is browning, warm the dark beer in a small container, add starch, mix well. Drizzle the meat with this sauce before serving.

Such meat turns out to be very tasty when it is marinated in mustard-mayonnaise sauce, if desired, additionally laying any spices for pork there. The shank comes out very savory, perfect for beer or just for a hearty lunch. The potato in this recipe is an optional addition - if you do not need a side dish, you plan to serve a salad with a shank, do not use it.

Ingredients:

  • pork knuckle - 1 pc.;
  • mayonnaise - 60 g;
  • vegetable oil - 1 table. a spoon;
  • garlic cloves - 3 pcs.;
  • mustard - 1 table. a spoon;
  • salt - 1 tsp. a spoon;
  • potatoes - 500 g.

Cooking method:

  1. Wash the pork knuckle very well under running water, let it dry a little.
  2. Place in a large saucepan, cover with water. Without salting, cook over medium heat under the lid for 1.5 hours. If desired, you can throw in a few black peppercorns, parsley root or onion.
  3. Transfer the boiled shank to a cutting surface, cut vertically to remove the bones. Rub inside and out with salt.
  4. Chop the garlic, walk it over the meat, too, on both sides.
  5. Mix mayonnaise with mustard, treat the shank inside with this sauce.
  6. Roll it into a roll, tie it tightly with a thread. Place in a film and let lie in the refrigerator for 3 hours for impregnation.
  7. Place the marinated pork knuckle in foil, drizzle with vegetable oil and wrap. For reliability, it is worth making 2 layers of foil.
  8. Put in a heat-resistant form, pour a glass of water there. Bake the shank at 200 degrees for an hour.
  9. Unfold the foil, leave the shank in the mold and bake for another 20 minutes. Due to the fact that the meat was cooked without a bone, it can be served by cutting into slices.

How to cook pork knuckle in the oven juicy without a bone?

To a greater extent, not even the marinade and other additives are responsible for the juiciness of the meat, but the cooking method itself: the baking dish should not be open, otherwise a long heat treatment will dry the surface. It is best to cook in a sleeve or foil, but if you want to use a heat-resistant dish, be sure to pour a glass of water into it and tighten the top with foil: this will increase the humidity inside. At the moment of browning the shank on the grill, you should pour the meat with juice protruding from it every 5 minutes. And additionally, the juiciness can be provided by the filling, which is filled with the shank removed from the bone.

Ingredients:

  • pork knuckle - 1 kg;
  • onion bulb;
  • carrots - 2 pcs.;
  • mushrooms - 200 g;
  • garlic (cloves) - 3 pcs.;
  • butter - 20 g;
  • black pepper (peas) - 5 pcs.;
  • bay leaf - 3 pcs.;
  • salt - to taste.

Cooking method:

  1. Pour cold water over the shank placed in the pan. Let it boil and remove the foam with a slotted spoon.
  2. Throw bay leaf, peppercorns and sliced ​​\u200b\u200b(necessarily peeled) carrots. To cover with a lid.
  3. Having set a low fire, boil the shank for 2 hours. If it is larger than indicated in the recipe, it is worth increasing the cooking time to 3 hours.
  4. In half the volume of butter, fry the finely chopped onion and mushroom plates. Add grated carrots, cook until all products are soft.
  5. Put the boiled shank on a cutting board, cut vertically to remove the bone.
  6. Place the warm filling in the center, instead of the bone. Add remaining butter.
  7. Form a roll of meat, wrap with cling film. Place in refrigerator for 2 hours.
  8. After removing the film, tie the shank with a thread, put it in a baking dish. Tighten the top with foil, put in a hot oven.
  9. Bake at 190 degrees for half an hour, then remove the foil and cook for another 20 minutes, periodically turning the meat over.

The heroine of our today's story, pork knuckle, has won the greatest popularity in Germany and the Czech Republic. She did not remain deprived of love with us in Russia either. Juicy, tender, with a ruddy baked crust, the knuckle fit perfectly into our winter menu. After all, it is precisely in the cold winter times that our body definitely needs hot fatty food, which pleases us with its satiety and warms us with the real warmth of home cooking. At first glance, there is absolutely nothing complicated in cooking a pork knuckle, but the trouble is, in the hands of inexperienced housewives, this tasty part of a pork carcass can easily turn into a hard, dry, inedible dish. In order to help our readers avoid common mistakes and disappointments, today we are working with us to figure out and remember how to cook pork knuckle, how to cook it so that it always pleases you and your loved ones with its tenderness, juiciness and such an appetizing aroma.

It is customary to call the knuckle the lower part of the pork ham, adjacent to the knee joint. For the preparation of second hot dishes, the more meaty back knuckle is most often used, while the front knuckle is usually used for cooking soups and jelly. On sale you can find both raw knuckle and smoked knuckle, which, among other things, serves as one of the most important ingredients for making pea soup. As for the back knuckle, which is used as an independent hot dish, traditionally, to preserve juiciness and give the meat special tenderness, such a knuckle is boiled with spicy vegetables and herbs, and only then baked in the oven. Despite the seemingly so strict limits of this method of cooking, we still have a very, very wide field of activity for applying imagination and preparing a dish that would fully correspond to our own taste preferences. You can widely vary the bouquet of herbs, spices and vegetables used when boiling the shank, achieving a delicate aroma and taste. Before baking, the boiled shank can be marinated in spices, herbs and wine, giving it a special piquancy. And when sending the shank to the oven, you should definitely coat it with your favorite baking sauce, sparing no spices and herbs, which will give the finished dish a special charm, enriching it with new shades of taste and aroma. And, of course, you should not limit yourself to just baking a whole shank. From the knuckle, you can cook other no less tasty and mouth-watering dishes. Pork knuckle can be boiled and made into soup, it can be stewed with vegetables, fried with potatoes and even baked in a pot with mushrooms.

Without limiting the flight of your imagination in any way and allowing you to cook hundreds of delicious dishes, the knuckle still requires knowledge of small cooking secrets and small culinary tricks.

1. Before you go shopping, be sure to decide which pork knuckle dish you are going to cook. For jelly and soup, you will need a front knuckle. There is not very much meat on such a shank, but it is rich in extractive and gelling substances. If you want to cook pea soup, then smoked knuckle will be the best choice for you, which is also great for stewing with cabbage or other vegetables. But for baking the whole shank in the oven, as well as for other second hot dishes, it is best to take the back, more meaty shank.

2. When choosing a pork knuckle in the market or in a store, pay close attention to its appearance and smell. Carefully inspect the skin - a good fresh shank will be covered with a light, almost white skin without any spots. The meat should be dense, elastic with a small amount of fatty layers. When pressed with a finger, a good fresh knuckle springs up, and the resulting hole immediately straightens. If the pit from pressing remains for a long time, then you are offered a stale, stale knuckle. Be sure to look at the color of meat and fat. The darker the color of the meat and the more yellow the color of the fat, the older the animal whose shank is offered to you, and the more rigid and dry your finished dish will turn out to be. Be sure to smell the shank before buying. Fresh meat has a pleasant, slightly sweet smell. If the shank offered to you smells unpleasant, confusing your sense of smell with sour, putrid odors or the smell of ammonia, refuse to buy, a delicious dish from such a shank will not work.

3. Before you start cooking your chosen dish, the pork knuckle must be properly prepared. To begin with, lightly burn the skin of the shank over the gas, then carefully scrape it with a knife and wash it properly under running water, helping yourself with a metal washcloth. At this stage, the shank is already completely ready for further cooking. If you want to give the pork knuckle additional softness and tenderness, place the knuckle in a deep bowl, pour milk over it so that it completely covers the knuckle, and leave it for two to three hours in a cool place. Then remove the knuckle from the milk, rinse thoroughly again in running water and dry slightly.

4. Let's try to cook our first pork knuckle according to the simplest recipe. Place the shank in a deep saucepan and fill with water so that it covers the shank by a couple of centimeters. Remove the shank from the water, salt the water to taste and bring to a boil. Believe the knuckle in boiling water, add one peeled whole onion and one stalk of celery, cut in two. Bring the water back to a boil, remove the foam and cook the shank over medium heat for one hour. After the time has elapsed, remove the pan from the heat and let the shank cool slightly in the broth. Meanwhile, prepare the spread. To do this, mix one tablespoon of liquid honey, one tablespoon of soy sauce and one teaspoon of mustard. Rub the cooled knuckle with salt and black pepper, brush with vegetable oil and place in a greased baking dish. Bake in a preheated oven at 200⁰ for 50 minutes. Then remove the knuckle from the oven, generously grease the top with the spread prepared in advance and return to the oven for another 10 - 15 minutes.

5. Unusually tender and fragrant knuckle cooked in beer. Wash two pork knuckles thoroughly and soak in water or milk for 10-12 hours. Prepare the marinade in a separate bowl. To do this, mix two liters of light beer, 1/3 teaspoon each of thyme, rosemary, cumin and oregano, one finely chopped onion, three chopped garlic cloves, salt and red pepper to taste. Drain the water in which the shank were soaked and fill them with beer marinade. Leave to marinate in a cool place for six hours. Put the pickled shanks together with the marinade into a deep saucepan, put on fire, bring to a boil and cook under the lid over the lowest heat for two hours. Remove the boiled shanks from the marinade and cool slightly. Stuff the shank with pieces of garlic, helping yourself with a sharp thin knife. Transfer the shanks to an oiled baking dish, brush the top with a mixture of one tablespoon of mustard and two tablespoons of olive oil. Pour ½ cup of beer marinade into the mold and bake the shank in an oven preheated to 200⁰ for an hour and a half. Every 15 - 20 minutes, water the shank with rendered juice and fat.

6. Pork knuckle turns out very tasty if you stew it with potatoes and garlic. Wash thoroughly, chop into portions and dry with napkins or towels two pork knuckles. In a frying pan, heat two tablespoons of vegetable oil and fry the pieces of shank over high heat on both sides until golden brown. Transfer the fried pieces of the shank to a deep pan, and in the fat remaining in the pan, fry one finely chopped onion and six chopped garlic cloves until golden brown. Then add two tablespoons of tomato paste, one liter of water, salt and black pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly, bring to a boil and pour the sauce into a saucepan with shanks. Bring back to a boil and cook covered over low heat for 20 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and transfer the contents to a greased baking dish. Add 700 gr. potatoes, cut into large pieces, mix lightly and bake everything together in an oven preheated to 200⁰ for 40 minutes. Sprinkle with finely chopped cilantro or parsley before serving.

7. The classic combination of smoked pork knuckle and sauerkraut is perfect in our next dish. It is not at all difficult to prepare it. Grease a deep frying pan or a heavy-bottomed pot with melted butter. Put two cups of sauerkraut on the bottom of the dish, put slices of two large tomatoes on top of the cabbage, add two bay leaves and a few peas of allspice. Next lay out three large smoked shank. Place another layer of 2 cups sauerkraut, 2 sliced ​​tomatoes, and 1 julienned bell pepper on top of the rolls. Add a few more allspice and season with ground black pepper to taste. Pour everything with one glass of cabbage brine. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cover the pot with a lid. Reduce the heat to low and simmer everything together for two hours until tender. Be careful not to burn your food! Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley before serving.

8. Unusually fragrant, tasty and very satisfying is the traditional German dish "Eisbein" with smoked pork knuckle. Place one large smoked pork knuckle in a saucepan, cover with hot water, bring to a boil and cook over low heat under a lid for two hours. In a cauldron or a deep frying pan with a thick bottom, heat one tablespoon of vegetable oil, add 300 gr. fat brisket, cut into small cubes, and fry for 10 minutes. Then add 300 gr. boiled smoked sausage, cut into small pieces, and 300 gr. hunting sausages, cut into circles. Fry everything together for another five minutes, and then remove from heat. In a wide baking dish, put one kilogram of chopped fresh cabbage mixed with three cups of sauerkraut. Pour 1 cup of the hot broth from the shank boil over the cabbage and let it sit for five minutes. Put the fried sausages on top of the cabbage, add 4 tbsp. spoons of spicy tomato sauce and mix thoroughly. Place the mold in an oven preheated to 180⁰ for 20 minutes. Stir often so that the cabbage does not burn on top. After the time has elapsed, remove your dish from the oven, place the pork knuckle in the center of the cabbage and return the dish to the oven for another 20 minutes. Serve on a wide platter with the shank in the center and the braised cabbage around the shank. Don't forget to accompany your meal with a glass of good beer.

9. Smoked knuckle baked with cider according to an English recipe is very tasty. Place one large smoked shank in a greased baking dish, add two glasses of cider or apple juice, cover the form tightly with foil and place in an oven preheated to 200⁰ for two hours. After the time has elapsed, remove the knuckle from the oven, drain most of the melted liquid, leaving very little at the very bottom of the mold. Cool the shank slightly, and then with a sharp knife, make shallow diagonal cuts in the form of a mesh over the entire surface of the skin. Rub the knuckle with a mixture of 2 tbsp. spoons of liquid honey, 2 tbsp. tablespoons mustard, salt and black pepper to taste. Put the knuckle back into the baking dish and return to the oven preheated to 200⁰ for another 30 to 40 minutes. Serve with stewed cabbage and fresh vegetables.

10. The knuckle baked in a pot acquires an amazing softness of taste and tenderness. Thoroughly wash two large pork knuckles, place them in a deep saucepan, cover with hot water, bring to a boil and cook covered over low heat for two hours. Remove the finished shank from the broth and cool slightly. Using a sharp knife, separate the meat from the bones and cut into small pieces. Heat one tablespoon of vegetable oil in a frying pan, add one chopped onion and fry until golden brown. Then add one bell pepper, cut into small sticks, and two tomatoes, cut into thin slices. Simmer everything together for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and season with salt, black and red pepper to taste. Lubricate portioned ceramic pots from the inside with melted butter, put stewed vegetables on the bottom, add one bay leaf for each pot. Place pieces of boiled shank on top of vegetables and pour 5 tbsp into each pot. spoons of broth and 1 tbsp. a spoonful of sour cream. Bake in a preheated oven at 200⁰ for 30 minutes. Serve with boiled potatoes and fresh or pickled vegetables.

And the Culinary Eden website on its pages is always happy to offer you even more interesting tips and proven recipes that will definitely tell you how to cook pork knuckle.