Features of cooking. TOP-8 best recipes for pork shank with cabbage, with potatoes, boiled, stewed, baked on the grill, in the oven, in a slow cooker. Video recipes.
The pork shank is the part of the pork carcass that borders on the knee joint, that is, in the front are the forearms, and on the hind legs of the piglet, the drumsticks. For the preparation of second courses and snacks, it is precisely part of the hind legs that is used, there is more meat in it, jellies and soups are prepared from the front steering wheels. This part of the pork carcass can be boiled, stewed, baked in foil, in a sleeve or on charcoal, it makes delicious rolls, ham and homemade sausage. One drumstick weighs up to 2 kg, so the dish prepared from it will be enough for a small company. Next, we will consider how to choose the right shank correctly, we will study the basic principles of preparation and the most popular pork shank recipes suitable for home use.
Features of cooking pork shank
No Oktoberfest in Germany takes place without the preparation of pork shank. Germans love this dish and consume it at beer festivals in no smaller portions than the beer itself. They have a roasted pork drumstick called Schweinhaxe, served with stewed cabbage and a couple of glasses of frothy draft beer. In Bavaria, they like to eat it with potato dumplings and red cabbage.
Czechs also know how to cook pork shank so that you want to taste their traditional boar knee many times. They brew it in beer, bake it, make rolls, homemade sausage and ham from it.
Each German and Czech housewife has her own recipe for a delicious pork knuckle, they are all similar in cooking technology, the only difference is in the set of used spices and herbs. In addition, they are united by one common secret: in order to cook a pork shank deliciously, you need to buy a suitable drumstick. There are several basic rules in this business:
- Appearance … On a fresh drumstick, the hide should be white, without spots, bruising or other damage. Supermarkets sometimes sell a drumstick without a skin, but in some recipes the “highlight” is precisely the baked crisp crust, which is obtained only on the drumstick with the skin. For this reason, before buying it, you need to know exactly how to cook pork shank.
- Slice … It should be fresh, not windy. For the dish to be tasty, you need to choose a drumstick with a minimum percentage of fat.
- Freshness of meat … It is checked by a standard test: you need to press the meat with your finger. If the dent recovers quickly, then the product is fresh. If the dent remains for a long time, you should abandon the purchase.
- Meat color … Fresh meat should be light pink, not dark. The fat should be white. If the meat is dark brownish in color, and the bacon has turned yellow a little, the shank is old and should not be bought.
- Smell … Fresh meat has a slightly sweet aroma; any extraneous odors indicate that it has been spoiled or has been restored in special solutions.
There are a number of recommendations not only on the choice of pork drumstick, but also on the technology of its preparation:
- If not fresh but frozen drumsticks are used, they must first be removed from the refrigerator and thawed. The easiest way to get it out in the evening and put it in a bowl of water. In the morning you will have your main ingredient ready to go.
- In most step-by-step recipes, pork shank is first boiled and then baked or smoked. You need to boil it together with the skin, then the broth will turn out to be more rich and tasty, and the meat will not fall off the bone. If you plan to prepare the first course, then it is better to remove the skin.
- To make the leg broth tasty, you can put vegetables and spices in it. To prevent them from floating on the surface, they can be folded into cheesecloth and tied in a knot, or you can use a special tea strainer.
- The drumstick can be marinated before baking. It is better to do this at night, stuffing it with garlic and sprinkling with various spices. Dark beer is often used as a marinade, in which the shank can then be brewed. It also goes well with honey-soy, honey-mustard and soy-honey-mustard marinade. The meat turns out to be juicy with a spicy slightly sweet taste.
- The shank is brewed for at least an hour. After boiling, it must be dried. If you plan to bake the pork knuckle afterwards in the oven, then you cannot overcook it so that the meat does not separate from the bone. You need to monitor this more carefully if you plan to bake on the grill.
TOP 8 best pork shank recipes
Juicy pork knuckle is not only an excellent beer snack, but also a hearty lunch for a large company. The dish goes well with fresh, stewed and baked vegetables. It is easy to prepare and does not require a lot of cooking experience. Having mastered one step-by-step recipe for pork shank, you will immediately understand the principle of its preparation and will be able to experiment with side dishes on your own, creating your own unique delicacy.
Shank in beer
This is a traditional Czech recipe for oven baked pork knuckle. If you plan to treat a large company with a dish, feel free to multiply the amount of products by 2. The cooking process, although it takes a lot of time, is not complicated. Most of the preparation of the dish is occupied by marinating the drumstick and boiling it, this does not require much effort. It takes the least time to bake the pork shank until golden brown, but the result is a hearty and delicious meat appetizer.
- Caloric content per 100 g - 263 kcal.
- Servings - 4-5
- Cooking time - 15 hours
Ingredients:
- Shank from the back leg - 2 pcs.
- Dark beer - 2 l
- Garlic - 4 cloves
- Onions - 3 pcs.
- Marjoram - to taste
- Bay leaves - 4-5 pcs.
- Cumin - 5 g
- Salt to taste
Step-by-step preparation of shank in beer:
- Wash the drumstick, transfer to a deep bowl, pour 1 liter of beer and 1 liter of water there.
- Pour salt into the marinade, add lavrushka, caraway seeds and squeezed garlic.
- Put the shin in the marinade in the refrigerator for 12 hours.
- Put the marinated meat on the burner, add the marjoram and cook for 2, 5 hours.
- Cut the onion into rings and place them on a baking sheet without peeling them.
- Put the boiled shank on the onion, pour it over with beer and bake at 200 ° C for 15 minutes.
- Open the oven, pour the beer over the meat, put it back and raise the temperature by 10 ° C. Do this until the crust on the shank is browned.
Homemade pork knuckle according to a Czech recipe goes well with sauerkraut, pickled peppers, horseradish and mustard.
Festive shank roll
To prepare a simple pork shank roll, it is enough to boil it, cut it off the bone, roll it into a tube and put it under a press, but it will be a regular meat snack. A festive meal will take a lot more food and a lot more time, but it's really worth it. To form a roll, you also need a piece of sterile gauze.
Ingredients:
- Shank - 1 pc.
- Turkey shoulder - 1 pc.
- Pork without bone - 400 g
- Garlic - 1 head
- Ground black pepper, peas - to taste
- Allspice - 5 pcs.
- Bay leaf - 4 pcs.
- Salt to taste
- Bulb onions - 1 pc.
- Nutmeg - to taste
Step-by-step preparation of a festive shank roll:
- Wash your lower leg, scrape off the hair, clean, transfer to a saucepan.
- Send turkey shoulder and a piece of pork, peeled onion, salt, laurel, peppercorns and allspice to the drumstick. Fill everything with water.
- When the water boils, cook the meat for 1 hour.
- Peel the garlic, chop it with a knife.
- Remove the boiled pork knuckle along with the rest of the meat from the broth and refrigerate. Remove the bones if the meat is boiled, it will be easy to do.
- Fold sterile gauze in 2 layers. On top of it, put the boiled boneless drumstick with the skin to the gauze.
- Sprinkle the shank with garlic, ground pepper, nutmeg.
- Place the turkey and boiled pork on the drumstick. Form a roll and pull it tight with gauze.
- Put the roll in a bowl, press down on top with a load and put this whole structure in a cold place overnight.
Cut the finished roll into circles, it goes perfectly, like a pork knuckle, with mustard, horseradish and even ketchup.
Pork shank brawn
In order for the brawn to acquire a certain cylindrical shape, the recipes use special casings, cleaned intestines or just cling film, and this recipe uses a regular plastic bottle of carbonated water.
Ingredients:
- Pork shank - 1, 2 kg
- Salt, black pepper - to taste
- Onions - 1-2 pcs.
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Black peppercorns - 4 pcs.
- Bay leaf - 3 pcs.
- Garlic - 3 cloves
- Water - 4 l
Step-by-step cooking of pork shank brawn:
- Wash the lower leg in running water, clean the skin.
- Transfer the meat to a saucepan, cover completely with water.
- Boil the water, remove the foam that appears with a slotted spoon.
- When the broth boils, send peeled onions, carrots, laurel, peppercorns into it.
- Boil the drumstick for 3-3.5 hours with a minimal boil of the broth. Season with salt 30 minutes before cooking.
- Remove the bone from the boiled drumstick, cut the meat with skin and greasy layer into small pieces.
- Strain the broth remaining from the shank through cheesecloth or a fine sieve.
- Salt and pepper the meat, add garlic pressed with a press.
- Transfer the seasoned and salted shank pieces to a 1.5 L bottle with the top cut off.
- Fill the meat with broth. Place the bottle in the refrigerator until it hardens completely.
After 5-6 hours, the brawn from the pork shank will harden, then you can cut off the bottle with a knife and cut the appetizer into portions. This dish goes well with mustard, ketchup and any other hot sauces.
Pork shank ham
This dish of pork shank is baked in foil, and it is better to serve it chilled on the table. Homemade ham is a great alternative to purchased sausages. From 1300 g of raw meat, 600 g of a cold snack is obtained.
Ingredients:
- Pork knuckle - 1 pc.
- Salt - 1 pinch
- Pepper - 1 pinch
- Provencal herbs - 1 pinch
- Paprika - 1 tsp
- Garlic - 3 cloves
Step-by-step cooking of pork shank ham:
- Clean the shin, wash. Remove the skin carefully in one piece. If it breaks in some place, it can always be sewn up.
- Sew a bag from the skin with a small hole through which the minced meat will be stuffed. For sewing, take simple, thick threads, do not tighten the stitches too much so that the skin does not break. Sew up any minor cuts as well.
- Separate the meat from the bone, cut it into small and large pieces.
- Salt and pepper the meat, add garlic squeezed out with a press to it.
- Stuff the leather bag with meat, tamp. Sew up the incision.
- Wrap the resulting meat bag first in parchment and then in foil.
- Bake at 150 ° C for 3 hours.
Before serving, the pork shank ham must be cooled and cut into portions.
Shank in honey mustard sauce
This is another great pork shank recipe in the oven. It is initially brewed in beer and then baked in a honey-mustard marinade. It turns out an incredibly tasty and satisfying snack. For a large company, you can cook not 1, but immediately 3-4 pork knuckles with honey and mustard, respectively, increasing the amount of other components by 3-4 times.
Ingredients:
- Pork shank - 1 pc.
- Dark beer - 2 bottles
- Garlic - 1 head
- Dijon mustard - 2 tablespoons
- Liquid honey - 2 tablespoons
Step by step cooking shank in honey mustard sauce:
- Wash the lower leg, peel, soak in cold water.
- Peel the garlic, cut each clove into strips.
- Make cuts on the lower leg evenly over the entire surface, insert garlic into each cut.
- Rub the drumstick with salt and pepper.
- Put the meat in a deep bowl, cover with beer. Leave 50 ml of beer for making the sauce.
- When the beer boils, reduce heat to low and simmer the shank for 3 hours.
- Make a sauce by mixing 50 ml of beer, honey and mustard.
- Place the cooked drumstick on a baking sheet, brush on all sides with sauce and bake for 25 minutes at 200 ° C. To make the dish juicy, you need to bake the pork knuckle in the sleeve, and 10 minutes before it is ready to remove the sleeve, pour over the resulting sauce and continue baking until golden brown.
Ready "boar knee" in honey-mustard sauce is served with potatoes or stewed cabbage.
Shank on the grill
When the kebabs are already boring, juicy, aromatic and incredibly tasty pork knuckle baked on the grill will help to surprise the guests. One big drumstick is enough to feed a group of 4-5 people to the dump.
Ingredients:
- Pork shank - 1, 8 kg
- Bay leaf - 3 pcs.
- Salt - 1/2 tablespoon
- Mustard - 1 tablespoon
- Ketchup - 1-2 tablespoons
- Soy sauce - 3-4 tablespoons
Step by step cooking shank on the grill:
- Wash the shank, scorch the rest of the bristles.
- Put the prepared drumstick in a saucepan, fill it to the top with water. When the water boils, add salt, lavrushka, reduce the heat and cook for 2 hours, but no more, so that the meat does not boil, but sticks well to the bone.
- Prepare the sauce by mixing the ketchup, mustard and soy sauce.
- Thoroughly coat the boiled shank with sauce on all sides.
- Put the pickled meat on skewers, sticking them on both sides of the bone. This design will make it easy to turn the pork knuckle on the grill so that it bakes well from all sides.
- Grease the drumstick with the sauce again and place it on the prepared grill. It should be fried on coals until a beautiful golden crust is formed. Periodically it needs to be greased with sauce. Since the shank is almost ready, it will take no more than 20 minutes to bake.
The drumstick cooked on the grill goes well with fresh vegetables and herbs. For spicy lovers, you can additionally serve horseradish, mustard or chili ketchup.
Homemade pork shank sausage
Having tasted this pork shank sausage once, you will never again want to buy sausage in the store. It contains only meat and spices, no chemicals and preservatives. It cooks quickly, it turns out very tasty.
Ingredients:
- Shank - 2 pcs.
- Bay leaf - 3 pcs.
- Allspice - 8 pcs.
- Dry garlic - 1 tsp
- Ground black pepper - 1 tsp
- Ground nutmeg - 1/2 tsp
- Ground cumin - 1/2 tsp
- Salt to taste
- Gelatin (if necessary) - 1-1, 5 tsp
- Sausage casing (collagen) - 1 pc.
Step by step preparation of homemade pork knuckle sausage:
- Clean the drumstick, soak it in cold water for a couple of hours.
- Transfer the soaked meat to a saucepan, cover with water, add lavrushka, allspice. When the water boils, reduce heat to low and cook for 2-3 hours. The time depends on the size of the lower leg. At the finished drumstick, the meat should easily separate from the bone.
- Put the finished shank on a plate, cool, remove the bones.
- Pass the fat and skins through a meat grinder.
- Disassemble the meat into medium-sized pieces.
- Add the meat to the twisted skins, add garlic, pepper, nutmeg, cumin and ground coriander. Salt to taste, mix everything, add 1/2 tbsp. strained broth.
- The minced meat should turn out to be viscous. If the viscosity is insufficient, add gelatin.
- Rub the shell with the minced meat, tie the ends on both sides.
- Heat the water in a saucepan, put the sausage in it and boil for 40-50 minutes at 70 ° C.
- Cool the sausage and place it under a small load in the refrigerator for several hours, or better overnight.
From the specified amount of ingredients, 3 standard sticks of homemade sausage are obtained, but unlike purchased sausage, it will be fragrant, fresh, juicy and incredibly tasty.
Shank in a slow cooker with stewed cabbage and potatoes
Pork knuckle is being prepared in a multicooker with a capacity of at least 700 watts. First, it is boiled and then fried in a honey-soy marinade until a delicious crust is formed. Pork shank is ideally combined with cabbage and potatoes, which are stewed separately from meat, but also in a slow cooker.
Ingredients:
- Pork drumstick (back) - 1 pc. (for the knuckle)
- Carrots - 1 pc. (for the knuckle)
- Onions - 1 pc. (for the knuckle)
- Salt, pepper - to taste (for the shank)
- Soy sauce - 2 tablespoons (for the knuckle)
- Honey - 1 tablespoon (for the knuckle)
- Sauerkraut - 1, 5 tbsp. (for garnish)
- Fresh cabbage (chopped) - 2 tbsp (for garnish)
- Onions - 2 pcs. (for garnish)
- Carrots - 1 pc. (for garnish)
- Potatoes - 6-8 pcs. (for garnish)
- Shank broth - 1 tbsp. (for garnish)
- Tomato paste - 1 tablespoon (for garnish)
- Salt, pepper - to taste (for garnish)
- Greens - to taste (for garnish)
Step by step cooking shank in a slow cooker with stewed cabbage and potatoes:
- Wash the lower leg, clean it, remove the hairs, soak in water.
- Peel carrots and onions, wash, cut into large pieces.
- Put the drumstick in a multicooker bowl, add onions, carrots, peppercorns, laurel, salt.
- Pour enough water into the bowl to cover the meat.
- Turn on the "Stew" mode and boil the drumstick for 3 hours. The meat must be separated from the bone. The welded knuckle should cool slightly. Pour the broth into a separate container.
- Proceed with the marinade. 2 tbsp combine soy sauce with 1 tbsp. honey, add red and black ground pepper. Heat the mixture in the microwave to melt the honey.
- Grate the shank with the prepared sauce and put it in an empty multicooker bowl. Switch it on to the "Bake" mode, cook until a crust appears. It is not necessary to deeply fry, so that the skin does not become tough.
- Remove the finished shank from the multicooker and start making a side dish.
- Peel and wash onions and carrots. Cut the onion into half rings, grate the carrots. Put the vegetables in a slow cooker and fry with constant stirring in the "Fry" or "Bake" mode.
- Peel the potatoes, cut into strips, add to the rest of the vegetables, fry until the potatoes are tender.
- Add sauerkraut and fresh cabbage to the bowl, mix everything.
- Pour in a glass of broth, tomato paste, mix everything, close the lid and simmer for 20-30 minutes in the "Baking" mode.
- At the very end of the stew, add salt, spices and herbs to taste.
Put the pork knuckle with potatoes and cabbage on a plate. If the meat has cooled down, heat it to the same temperature with the side dish, but this is not necessary, because the "boar knee" is tasty and cold.
