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Veprevo koleno, eisbein, schweine haxe, pig’s knuckle or just a knuckle! Baked pork drumsticks are an excellent snack for beer in many countries of the world. Juicy pulp, spicy crust, rich taste, as well as quite affordable price – these are the reasons for the popularity of this delicacy.
As we already wrote in the article about duck in wine, among our New Year’s dishes there was a place for a really popular beer snack – baked pork knuckle. This delicacy has many names, in the Czech Republic, for example, you can find it under the name “Baked Boar Knee”. The knuckle can be cooked in many ways, we first boiled it in dark beer with vegetables, then baked it until tender and golden brown. When cooking, we relied on a video recipe by Serbian chef Serge Markovic, which we will post after the main recipe.
Recipe for pork knuckle in dark beer
This recipe combines two types of heat treatment at once: first, the drumstick is boiled in dark beer along with vegetables, and then baked in the oven.Ingredients:
- Knuckle – on average from 1 to 1,5 kg
- Dark beer – 0,5 l
- Luk – 1 No.
- Carrots – 1 pieces.
- Garlic – 2-3 cloves + 1 whole head
- Brown sugar (or white, or honey) – 2 tbsp.
- Salt
- Bay leaf, celery, parsley, tomato, spices – optional
Cooking pork shank in beer:
If you have not one, but several drumsticks, then just take a little more ingredients. To begin with, we prepare the shank – we scrape off the plaque from the skin with a knife, if any, rinse with cold water. Dry and put in a cauldron, ducklings or pan, sprinkle with salt.
We clean the carrots, onions, cut them coarsely, it can be into several parts, crush a few cloves of garlic (you can not peel). To remove the pronounced aroma of meat, you can also add a little celery, parsley, tomato, bay leaf, spices, a little more salt. We add all the ingredients to the shank and pour 1 glass of dark beer into the pan, add a little water, you can also about 1 glass. It’s okay if the liquid does not completely cover the shanks; during the stewing process, it will be possible to add water as needed.
We put the cauldron on the stove, cover with a lid and leave it on low heat for about 2 hours. On average, it is better to keep the amount of liquid about half the cauldron. A sign of readiness – the meat easily lags behind the bone when pierced with a knife. We take the drumsticks out of the broth and put them on a baking sheet, or better in a special baking dish with high sides (you can cover the container with foil so that you don’t have to wash it after). If you are preparing two shank, then between them you need to put a head of garlic (you can not peel it), you can also add peeled and chopped potatoes, carrots to the container. Then you should sprinkle the vegetables with vegetable oil, and pour the meat with beer-based dressing and sprinkle with a little salt.
Beer dressing for baking:
In the remaining 250 ml of beer, dissolve 2 tablespoons of brown sugar (can be replaced with white sugar or honey). Part of the dressing should be used before baking, and the rest should be watered during cooking.
Preheat the oven to 220 degrees and put the baking sheet with the shanks inside for 40 minutes. After twenty minutes, you need to slightly reduce the heat, every ten minutes it is worth watering the dish, including vegetables, with the remnants of the dressing and the released juice. Since the drumsticks are already ready after two hours of stewing, the goal of baking in the oven is a ruddy, delicious crust, which many regard as a delicacy. The baking time can be determined by the readiness of the potatoes.
Video recipe by chef Serge Markovich:
Shank baked in beer
The knuckle marinated in beer and then cooked in one of the following ways will be no less rich and tasty: it can be boiled, stewed, baked. You can marinate the drumsticks both for several hours and for two or three days, the saturation of the “final” taste of the dish will depend on this.
Marinade for shank based on dark and light beer
Ingredients:
- Light beer – 1 l
- Dark beer – 1 l
- Vinegar – 80-100 ml
- Luk – 3 No.
Spices: thyme, bay leaf, cloves, black and allspice peas, coriander.
How to marinate and cook Czech-style knuckle in beer:
Cut the onion into half rings and add to a mixture of light, dark beer, vinegar, mix, put spices to taste. Put the shank in the marinade, cover and put in a cool place for a day (time may vary). Strained marinade can be mixed with water and used as a broth, in which the shank is stewed for 2-3 hours. Next, you can bake the drumsticks in the oven until a brown crust forms, after brushing them with a mixture of mustard, honey and soy sauce.
The knuckle in beer, baked in the oven, will be a great snack for a glass of cold beer!