Pork knuckle with dark beer sauce

Pork knuckle is a part of a pork shank, above the hoof, but not reaching the ham. The knuckle is prepared together with the bone and is a traditional dish in Northern and Eastern Europe. We offer you a Bavarian recipe for baked knuckle with spices and dark German beer sauce.

Ingredients

• 1 pork knuckle weighing about 1 kg 300 gr
• 3 cloves of garlic, cut lengthwise into 4 pieces each
• 30 ml of white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp of fennel seeds
• 1 tbsp of cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp of juniper grains (optional)
• 1 tbsp of black pepper beans
• olive oil
• 2 tbsp of salt
• 500 ml of dark German beer
• 1 head of garlic
• 5 grains of juniper
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 500 ml of chicken or veal broth
• 2 tbsp of corn starch
• 125 ml of water
• 1 tbsp of sugar
• salt

Directions

1. The evening before cooking, wipe the handle with a sharp object, a thin knife, or a rough needle, pierce the skin in many places. Consider stopping in time and not piercing through fat.
2. Using a silicone brush, carefully lubricate the parts where the meat protrudes with vinegar, do not lubricate the skin.
3. Make shallow cuts in the meat (not on the skin side!) And stuff with garlic cloves.
4. Grind all the spices in a mortar to a coarse mixture, and mix with salt. Lubricate the skin well with olive oil and rub the whole handle with spices and salt, not ignoring the folds and crevices. Spices should cover the entire handle. Ideally, the skin is stretched on the handle so that there are no folds, and fixed with four metal skewers, piercing the handle through. This helps to get crispy and evenly baked skin. If you have thin metal skewers - you can try this method. If not - it's not scary.
5. Marinate pork overnight. Just leave uncovered on a plate in the refrigerator overnight.
6. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
7. You need to take a pan that can be placed in the oven and deep enough to hold the ingredients for the beer sauce: beer, broth, vegetables, and a piece of bay leaf. The pan should be placed in the oven as close as possible under the grill on which the handle will be baked. Put the handle on the grill vertically and bake for 2 hours and 10 minutes. As soon as the liquid in the pan becomes low - add 0.5 cups of hot water at a time.
8. Remove the knuckle from the oven and increase the temperature to 260 degrees. Brush the skin with vinegar (about 0.5 tbsp.) And put in the oven for another 30 minutes. This will give a golden and crispy skin.
9. After turning off the oven, let the rolls stand for 15 minutes.
10. Strain the liquid from the pan, ideally, about 2 cups of liquid should come out. Bring to a boil. Dilute the starch in 125 ml of cold water and pour it into the sauce. Add sugar and salt to taste, and cook until thickened to the consistency of syrup. If thick - add a little water, if sparse - cook until you reach the desired density. Drizzle the meat with the sauce at the time of serving.