Schweinshaxe
A real pork knuckle spends half a day going from stubborn to shatteringly crisp, and no amount of optimism shortens that. This is the honest cheat: a cooked ham hock from the butcher, blasted under the grill until the skin crackles like a firework.
- Total time
- 19 min
- Serves
- 2
- Effort
- Medium
What you need
Written for 2 — nudge the counter and the numbers follow.
0 of 7 in the basket.
How you make it
Heat the grill to its highest setting and sit the hocks skin side up on a rack over a foil-lined tray.
Pat the skin bone dry, rub it with the oil, then press on the salt and caraway so they stick in the score lines.
Grill 12 cm below the element for 10 to 14 minutes, turning the tray once, until the skin has blistered and gone deep amber all over. Watch it constantly from minute eight, because crackling goes from perfect to bitter in under a minute.
Meanwhile simmer the beer and mustard in a small pan for 3 minutes, whisk in the cornflour slurry and cook 1 minute more until it just coats a spoon.
Check the meat is piping hot right through to the bone, at least 74C, then rest 3 minutes and serve with the beer gravy.
Read all that and thought “absolutely not”?
Completely fair. Schweinshaxe is sitting in the German kitchen right now, it costs nothing, and it will never arrive.
Order it insteadMore from the German kitchen
Crisp, brown and reassuringly enormous.