Smoked shank: recipe and cooking features, chef's advice

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Pork shank, or knuckle, is the part of a pig's ham below the knee and elbow joint. The front knuckle usually goes for jelly and first courses, the back - more meaty - for cooking second hot dishes.

Shank has gained immense popularity in the Czech Republic and Germany. Remember the famous boar knee, pork knuckle with stewed cabbage or in Bavarian beer.

We have to make jellied meat out of the shank. And those who have a smokehouse love to cook smoked pork knuckles.

Smoking consists of three stages:

• s alting or pickling;
• drying;
• smoking in a smokehouse.

But the very first thing to do is to choose the right shank.

How to choose

There are a few simple rules to remember:

• Only fresh meat that has not been frozen, otherwise the smoked shank will be dry and tough. Determined by pressing - the pulp should spring.
• Be sure to look at the color. Hemust be pink and never dark.
• Don't forget the smell. It is pleasant, with a sweet touch.
• It is advisable to choose meat and not very fatty knuckle.
• The skin should be clean, light and undamaged.

Preparation

Before s alting, the shank needs to be prepared. If it is decided to leave the skin, it must be singeed to remove the bristles, then carefully scraped with a knife and rinsed under water with a wire brush. The skin from such a procedure will become softer, more quickly s alted or marinated.

To make the shank smoke faster, the skin can be removed, while the subcutaneous fat must be left.

S alting

Brine is being prepared for s alting the shank. You need the following ingredients:

• glass of s alt;
• three liters of water.

Pour the leg with brine and put it in a cold place for 6 hours. If the shank is with a skin, it can be pierced in several places with a knife before being put into the s alt solution. After 6 hours, drain the brine, cook a new one according to the same recipe and pour the pork again for the same time.

Double s alting makes the finished meat softer and juicier, moreover, it can be stored longer.

S alting time depends on its purpose. If followed by smoking, baking or boiling, the s alting process does not exceed 12 hours. After such a short-term s alting, you can’t eat meat, this method is intended only to prepare the meat for further heat treatment. To get an independent dish, usable, the termpickling should last 1-2 weeks.

Another way is to combine dry and wet s alting. To do this, you need to take 80 g of coarse s alt per kilogram of meat. Rub the shank with s alt, put it in a saucepan, pour in brine (3 liters of water, a glass of s alt) and keep for 4 hours in a cool place.

Marinating

S alting the shank in a s alt solution is the easiest way to prepare for smoking. There are other options for marinades. You will need the following products:

• coarse s alt - 10 table. spoons;
• black peppercorns - 7 pieces;
• sugar - 3 table. spoons;
• allspice peas - 3 pieces;
• cloves - 1 bud;
• water - 2 liters.

Cooking:

1. Put water on fire and bring to a boil.
2. Dissolve s alt and sugar in water, add cloves, black and allspice peas.
3. Cool the marinade to a slightly warm state, immerse the pork shank in it (the brine should completely cover them), leave for two or more days.

Connoisseurs say that pork knuckle does not need complex marinades. Its meat is tender and tasty on its own. In addition to s alt, in extreme cases, you can add black peppercorns and bay leaves.

Washing and drying

After s alting, the meat should be washed well in water. Then comes the drying process. To do this, the shank is tied with twine and hung in a smokehouse on a metal rod. They put a smoking chamber without a bottom on the grill (or set it over a fire) and keep it for about 20 minutes in low heat. howas soon as the leg dries, you can start the smoking process.

Smoking shank recipe

The ceremony usually takes place in the country house in the open air. To cook smoked shank at home, it is better to use the hot method. It's faster and safer. You can pickle or s alt the shank in advance.

The process of hot smoking is not too long:

1. Make a fire, install a smoking chamber and put on its bottom chips of deciduous trees, such as alder, in the amount of two handfuls. You can smoke on the grill. The flame should be moderate and not blaze.
2. Place a tray over the sawdust where the fat will drain. Instead of a pallet, you can use a sheet of foil.
3. Wrap the shank with twine and hang it in a smokehouse on a metal rod. If several shanks will be smoked, distribute them evenly so that one does not touch the other. You can lay the pork legs on the grate and cover with a sheet of foil on top so that black deposits do not form on them. Close the smokehouse.
4. Smoking over moderate heat, making sure that the fire is evenly distributed under the bottom of the chamber.
5. Smoking time is counted from the moment when smoke begins to come out of the smokehouse. Smoke for about an hour.
6. A few minutes before the end of the process, open the smoker, remove the foil from the rolls and hold them over the fire for another 10 minutes to evaporate excess moisture.
7. Remove the smoker from the fire and let the pork legs cool down.
8. Smoked rolls pack without air access and put inrefrigerator for one day.

Smoked-boiled shank

What you need:

• pork knuckle;
• s alt;
• bay leaf;
• black peppercorns.

How to cook:

1. Prepare the shank: rinse and burn the bristles, dry with paper towels and leave on a napkin for half an hour.
2. Put beech or alder sawdust into the smokehouse. Saving at a high temperature for about half an hour, so that the shank acquires a golden hue and is saturated with the smell of smoke. The shank at this stage is not yet ready for use, you can not try it.
3. Put a pot of water on the fire, bring to a boil, s alt, pepper and bay leaf. Reduce the heat and place the pork knuckle in boiling water. Cook uncovered over low heat for about 2-4 hours without boiling.

Smoked-boiled shank is immediately ready to eat. It can be eaten both hot and cold. You can first boil the leg, and then smoke it, and you get a boiled-smoked knuckle.

A little about cold smoking

It will take much more time to cook a pork shank in a cold way, this process is laborious, but a knuckle smoked in a cold smokehouse can be stored for up to several months.

In addition, we need another smokehouse, in which the fire source is removed from the food chamber. During the time that the smoke goes through the pipe to the chamber, it will cool down to the desired temperature.

Grate the rolls generously with s alt andrefrigerate for 12 days, turning occasionally.

After s alting, they need to be soaked in water for as many hours as they have been s alted for days. Then dry for about 8 hours.

Shanks are smoked for 7 days at a temperature of about 25 degrees. After smoking, the meat must ripen: it is wrapped in gauze so that flies do not land, and hung in a cool, ventilated, dry room for 14 days. Only after that you can try the homemade delicacy.

How much is stored

The hot-smoked knuckle can be stored in the refrigerator for no longer than a month. It must be wrapped in several layers of parchment. Cling film is not recommended.

You can increase the shelf life of smoked shank by placing the product in the freezer.

Cold-smoked pork can be stored at 2-5 degrees in a dark, ventilated, dry place for up to 6 months.

What can be cooked

Smoked shank is both an independent appetizer and an ingredient in other dishes, which, thanks to it, acquire a spicy smoky flavor. Borscht, hodgepodge, pea and bean soup are prepared with it. Add to vegetable and mushroom salads, make sandwiches.

Tips

1. Smoking in an apartment, even in a modern mini-smoker, is absolutely not an option. Only on the street. At home, you can only pickle meat.
2. It's better to do it in calm calm weather.
3. The best wood chips - alder, oak, fruit. At the end of the process, for spice, it is good to put juniper twigs.
4. Meat after smoking must be ventilated torid him of the acrid smoke.
5. Before eating hot smoked meat, it must be completely cooled and kept for a couple more hours in the refrigerator. After that, it will acquire a real taste of smoked meat delicacy.