The shank recipe that I am offering today can be roughly divided into two parts: first, I will boil the pork shank in beer, and then bake it in the oven until golden brown. And in addition to everything, I will also prepare baked potatoes as a side dish. I promise you that it will turn out incredibly delicious!
From the editor. Baked boar's knee is perhaps the most famous dish in the Czech Republic. It is prepared with variations, but always in dark beer. Dumplings or stewed cabbage, as well as spicy mustard and horseradish are served as a side dish.
In dark beer, the pork knuckle will acquire an amazing, spicy-sweet taste and special tenderness, and after baking in the oven, an appetizing blush will form on the surface - how can you refuse such a pleasure? Therefore, you can safely cook several servings at once, not a piece will be left, checked!
Ingredients
For the knuckle:
- knuckle 1-1.5 kg
- dark beer 2 tbsp.
- water 2-3 tbsp.
- onions 2 pcs.
- carrots 1 pc.
- garlic 3-4 teeth.
- salt 1 tbsp. l.
- bay leaf 1 pc.
- black peppercorns 6-8 pcs.
- parsley root or branches 10 g
Baking ingredients:
- sugar 1.5 tbsp. l.
- dark beer 1 tbsp.
- garlic 1 head
- vegetable oil 3 tbsp. l.
- salt and pepper to taste
- carrots (optional) 1 pc.
- potatoes (optional) 5 pcs.
Cooking time: about 3 hours / 1-2 servings
Preparation
Big photos Small photos
I soaked the shank all night in cold water, thanks to which the specific smell partially disappeared, and it was much easier to clean the skin. Using a knife, I scraped off all the plaque from the skin and washed it thoroughly. Attention! If there are bristles, be sure to singe them over the fire, otherwise the dish will be hopelessly ruined!
I placed the prepared shank in a large saucepan (a capacious cauldron or duck pot would also work). Added salt, bay leaf and black peppercorns. Peeled the carrots and onions and cut them into large pieces. To remove the characteristic smell, I added parsley stems and a few cloves of garlic - you don’t have to peel it, I just crushed it with the flat side of a knife. You can also add some celery or parsley root if you have it.
I poured the contents of the pan with 2 glasses of dark beer. And added water, about 2 more glasses. It’s okay if the liquid does not completely cover the meat, since water can be added as needed during the stewing process.
Place the container on the stove, bring it to a boil and cook for about 2 hours - covered, over low heat. Maintained the amount of liquid at about half the pan. I turned the shank over a couple of times, carefully, trying not to damage the integrity of the skin. Readiness was determined by piercing with a knife - the meat should freely lag behind the bone.
I carefully removed the boiled shank from the broth and placed it on a baking sheet with a high side - I recommend covering it with foil so that you don’t have to wash it for a long time. I peeled the carrots and cut them into large rings, adding a whole head of garlic for flavor. I decided to cook the shank with potatoes at the same time, so that I could immediately have a side dish for the meat. Therefore, I added several potato tubers to the mold (with skins, washed thoroughly, cut into 4-6 pieces). If you don't want to, you don't have to add vegetables. I poured vegetable oil over everything on top.
In order for the knuckle to acquire its famous crust, it must be greased with a special dressing based on dark beer. To do this, I diluted 1.5 tablespoons of sugar in the remaining glass of the intoxicating drink, and poured the resulting marinade over the shank and vegetables (I used about half of the dressing, and poured the rest while baking). I added a little salt and put it in a preheated oven. By the way, you can use honey instead of sugar.
Bake at 200 degrees for 20 minutes. Then she reduced the heat to 160 degrees and every 10 minutes poured the juice and remaining dressing over the meat and vegetables. Since the shank is already ready after stewing, at this stage the task is to get a delicious crust, which is considered a real delicacy among connoisseurs. I determined readiness by the softness of the potatoes. In general, the baking time, regardless of whether you cook the shank with or without vegetables, will be approximately 30-40 minutes.
When the pork knuckle is finally ready in the oven, a mind-blowing aroma will spread throughout the house, which is simply impossible to resist. Rather, serve the dish, open a cold bottle of beer and enjoy! It would be nice to serve sauerkraut in addition to everything - it will come in handy here, it will play on the contrast of the sweetish taste of meat and vegetables. Yummy!
Surely many of you have been to the Czech Republic and Prague itself. If so, then we were sitting on Old Town Square, which smells of smoke and the aroma of street spits. Or in cafes and restaurants in the old streets of the center. And certainly, if you didn’t order it, you saw on the neighboring tables the most popular and famous dish of Czech cuisine - Boar’s Knee. And for those who have not yet had a chance to visit our Slavic friends, today I will tell you how to make it in order to plunge into a cozy, nourishing, unique Czech atmosphere in your kitchens.
We'll need pork knuckle and a lot of beer. Yes, yes, you heard right - a lot of dark, fresh beer, but not for consumption, as the good soldier Schweik would advise, but for the marinade of our future Boar's Knee.
I’ll warn you right away - the dish does not tolerate fuss, but it is prepared in the simplest way, because the shank is pre-soaked in dark beer and spices for one to three days, and then stewed or baked. Proper and long marinating of the shank is the main secret of the Czech dish, if you want to dine at home just like in the Prague cafe on the Old Town Square, and become a brother to the Czech.
Therefore, we send the men for dark, unfiltered beer, preferably freshly brewed in a brewery, or velvety, but not very bitter, this is important, and we ourselves go to the market or to the butcher's shop for the knuckle. It is worth buying a piece whose meat covers both part of the drumstick and part of the thigh, so that the knee itself is approximately in the middle. If you buy it from a butcher and not from a store, you can explain it.
It is enough to soak a small shank for a day, and it is cooked in the oven or pan for a couple of hours, so if you want to try Boar’s Knee tomorrow, then buy the ingredients today.
You will need:
Pork knuckle weighing about a kilogram for two to three people;
1 kg of hard apples;
2 heads of garlic;
2-3 liters of dark beer;
5-6 bay leaves;
Black pepper and allspice peas - one or two tablespoons for marinade;
A bunch of mixed fresh herbs;
Ground cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon - just a little bit, on the tip of a knife;
Medium mustard, 2-3 tablespoons;
Coarse table salt, not iodized and not sea salt, this is important;
A pinch of sugar if you leave it for one day.
Preparation:
You wash the knee, wipe it dry, make thin cuts on the skin so as not to cut through the meat itself, into which you put chopped cloves of garlic and pieces of bay leaves. There should be quite a lot of cuts, and most importantly, evenly and in a “mesh”. Rub salt, freshly ground pepper mixture and dry spices into the skin. Rub and massage, that's the only way. Leave it alone for an hour.
Place cored apples, herbs, peppercorns, mashed garlic straight with peel, mustard, and a little sugar into a large saucepan to speed up the pickling process and provide a sweet and sour balance with the apples. Put your knee down and pour beer into the wedge. Place in a cool place. You can press it under pressure, you can just cover it with a lid.
Now we do nothing for exactly 24 hours.
The next day, if you’re really impatient, we start cooking (count on a couple of hours), and if you want authentic and tender boar, then let it sit for a little longer.
I asked the Czech chefs of Svejk’s numerous taverns, only one of which in Prague is really related to him - “U Kalicha”, since it was there that Jaroslav Hasek, the author of the famous novel, liked to hang out, as well as the chefs of the Strahov Monastery Brewery, founded in the early In the 17th century, how long should the knuckle be aged, and exactly in dark beer (there are many recipes on the Internet with light beer), everyone said - three days and in dark beer. I believe. This is what I do now in my kitchen.
The presence of mustard, which, by the way, can also be used in the dry powder version, will prevent the marinade from fermenting in three days. Fresh beer, of course, will produce foam, which just needs to be skimmed off in the morning and evening, and then do not add sugar: it activates fermentation.
The soaked shank is either baked in foil in the oven, since not everyone has rotating spits, and then stewed in the marinade for half an hour so that it is soaked and not dry. Or put it in a preheated oven immediately in a deep bowl with beer marinade, lightly covering the shank with foil or baking paper, turning it over several times. Or simmer in a cast iron pan under a lid on a regular stove.
The last option is the simplest and most effective - put it on low heat and go do other things. Also, with this heat treatment, the meat turns out juicy and tender. Check readiness with a fork - if it starts to easily come away from the bone, the boar's knee is ready.
If you want to get a double portion, then do as in Hasek’s book “The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik”, pretending to be insane:
There was also one who kept shouting that he was an archbishop. This one did nothing, just ate, and even, with your permission, did something that rhymes with the word ate. However, no one there is ashamed of it. And one even pretended to be Saints Cyril and Methodius in order to receive a double portion.”
Don't forget that today we are making an authentic Prague version, in which the skin from the shank is not eaten. Its subcutaneous fat serves only as a natural moisturizer and flavoring agent for the pulp.
Photo: AS Food studio / Shutterstock.com
In German and Austrian cuisine, the same Edelweiss shank is not stewed, but rather baked until crispy, but this is not Boar's Knee at all.
Mine has already been soaked in black monastery beer (if you find one, I recommend it, but I remind you once again that the beer should not be bitter, otherwise your knee will taste bitter), so there is time to tell you how the dish originated and why it is called that.
Once upon a time, in the deep Middle Ages, meat was obtained in the same way as in Rus', by hunting. There were real boars, or wild boars, in the Czech forests at that time, which is where the name came from. According to legend, the left front leg of a freshly killed animal was immediately cut off (don’t even ask why the left one is a legend) and either roasted on a spit, poured with an analogue of beer, or stewed in it. No one can say for sure, there are no eyewitnesses left. With the advent of relative civilization and cattle breeding, the boar was replaced by a pig, but the name was not changed.
Initially, the dish was designed for an entire Czech family; a knee can easily weigh one and a half kilograms, and is capable of feeding all hungry mouths. Today it is served in Prague restaurants for one. It’s impossible to eat, but all tourists are smart, they take it for company, because the knee is always served with a side dish: two types of stewed cabbage, red and white, vegetables, and dumplings if desired. Not a single Czech meal is complete without them.
It’s much more pleasant to peel potatoes in the kitchen, roll dumplings and tinker with meat than, under heavy enemy fire, with your underpants on, yelling: “Einzelnabfallen! Bajonett auf!” (One by one! Fix bayonets! (German))
Recipe
Shred the red cabbage into thin long slices. Cut red onion or shallot into half rings. Also cut the apple into slices and set aside for now. Pour a little vegetable oil into a hot deep frying pan and add the onion.
Simmer (do not fry) for about five minutes, and then add the cabbage. Pour half-and-half dry red wine with water, a tablespoon of diluted vinegar, a teaspoon of granulated sugar, and simmer with the lid open over low heat until the alcohol and water itself evaporate.
When the cabbage is no longer tough, but by no means soft, add the chopped apples and, if desired, a little cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, salt, pepper and orange juice. Try everything for sweet and sour balance and add either sugar or citric acid.
In the Czech Republic, along with red cabbage, Boar's Knee is served with stewed white cabbage, pickled cabbage, simmered in its own juice until completely softened. There’s no need to tell you how, every housewife knows. I don’t recommend serving potatoes as a side dish; it’s already a very filling meat dish, but any grilled vegetables are just right. And of course, let’s not lie - Boar’s Knee without a mug of foamy beer, amber or dark, is money down the drain, or as Jaroslav Hasek might say - like a war without idiots.
This is what Schweik was, who was engaged in the sale of stolen dogs and was dismissed from military service because doctors recognized him as a “complete idiot,” but despite his idiocy and rheumatism, he wanted to go to the front. Schweik, who as a result ends up in the police, an insane asylum, a garrison prison as a deserter and a malingerer, but is still recognized as fit for service, serves as an orderly and an orderly, carrying out all the orders of his superiors with uncontrollable zeal and unpredictability of actions, which he always comments on with a story from his life .
Re-read while Boar's Knee is marinating. You will discover a lot of new things.
I think that everything should be looked at impartially. Anyone can make a mistake, and if you think about something for a very long time, you will certainly make a mistake.”
So don’t think too long, but go get some beer and knuckle.
Baked boar's knee (baked pork knuckle in beer) is a traditional dish of Czech cuisine. The knuckle is cooked and baked whole until beautifully golden brown. As a rule, potato dumplings and stewed cabbage are served as a side dish; mustard and horseradish are also always served with the knuckle. Due to its high calorie content, the dish is often called “purely masculine”, but I am sure that even women cannot resist a piece of such delicious meat.
So, to prepare Czech pork knee, wash the knuckle thoroughly under running water, peel it with a sharp knife, and dry it with a paper towel. If there are any hairs left on the skin, tar them over a gas burner on the stove. Wash, dry and peel vegetables.
Place the shanks in a small deep saucepan. Add coarsely chopped carrots, onion cut into four parts, add garlic, bay, cloves, peppercorns.
Pour enough beer to cover the shank halfway, add a little water, and salt well. Place on the stove and cook covered over low heat for 1 hour. After an hour, turn the shank over so that it cooks evenly.
Add parsley root, a bunch of herbs and cumin (or cumin), cook for another 60 minutes.
Mix honey and mustard.
Place the knuckle boiled in beer in a baking dish, add a little broth in which it was boiled. Coat all sides with honey and mustard sauce, salt and pepper. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 50-60 minutes, until beautifully golden brown. Brush the shanks with sauce every ten minutes.
Serve baked boar knee with stewed cabbage, fresh bread, mustard, horseradish and a glass of cold beer.
Hello friends! Continuing the theme of the national cuisine of the Czech Republic, today we will prepare Boar’s knee in the Czech way. Our proven recipe for you.
We often organize theme nights at home. We invite family and friends, cook delicious food, talk about travel and active recreation.
We like to bring a piece of another culture from different countries, and are happy to share it with loved ones. Returning from a trip to the Czech Republic, we came up with the idea to organize a holiday, invite our parents to visit and treat them to Czech delicacies. Namely, make a themed dinner by preparing Czech cuisine. The question arose, what exactly should I cook?
We liked Czech cuisine, so we thought for a long time what to choose. In the end, we settled on the calling card of Czech cuisine, deciding to cook Boar’s Knee.Agree, the task is not easy! “I should have agreed to goulash...” I thought, but it was already too late.
It turned out to be not at all difficult to prepare Boar's knee at home. Moreover, Vitya and I took on this matter together.
Let me remind you that Boar's Knee is a pork knuckle soaked in beer and baked in the oven.
Boar knee in Czech. Recipe
We chose the largest pork knuckle in the store. She weighed two kilograms. It is important to choose the back leg because this part has more meat and less bone.
So, what did we need to prepare the Boar's Knee?
Ingredients:
- Pork knuckle - 1 piece
- Light beer - 1.5 liters
- Apples (better sour than sweet) - 2 pcs.
- Celery root - 150-200 grams
- Garlic - 2-3 cloves
- Ginger root small piece - 70 grams (approx.)
- Salt (preferably coarse sea salt) - 2 tbsp.
- Black Pepper - 1 tbsp.
- Bay leaf -- 4-5 leaves
- Coriander (dry) - 1 tsp.
- Allspice - 5 peas
- Nutmeg (ground) - 0.5 tsp.
- Honey - 50 grams
- Soy sauce - 30 grams
First stage. Marinate the knee
1. Wash the knee, if necessary, clean it.
2. Cut the garlic into thin slices and stuff it into the shank (make small cuts and put the garlic in there).
3. Mix salt, pepper and coriander. Rub this mixture on your knee.
4. Take a large container in which the knee will be marinated (I took a large enamel bowl).
5. At the bottom of the container, place thinly sliced ginger root and celery.
6.Place the knee in the container. Fill with beer. It's okay if your foot isn't completely submerged in the liquid. We'll turn it over later.
7. On top we put peeled and cut into small slices apples, bay leaf, ground nutmeg (half a teaspoon), allspice peas.
8. Place the Veprevo knee in a cold place or in the refrigerator for a day.
After half the time has passed, turn the knee over so that it is well marinated on both sides.
It so happened that our knee “bathed” in the marinade for two days. We bought it a little earlier before the holiday and didn’t want to freeze it. This did not affect its taste in any way, quite the opposite. The main thing is to marinate for at least a day.
Second phase. Prepare honey sauce and bake the knee
1. After the knee has been marinated and it’s time to bake it, prepare the honey sauce. To do this, mix honey and soy sauce. Using a brush, cover the entire surface of the knee with the honey mixture. It will make the crust golden and add a spicy note to the dish.
2. After this, wrap the knee in foil and place it in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 1.5-2 hours (in our case, two).
3. To ensure even baking, after an hour, carefully turn it over.
4. 15 minutes before cooking, open the foil to form a crispy crust.
In the Czech Republic, Veprev knee is prepared in another way. Before baking, it is boiled. But after trying both options, we liked the first one more. As we have prepared.
Well, our dish is ready! It turned out very tasty. It was just a little baked on top. It was a mistake to open the foil earlier. Next time I'll know.
Side dish for knee in Czech
We brought potato dumplings from the Czech Republic so that everything would be served correctly. They are sold semi-finished. They need to be thrown into boiling water for 25 minutes, cut, and served. If you don't have ready-made dumplings,you can cook them at home. Instead, stewed cabbage and a warm baguette are served as a side dish.
In addition to dumplings, we brought to Kyiv a lot of delicious sauces, including classic ones, which in the Czech Republic are served with meat dishes and directly with Boar’s Knee. This is white horseradish, classic mustard and mustard with the addition of roots and spices.
Our Czech dish was complemented by stewed cabbage, cooked very quickly in a slow cooker.
We presented Boar knee with stewed cabbage, dumplings, classic Czech sauces and, of course, beer brought from the Czech Republic.
Bon appetit everyone!
Thank you for reading our blog. See you soon on the pages of our
It’s not easy to recommend restaurants where Boar’s Knee is baked, since there are quite a few of them in the Czech capital. When choosing a place where you can enjoy a dish, take into account what kind of beer or other desired drinks are served here, what else would you like to try?
Of the dozens of food establishments, tourists most often point to the following as recommendations:
- U Cejpu is a restaurant whose main gastronomic attribute is considered to be a delicious dish with an original presentation - Boar's Knee in Prague. This is confirmed not only by the administration of “U Chapu”, but also by visitors who leave their reviews. The price of knuckle in Prague for 1 kg 200 g is 195 CZK. You can order cheaper or smaller portions - for 800 g you need to pay 155 CZK. The average cost for 0.5 liters of beer with knuckle is 30 CZK.
- Those who will be strolling along the Old Town Square can go and try Pork Knee at the restaurant “U Zlate Konvice”. The cost of the dish at 460 CZK cannot be called budget, but the dish is additionally served with mustard, horseradish, cherry tomatoes and pickled peppers. The portion is quite large and is enough for at least 2 people. In addition, it is cooked on live fire. In addition to a delicious national dish (although not the cheapest), you can enjoy the medieval interior and traditional atmosphere of the Czech Republic.
- The restaurant “Novomestskiy Pivovar”, located on Vodichkova Street, 20, is popular among Russians. The dish is spicy, it is cooked in dark beer and served with mustard. If you need to order a kilogram portion, it will cost 225 CZK. When ordering each additional 100 g, pay an additional 18 CZK.
Those who do not have the opportunity to travel to Prague can also enjoy knuckle in Russian restaurants.
One day, a local Czech journalist wrote that baked Boar’s knee is one of the factors that forces Russian tourists to visit the Czech Republic. On websites or forums of travelers, in guest books, entire odes are devoted to the national dish. Of course, besides the fact that the dish is hearty and tasty, one serving is usually enough for a small company.
Knuckle can be found in almost any restaurant or cafe in the Czech Republic. How to cook knee in Czech? In each establishment, the dish turns out magnificent and tasty in its own way, since each chef has his own cooking secrets: bakes it with or without bones, adds unique sauces and gravies.
Usually Russians are simply delighted with the crispy, tender and aromatic crust. They note the unforgettable taste and aroma of the dish.
Baked knee recipes
If desired, you can make an equally tasty shank at home. How to bake pork knee at home? You just need to take the correct proportions of the components and follow the preparation steps.
Boar's knee: recipe 1
Components:
- Large pork knuckle – 1 pc.
- French mustard – 2.5 tbsp.
- Garlic – 6 medium cloves.
- Onion – 1 pc.
- Salt to taste, light beer.
Preparation:
- Separate the meat from the bone and cut it to form a meat layer.
- Make a basting sauce by stirring garlic, mustard and beer. Before coating the meat with the resulting liquid, it is lightly beaten and rubbed with salt.
- The processed and coated roll is rolled up and secured with thread, placed in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
- Boar knee in Czech style is laid out on a baking sheet, onto which you need to pour a little beer and put onion cut into half rings.
- Bake for at least 1.5 - 2 hours, regularly basting the meat with juice.
Boar knee in Czech: recipe 2
Components:
- The shanks are small - 3-4 pieces.
- Garlic – 1 large head.
- Carrots and onions - 2 pieces each.
- Parsley root.
- Celery – 0.5 roots.
- Tomato – 3 pcs.
- Salt, pepper, rosemary, other seasonings to taste.
- Dark beer.
Preparation:
- The knuckle is washed well under running water. Cut the garlic cloves into 2-3 layers and insert into the slits in the meat.
- Place fried carrots, celery, parsley, chopped onion in half rings, and garlic (whole cloves) on the bottom of the baking sheet. Add spices and tomatoes. Pour the ingredients with beer and place the prepared knuckle in Czech style.
- Bake until the meat comes off the bone well. Oven at 180°C. Be sure to water with the juice that will be released from the meat.
- Once the dish is cooked, pull out the meat separately. Make a gravy from the released juice and baked vegetables, butter, which is served along with the Boar's Knee.
In addition to sauces, you can serve white bread and fresh vegetables with Czech pork knee.
Loading...