Smoked shank: recipe and cooking features, cook tips

The pork shank, or knuckle, is part of the pig’s ham below the knee and elbow joint. The front knuckle usually goes for jellied meat and first dishes, the back - more meaty - for preparing second hot dishes.

The drumstick 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 take to make jelly from shank. And those who have a smokehouse love to cook smoked pork shanks.

Smoking consists of three stages:

• salting or pickling;
• drying out;
• smoking in the smokehouse.

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

How to choose

You need to remember a few simple rules:

• Only fresh meat that was not frozen, otherwise the smoked shank will be dry and stiff. Determined by pressing - the pulp should spring.
• Be sure to look at the color. It should be pink and by no means dark.
• Do not forget about the smell. It is pleasant, with a sweet touch.
• It is advisable to choose a meat shank and not very greasy.
• The skin should be clean, light and without damage.

Preparation

Before salting, the shanks need to be prepared. If it is decided to leave the skin, it must be scorched to remove the bristles, then it should be scraped off with a knife and washed thoroughly with water using a metal brush. The skin from this procedure will become softer, faster salted or pickled.

In order for the shank to become smoky faster, the skin can be removed, while the subcutaneous fat must be left.

Pickling

To pickle the drumsticks, a pickle is prepared. The following ingredients are needed:

• a glass of salt;
• three liters of water.

Pour the leg with brine and put in a cold place for 6 hours. If the drumstick is with a skin, it can be pierced in several places with a knife before laying in the salt solution. After 6 hours, drain the brine, prepare a new one according to the same recipe and pour the pork again at the same time.

Double salting makes the prepared meat softer and more juicy, moreover, it can be stored longer.

Salting time depends on its purpose. If smoking, baking or boiling then follows, the salting process does not exceed 12 hours. After such short-term salting, it is impossible to eat meat, this method is intended only for preparing meat for further heat treatment. To get an independent dish, suitable for consumption, the period of salting should last 1-2 weeks.

Another way is to combine dry and wet salting. To do this, per kilogram of meat you need to take 80 g of coarse salt. Grate the shank with salt, put it in a pan, pour brine (3 liters of water, a glass of salt) and stand for 4 hours in a cool place.

Pickling

Salting the shank in a salt solution is the simplest option for preparing for smoking. There are other options for pickles. The following products will be required:

• coarse salt - 10 table. spoons;
• peas of black pepper - 7 pieces;
• sugar - 3 tables. spoons;
• allspice peas - 3 pieces;
• cloves - 1 bud;
• water - 2 liters.

Cooking:

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

Experts say that pork knuckle does not need complex marinades. Her meat is tender and tasty in itself. In addition to salt, in extreme cases, you can add black peppercorns and bay leaf.

Washing and drying

After salting, the meat should be washed well in water. Then comes the drying process. For this, the knuckle is tied with twine and suspended in a smokehouse on a metal rod. They put a smoke chamber without a bottom on the barbecue (or set over a fire) and keep it for about 20 minutes in low heat. As soon as the leg dries, you can begin the process of smoking.

Smoked Shank Recipe

The ceremony usually takes place in a summer house in the open air. For cooking smoked shank at home, it is better to use the hot method. It is faster and safer. You can pickle or salt the shank in advance.

Hot smoking is not too long:

1. Light 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. Install a pan above the sawdust where the fat will drain. Instead of a pallet, you can use a sheet of foil.
3. Wrap the knob with twine and hang in a smokehouse on a metal rod. If several shanks are smoked, distribute them evenly so that one does not touch the other. You can lay the pork legs on the grill and cover with a sheet of foil on top so that they do not form black soot. Smokehouse close.
4. Smoke on moderate fire, 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 a smokehouse, remove the foil from the sticks and hold them over the fire for another 10 minutes, so that excess moisture evaporates.
7. Remove the smokehouse from the fire and let the pork legs cool.
8. Smoked knuckles pack without access to air and put in the refrigerator for one day.

Smoked-boiled shank

What is required:

• pork knuckle;
• salt;
• Bay leaf;
• black pepper peas.

How to cook:

1. Prepare the knuckle: rinse and burn the bristles, dry with paper towels and leave on a napkin for half an hour.
2. Put beech or alder sawdust in the smokehouse. Accumulate at high temperature for about half an hour so that the shank acquires a golden hue and is saturated with the smell of smoke. The knuckle 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, salt, add pepper and bay leaf. Reduce the heat and place the pork knuckle in boiling water. Cook without a lid on low heat for about 2-4 hours, avoiding boiling.

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

A little about cold smoked

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

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

Rub the knobs abundantly with salt and put in the refrigerator for 12 days, turn over periodically.

After salting, they need to be soaked in water for as many hours as they were salted for days. Then dry for about 8 hours.

Smoked shanks for 7 days at a temperature of about 25 degrees. After smoking, the meat should ripen: it is wrapped with gauze so that flies do not sit, and suspended in a cool, ventilated, dry room for 14 days. Only after that you can try homemade delicacy.

How much is stored

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 if you place 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 I cook

Smoked shank is both an independent appetizer and an ingredient in other dishes, which, thanks to it, acquire a pungent aroma of haze. Borsch, hodgepodge, pea and bean soup are cooked with it. Add to vegetable and mushroom salads, make sandwiches.

Tips

1. Smoke in the apartment, even in a modern mini-smokehouse, is absolutely not an option. Only on the street. At home, you can only marinate the meat.
2. It is better to do it in calm, calm weather.
3. The best chips - alder, oak, fruit. At the end of the process, it’s good to put juniper branches for piquancy.
4. After smoking, the meat must be aired to relieve caustic smoke.
5. Before you eat hot-smoked meat, it must be completely cooled and held in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. After that, it will get a real taste of smoked meat delicacy.