Dinner · 180 min · german

Schweinshaxe — Crispy Pork Knuckle

This is the kind of German dinner you’ll make on repeat — pork hocks and caraway seeds, 180 minutes, big payoff. The macros do the talking: 35g protein, 5g carbs, and 53g fat in every 650-calorie serving. No specialty equipment and nothing hard to find at a regular grocery store.

Ingredients

• 4 Pork hocks
• 2 tsp Caraway seeds
• 6 cloves Garlic
• 2 cups Dark beer
• 1 Onion
• 3 cups Sauerkraut
• 2 tbsp Salt

Steps

1. Score the skin of each hock in a tight diamond pattern, cutting through the skin but not deep into the meat — this is what lets the fat render out and the skin blister into crackling. Rub all over with salt, caraway, and crushed garlic.
2. Roast uncovered on a rack at 350°F for 90 minutes, then pour the beer into the pan (not over the skin) and roast another 60 minutes, basting the meat — never the skin — with the pan juices.
3. Crank the oven to 450°F for the final 15 minutes, or blast the skin under the broiler, watching like a hawk until it puffs and crackles.
4. Meanwhile, warm the sauerkraut with the quartered onion in a covered pot — it should be hot and silky, a cool contrast to the rich pork.
5. Rest the hocks 10 minutes, then serve each with a mound of kraut and a stein-adjacent drink. The crackling should shatter audibly.

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