Boar knee is the royal dish of Czech cuisine. Baked boar knee - a recipe for cooking Czech baked pork knuckle Baked boar knee recipe

The girls liked the manipulations that cooks in the Czech Republic (not to be confused with orthopedists!) do on the joints of all piggies so much that they asked me to repeat the procedure. Like, you have a higher medical degree - here you have a ladle in your hands, and a kitchen at your disposal - own it!

I had to raid local markets in search of what I needed. In principle, the license for autumn hunting was already in my pocket, but I managed with a kind word and a wallet. A couple of pork knuckles (however, we cut them exactly at the joint, which, in a good way, should be in this dish in the middle of a piece), cumin, rosemary, some kind of horseradish (perhaps even from a hillock), a few green apples, carrots, onions, ginger, cloves, allspice, a few leaves from someone's laurel wreath, garlic, honey, dark beer... remember everything? It seems that the main thing - yes, the rest was at home.

To be honest, there are probably no less recipes for a baked boar knee in the Czech Republic than we have recipes for borscht. Or somewhere in Central Asia - pilaf recipes. And everyone probably considers their recipe the most authentic and correct. Therefore, what I will now show you is just one of many options. Relatively fast and lazy (although it will still take several hours). We just took the cook from the Strahov Cluster by his... hmm... apron and didn't let him go until he remembered everything that connected him with these wonderful joints. And then they chose the option that suits the situation best.

So, having chopped apples, carrots into large pieces, cut a few slices of ginger (in principle, an optional, but a very good addition to the taste), I put everything in a large saucepan and, adding a teaspoon of cumin, a pinch of rosemary, a dozen allspice peas, four cloves, a few whole onions and a bit of marjoram, laid shank on top of all this eclectic salad. Oh yes, and a little salt.

Having wiped away the mean tear of an experienced gambrinist, he poured dark beer into the pan - so that it almost covered the entire still life.

Then I set it to boil for two and a half hours. It would have been possible for three, but my girls said they could not stand an extra hour of torture with delicious smells from the pan.

After a couple of hours, the shattered and rather intoxicated shanks were removed from the pan, slightly cooled and sobered in the fresh air and rubbed with such a mixture (a couple of tablespoons of honey, a tablespoon of mustard, a couple of heads of garlic ground into gruel and - as my personal improvisation - half a tea tablespoons smoked chipotle pepper and half a teaspoon smoked paprika powder). Soy sauce, with which the sauce was diluted, probably used to replace the broth in which the shank were cooked, but oh well, let's not oppose globalization.

The vegetables and apples that remained after cooking could be chopped with a couple of spoons of broth in a blender and used as a sauce, but in the end it never came to that. But we saved the broth - it will be great to stew meat in it.

And then - everything is in the furnace. That is, in the oven. For an hour. At 180-200 Celsius. I had to look in every 15 minutes - they say, how is it in general? Shouldn't it be lubricated with melted fat so that the crust crunches?

And then ... Then both pieces went flying, under white bread and under beer (in the children's version - under kvass).

In general, we took this recipe into service. I repeat: this is not the only recipe, there are many, but we have tested this one and intend to repeat it.

Pečené vepřové koleno - baked pork knuckle - is the crown dish of the Czech Republic. In each institution, the serving is peculiar, but, basically, the knuckle is served with horseradish, mustard and stewed sauerkraut. A baked knee can be served on a mini-spit, or on a regular plate, be sure to stick cutlery into it.

The size of one serving is variable, the dish is served on a large plate, 80% of which is shank, and 20% is an appetizer and sauces. The meat content (we all know that the pork leg is saturated with fat) is 60-70%, which in my opinion makes it much more satisfying than the European version, where the percentage of edible meat is barely 40%.

Thanks to the long cooking process, the meat is always well marinated, soft and juicy. In some restaurants, the price of a knee depends on the weight, therefore, at your discretion, you may be served a portion for one or two persons. You can talk about this dish endlessly, but to understand the reason for the popularity of this dish, you should try it!

I would like to give a little advice to those who go to Prague for the first time and want to taste this famous dish. First order one portion for two, if the portion brought is small, then order another portion, because in most cases, the Prague knee with beer saturates the stomach quickly enough. Be sure to ask for fresh Prague bread, it adds flavor when eating this dish.

The second time we tasted it in a pub, where the knee turned out to be even larger and tastier. We advise everyone! To be honest, I liked the Pivovarsky Dom restaurant the most in Prague and, therefore, I remember it the most. An institution that everyone should visit, although in order to drink unusual beer and eat high-quality and tasty national dishes.

Price

This is a must-try dish. The price is not high: in the ratio of 1 knee - 5-6 mugs of beer. If you name the price, then approximately this dish will cost from 200 kroons.

Recipe

Many, having tried boar knee in the Czech Republic, want to cook it at home. Of course, there are many cooking recipes, there are simpler ones, there are more difficult ones. By the way, even if you walk through the bars of Prague, you will understand that each establishment has its own recipe, and the dishes differ in taste. This is fine. Therefore, we suggest that you get acquainted with the recipe for making shank, which is not entirely simple, however, the result will definitely come to your taste!

Products:

• 1 big pork leg
• 1.5-2 liters. light beer (of course it is better to buy Czech beer, sold in all stores, export)
• 4 garlic cloves
• 15 allspice peas
• 10 black peppercorns or freshly ground pepper
• ginger root (even if you do not like ginger, take it, you will understand that without ginger there would be no piquancy)
• 1/2 nutmeg
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 sour apples (usually green sour apples)
• 100g honey
• 50ml soy sauce
• coriander
• parsley
• celery

After you have prepared the products (washed, cleaned), proceed to the preparation of the marinade. Let's just say that the taste of the shank depends on the marinade in which it must be marinated for at least 12 hours. The procedure is best done in the morning, and cooked in the afternoon of the next day.

• A washed and towel-dried knuckle must be inspected from all sides for defects. If any are found, they must be carefully cut with a knife.
• Garlic must be cut into thin slices. You should get at least 20 such plates. Make even cuts and put garlic plates in them.
• It is time to generously pepper the shank with freshly ground pepper and salt it. To do this, take 2 teaspoons (preferably sea) salt and 1 teaspoon pepper, mix and rub the meat.
• Rinse from excess pepper, put it in a saucepan, preferably 8-10 liters in size. Add peppercorns, nutmeg, bay leaf.
• Ginger root is either cut into thin plates, or rubbed on a grater (plates) and put them on top of the knuckle.
• On top of the ginger we shift our future masterpiece - the knee. Pour 1 liter of beer on top and add a little salt. We clean the apples from the peel and seeds, cut them into quarters and add to the total mass. Add the rest of the beer. Leave the knuckle in a saucepan overnight in a cool place, you can in the refrigerator. The next morning, it must be turned over very carefully, without touching all the greens and left until dinner.
• Let's not complicate our lives and use the proven method of cooking the knee without boiling - cooking in foil. Here we need honey and soy sauce, mixing which we get a mixture. She will need to lubricate the knee from all sides.
• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and bake until done. Depending on the size of the knee, it will bake for approximately 2 hours. The dish can be turned over during cooking. If you are cooking without the skin, you will need to remove the foil at the end of cooking and let the meat brown.

You can serve fresh or pickled vegetables with the dish. Most often, in Prague bars, stewed sauerkraut is served along with the knee. As well as mustard and horseradish.

We also invite you to try the second recipe for cooking a boar knee ..

For the second recipe you will need:

• Pork knuckle
• Dark Czech beer = 2 liters
• Black ground allspice (10 peas)
• Dried rosemary or marjoram - 1 teaspoon
• Bay leaf -5 pcs.
• Salt - 1 tbsp. spoon
• Caraway seeds - 0.5 tsp - to taste
• Vegetable oil - 2 tbsp. spoons
• Garlic 3-5 cloves
• honey 1 tbsp
• soy sauce -20 ml

Cooking steps:

1. The pork skin is very thick and greasy, in the Czech Republic the shank is baked with the skin, but I personally take it off. So, the meat is better marinated, and there is no need to carry out unnecessary manipulations with the separation of fat from meat. The dish looks appetizing, everything is also perfectly fried, so if you do not like fat, you can try to remove the skin along with the fat. (it's best to use scissors). Whoever does not want to remove the skin and cook the shank in its original form, then wash it well, dry it on a towel and prepare a spicy mixture with which we will coat the knee. We take salt, pepper, herbs and grated ginger and rub the shank well.
2. For cooking, we need a large, tall pot, where it will fit completely. We put the knuckle at the bottom, fill it with dark beer, pour rosemary, bay leaf, caraway seeds into it, you can add peppercorns, close the lid and put on fire. After the beer boils, reduce the heat and cook for at least 3 hours. The aroma of herbs and boiling intoxicating drink will gradually fill the kitchen - this indicates that the shank is cooked correctly!
3. After 3 hours, remove the meat from the pan and let it cool slightly. While the knuckle is cooling, turn on the oven and heat it to 180 degrees. We're preparing the sauce. We take honey, soy sauce, vegetable oil, garlic squeezed through the garlic, mix into a homogeneous mass and grease the knuckle with this spicy mixture.
4. When the temperature in the oven has reached 180 degrees, we send the shank to the oven. It is advisable to choose a baking sheet or a form with sides, because in the process juice will stand out, which will need to be poured over our knee every 15 minutes. It takes 1-1.5 hours to bake the boar knee (depending on the size), as a result you will get Czech baked boar knee with a crispy crust!

• Try to cook a knuckle with and without skin and you will understand the difference in meat quality.
• Try stuffing it with garlic while marinating. As a result, you will get fragrant meat.
• Try adding pieces of ginger to the broth - this way the taste will be more intense.

Feed features

We put the baked, fragrant and appetizing pork leg on a large dish. In small deep bowls (or on the same plate) we spread horseradish, two types of mustard - ordinary and in grains.

You can cook stewed sauerkraut for the knuckle. It is necessary to extinguish it with a small addition of tomato paste. Cook until cabbage softens.

Do not forget to serve a glass of Czech beer along with the baked boar knee!

Czech Republic ... majestic buildings, beautiful doors, multi-colored stained-glass windows, paving stones underfoot, century-old parks and bridges, horses, carriages, quiet cozy streets, dishes weighing half a kilogram and a magnificent, simply magical atmosphere around. The pearl of the Czech Republic is Prague, a city where you understand what real romance is. Old Town and Wenceslas Square, Charles Bridge and the National Museum, Gothic castles and towers, red tiled roofs, openwork balconies and colorful houses... But what kind of romance can you talk about on an empty stomach? The Czech Republic is a country of small restaurants and street cafes. No matter what street you find yourself on, seductively appetizing smells of fried meat and the freshest beer soar everywhere - just a fairy tale for lovers of tasty and hearty food.

The signature dish of Czech cuisine can be called "Boar's Knee Liver", which, closing their eyes and smiling mysteriously, is remembered by those lucky ones who had a chance to try this masterpiece. As the name implies, the original recipe uses the knee of a real boar, but it is unlikely that even the Czechs have preserved the custom of hunting a real wild and ferocious boar for dinner, so the wild boar is boldly replaced with an ordinary, domesticated, but no less ferocious one. Boar's knee is a very satisfying and very tasty dish, it is prepared simply, but for a long time, and it will not be possible to make a little of it. In the Czech Republic, depending on the restaurant, they will bring you a portion of boar's knee from 1 to 1.5 kilograms! Therefore, this dish is perfect for a company of 3-4 people who love to eat tasty food and drink fresh beer.

It is simply impossible to break away from eating a boar knee! But it is customary to serve a large number of vegetables and a couple of buns of fresh homemade bread to it. A very high-calorie pleasure, but so fragrant and tasty that without a twinge of conscience for a couple of hours you can forget about the time and nerves spent on losing weight and enjoy the original taste of a dish prepared in accordance with Czech culinary traditions.

In order to cook a boar knee in accordance with all the rules, you need to responsibly approach the choice of meat. It is better to take a piece that would capture part of the lower leg and part of the thigh, while the knee itself would be in the middle. Then the dish cannot be called dryish or bony, and there will be more meat. Cooking a national Czech dish cannot do without fresh beer. If possible, take a beer that has just been brewed. You can usually find it in beer restaurants that have their own microbreweries. If this is not possible, then you can buy regular draft beer. It would also be really cool if your oven was equipped with a grill, because the knee will have to be constantly turned over.

Stocked up on a good pork knuckle, the freshest beer and a couple of days of free time? Then it's time to start cooking. The amount of ingredients varies depending on the size of the knee. In addition to meat and 5 liters of light beer, you will need about 4 cloves of garlic, 25 allspice, 20 black peppercorns, ginger root, half nutmeg, a few bay leaves, a couple of sour apples, 100 grams of honey, salt, 4 egg yolks, 50 ml of soy sauce, a little olive oil, coriander, parsley and celery.

Where to begin? With knee preparation. It must be thoroughly rinsed, if there is any damage, carefully cut them off and dry the remaining beautiful part. Now you can do garlic and resurrect the skills of salting fat. Peel the garlic and cut it into very thin slices with a thin knife. From 4 cloves of plastic garlic, you should get 20-30 pieces. Using the same thin knife, make small cuts on the knee and put the garlic there. Try to spread the garlic evenly over the entire knee. When the knee is ready, you can salt and pepper it. For this purpose, you will need freshly ground pepper and large, preferably sea salt. Mix 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper and rub the knee thoroughly with this mixture.

Prepare a large pot, preferably 8-10 liters. Rinse all greens thoroughly and put half into a saucepan, add half of the peppercorns, nutmeg and bay leaf. Cut the ginger root into very thin, almost transparent slices and put on top. Lay the prepared knee on the ginger, pour all 2.5 liters of beer and salt a little. Wash the apples, peel them and remove the core with seeds. Add the peeled apples and remaining beer to the pot. And now attention! This procedure is best done in the morning, because the meat should be marinated in beer for almost a day, in any case, leave the meat until the next morning in a cool place, in the morning carefully so as not to mix the greens, turn it over and leave it until dinner.

With the onset of dinner, remove the meat, put it in a colander and let the beer drain. Turn on the oven on the grill mode, it should warm up to 60 ° C. If the thermometer in your oven cannot boast of high accuracy, you will have to check everything for yourself and set the appropriate temperature empirically. Reduce the heat to a minimum and after a few minutes try to put a tray in the oven into which fat will drain from the knee, the air should not burn your hands. Now grease the knee with olive oil with your hands, put it on a skewer and send it to the oven for 2 hours. This time is enough for the fat to start melting and accumulating in the pan, but not enough for the meat to cook, it will take him another 3 hours that you will be forced to spend alone with this knee. Therefore, stock up on an interesting book, put a clock on the table and take breaks in reading every 20 minutes, use these breaks to pour the fat formed in the pan on the meat. The more often you water your culinary masterpiece, the juicier the dish will turn out. Agree, it would be a pity to dry out the knee, on which so much free time was spent!

After 3 hours of constant peeping into the oven and pouring over the meat, you can poke it with a toothpick to check if the juice remains clear under the toothpick, then the knee is ready, if it is reddish, then you need to continue the previous manipulations with watering until the juice turns into transparent. Now it's time to polish and create a fragrant ruddy crust. To do this, mix honey, soy sauce and egg yolks. Remove the meat from the oven along with the tray and use a cooking brush to apply the resulting mixture to it. Drain the fat from the pan, it will still come in handy, because the epic with watering is not over at all, and put the meat in the oven for another 30-40 minutes. When your house is filled with delicious Czech smells, you can open the oven and again pour the meat with the previously collected fat and leave it to bake for another 15-20 minutes for the last time. At this time, prepare your favorite vegetables, put them on a large plate, garnish with the remaining herbs and pour beer into glasses. You can make a sauce from mustard, lemon juice and herbs. Remove the meat from the oven without removing the skewer, put it on a dish with vegetables and serve.

You may have never been to the Czech Republic, but by preparing their national dish “baked boar knee” and washing it down with delicious fresh beer, you will provide yourself with the most vivid impressions of visiting this country. Even if you haven’t seen all these ancient bridges and castles, haven’t walked along the paved squares, haven’t surveyed the surroundings from the walls of the famous town hall with an astronomical clock, but after tasting the boar’s knee, you felt the taste of the real Czech Republic and learned the way to her romantic heart.

My today's recipe has a very beautiful name: baked boar knee in Czech. Doesn't it sound very appetizing and delicious? So it really is: a boar knee is a knuckle that is cooked in beer, with spices and it turns out just incredible! Of course, we are not in the Czech Republic, but we can afford to cook such deliciousness. Moreover, it is not difficult at all, although it is rather long in time - more than two hours.

But believe me, the result is worth the wait. The meat is very tender, aromatic and tasty. And you can serve it both immediately, hot, and cold, some even like it better.

Such a knuckle is a very social dish, it will be great if you invite friends over for a couple of glasses of beer and serve a boar knee in Czech: believe me, everyone will be completely delighted.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 - 2 kg pork knuckle;
• 2 liters of beer;
• 1 medium sized carrot;
• 1 medium sized onion;
• 1 bay leaf;
• 5-6 cloves of garlic;
• 2 peas of allspice;
• 6-8 black peppercorns;
• 1-1.5 tablespoons of spicy table mustard;
• 1 teaspoon pepper mixture;
• 2 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon salt.

How to cook boar knee in Czech:

Thoroughly clean the skin of the shank with a knife. At the same time, we try not to damage the skin. If bristles remain in hard-to-reach places, singe it over the burner. Thoroughly rinse the shank with cold running water.

We put the knuckle in a wide saucepan and fill it with beer. It is desirable that the shank be completely covered with beer. If a very small piece comes out of the beer, you can leave it like that. If the shank protrudes by about 1/3, it should be cut into 2 parts. Of course, in this case, the appearance of the finished shank will suffer, but if you do not have a pan of the right size, you will have to do so. We put the pan with the knuckle on the stove and bring to a boil over high heat.

We clean the onions and carrots. Wash them carefully.

We remove the foam, put onions and carrots. Add 2 tablespoons of salt (without top), black and allspice peas, bay leaf. Bring the liquid back to a boil over high heat.

Then we reduce the fire and cook the shank for 1 hour. Then carefully turn the shank in the pan and continue to cook for another 1 hour. By the end of cooking, the shank is almost ready.

Now let's get ready to bake the boar's knee in Czech in the oven. We clean the garlic, rinse it. Cut each tooth in half lengthwise. Carefully remove the shank from the water. Making cuts 2-3 cm deep with a narrow knife, stuff the shank with garlic, trying to distribute it evenly. Sprinkle the knuckle with a mixture of peppers and the remaining teaspoon of salt, rub the salt and pepper over the entire surface. We spread the mustard and rub it over the entire surface.

Transfer the shank to a baking dish.

The shank recipe that I offer today can be conditionally 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 cook a baked potato for a side dish. I promise you that it will be insanely delicious!

Editorial. Baked boar knee is perhaps the most famous dish in the Czech Republic. It is prepared with variations, but certainly in dark beer. Garnish is served with dumplings or stewed cabbage, as well as spicy mustard and horseradish.

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 forms on the surface - well, how can you refuse such a pleasure? Therefore, you can safely cook several servings at once, there won’t be a single piece left, it’s checked!

Ingredients

For the rudder:

• knuckle 1-1.5 kg
• dark beer 2 tbsp.
• water 2-3 tbsp.
• onion 2 pcs.
• carrot 1 pc.
• garlic 3-4 cloves
• 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
• carrot (optional) 1 pc.
• potatoes (optional) 5 pcs.

Cooking time: about 3 hours / 1-2 servings

Cooking

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. With the help of a knife, I scraped off all the plaque from the skin, washed it thoroughly. Attention! If there is a bristle, then be sure to singe it over the fire, otherwise the dish will be hopelessly spoiled!



I placed the prepared shank in a large saucepan (a spacious cauldron or duckling will also work). Added salt, bay leaf and black peppercorns. I peeled the carrots and onions, cut them into large pieces. To remove the characteristic smell, I added parsley stalks and a few cloves of garlic - you don’t need to peel it, I just crushed it with the flat side of the 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 during the stewing process as needed.



The container was put on the stove, brought to a boil and cooked for about 2 hours - under the lid, over low heat. Maintained the amount of liquid at about half the pan. I turned the shank 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 be free to lag behind the bone.



I carefully removed the boiled shank from the broth and put it on a baking sheet with a high rim - 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, put a whole head of garlic for flavor. I decided to cook the knuckle with potatoes at the same time, so that I could immediately have a side dish for meat. Therefore, I added a few potato tubers to the mold (with a peel, thoroughly washed, cut into 4-6 parts). You can skip the vegetables if you don't want to. Topped everything with vegetable oil.



In order for the knuckle to acquire its famous crust, it must be lubricated with a special dressing based on dark beer. To do this, I diluted 1.5 tablespoons of sugar in the remaining glass of intoxicating drink, poured the shank and vegetables with the resulting marinade (I used about half of the dressing, and watered the rest during baking). I salted it a little and sent it to a preheated oven. By the way, you can use honey instead of sugar.



Baked at 200 degrees for 20 minutes. Then she reduced the heat to 160 degrees and every 10 minutes she poured over the meat and vegetables with the secreted juice and the remaining dressing. 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. Readiness was determined 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 in the oven is finally ready, a breathtaking aroma will spread throughout the house, which is simply impossible to resist. Rather, we 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 in contrast with the sweetish taste of meat and vegetables. Yummy!