Bavarian pork knuckle

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 ½ kg pork knuckle(s)
• ½ liter meat broth
• 250 ml beer, dark
• 2 onions, cut into wedges
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp tomato paste
• 1 sprig(s) thyme, fresh
• 1 sprig(s) mugwort, dried
• 3 sage leaves
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 1 tsp marjoram, shredded
• 1 tsp mugwort, shredded
• 1 tsp rosemary, shredded
• ½ tsp caraway seeds, crushed
• Fat for frying
• possibly water, hot
• little sauce thickener

Instructions

Working time approx. 20 minutes; Total time approx. 20 minutes

Wash the pork knuckle, dry it, and score it with roulades. Rub the pork knuckle with a spice mixture of 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, 1 teaspoon each of shredded marjoram, mugwort, rosemary, and 1/2 teaspoon caraway. Heat some cooking fat in a roasting pan and sear the pork knuckle until browned all over. Add the sliced ​​onions and 1 teaspoon tomato paste and sear briefly. Deglaze with the meat stock and bring to a boil. Add the thyme and mugwort sprigs, sage leaves, and garlic cloves to the roasting juices, pour on the dark beer, and roast the knuckle in a preheated oven at 170°C for about 2.5 hours. Baste the pork knuckle with the roasting juices several times during cooking. Top up the roasting juices with a little hot water if necessary. To crisp the rind, increase the oven temperature to 220°C towards the end of the roasting time and roast for another 15-20 minutes. Remove the knuckle from the roasting pan and pour the roasting juices through a sieve, seasoning with salt and pepper if desired. Carefully thicken with a sauce thickener; the sauce should remain thin. Serve the knuckle of pork with bread dumplings and red cabbage.