Caraway meat with apples and pumpernickel

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 3 kg pork neck, with bone
• 700 g bacon, smoked fat
• 1,000 g diced onion(s)
• 7 m.-sized apples
• 1 liter apple juice
• 1 handful of celery, finely diced
• 3 m.-sized carrot(s), finely diced
• 8 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 80 g caraway seeds, whole
• 40 g mustard seeds
• 3 tbsp salt
• 4 bay leaves, small
• 250 g pumpernickel, finely diced
• some lard, only if the desired firmness is not achieved
• 2 tsp, leveled pepper or more
• possibly marjoram and/or thyme

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Rest period approx. 1 day; Cooking/baking time approx. 4 hours; Total time approx. 1 day 5 hours

Remove the meat from the bone and cut half of it into small cubes (the smaller the better). Cut the other half of the meat into pieces about 2 cm long and 0.5 cm wide. Finely dice the fatty bacon, celery, and carrots. Fry some of the diced bacon in the pot and brown the previously chopped bones. Then add the celery and carrot cubes and brown them. Deglaze with the apple juice and reduce by half. Remove the bones, leaving the rest in the stock. In a second pot, fry the remaining bacon cubes (until crispy, golden cracklings form) and brown the meat. Add all the other ingredients (but NOT the pumpernickel) and top up with the stock. Simmer gently over low heat (low temperature cooking) until the meat is buttery soft. This process can take several hours, however. Shortly before the end of the cooking time, remove the bay leaves, add the diced pumpernickel and mash everything with a potato masher until smooth and then let it rest for a while. Important: Do not add the pumpernickel too early, otherwise there is a risk of it burning. Place a small amount on a flat plate and check the consistency in the refrigerator. If it does not reach the desired consistency, add a little commercially available lard. While hot, pour into clean twist-off jars, seal them, and once cooled, store in the refrigerator. I can’t say how long it will keep; our supply only lasts a few days. We like to eat it on fresh farmhouse bread, with wafer-thinly sliced ​​onions and a pickle. Serve with a bitter pilsner and a strong schnapps. It is also recommended as a cold accompaniment to fried potatoes.