As we would often do on a visit to my home town of Baraboo, I stopped at the Meat Market and picked up a rib roast – for steaks, and a some nice looking big pork hocks / shanks.
Since I published the original post on making Schweinshaxe , we have made it a few times since with variable results. So, I was determined to address the variability / shortcomings of the original post and make a “close to perfect” example. Problems that we encountered included: skin not crispy enough, meat drying out, the skin sections falling off when transferring from sous vide bag to the roasting pan (not to mention an overly grease splattered oven a couple of times). So there were a few changes:
- Get BIG pork shanks from the butcher. The skimpy, thin, pre-packaged ones at the grocery store don’t have enough meat to make it worth it and the meat dries out before the skin gets properly crispy (and the skin is really the star of the show).
- Use a bigger baking dish. The pieces should not be touching each other or the sides of the dish and have some room for the air to circulate. If it touches it won’t be crispy.
- Score the skin PRIOR to sous vide cooking. Be sure to only cut the skin and not go into the fat. It is better to be a bit too light on the cut than too deep into the fat layer. This addressed the problem of the skin pieces falling off when transferring to the roasting pan. Plus it is a LOT easier to score the skin when raw than while it is gelatinous / jiggly after sous vide cooking
- Sous vide at 160F for 24 hrs (vs 170F for 20 hrs previously). A bit lower temp leads to the meat and fat being firmer and less likely to fall apart on transfer. When transferring, slice the bag open and slide the meat out and then set it upright (don’t try to lift it out or it may crumble).
- Salt the skin again after placing in the roasting pan (more crispiness) and touch up any scoring gaps.
- Roast at 350F for 45-60 min (basically the same as before) initially, then:
- Convect roast at 425F for 45 min (longer time and convect roast works better to crisp the skin than convect bake if you have it). Convect roast adds the heat from the top helping it brown more, rather than just at the back.
- Skim the caramelized crispy goodness from the edges of the baking pan every 15 min initially and every 5-10min at the higher temp and place on the pork shank. If you leave it on the pan it will likely burn and when paced on the meat it also crisps up nicely.
- Add the beer every 15 min or so to maintain a depth of 1/2 decreasing to 3/8″ of liquid. If you let this get too low, you will have a burnt mess and splattered oven. If too high (e.g. dumping the beer at the beginning) the skin won’t be crisp enough but instead soggy on the bottom. I used most of a bottle of Leinie’s Honey Weiss, an Octoberfest beer is also a good choice. Don’t use an IPA or anything that is very hoppy!
Plate and serve – YUM. Crispy, crunchy, bubbly skin and delectable meat.
Mark Bronkalla