In this post, I’ll show you how to make your own pork knuckle brawn. You can achieve a super tasty result with little effort.
You can serve the pork knuckle brawn with mustard or remoulade to taste. Traditionally, it is often served with fried potatoes or bread.
Pork knuckle brawn is ideal as a starter or thinly sliced.
You can buy your knuckle of pork already cured. In my recipe, the knuckle of pork is already cured. If you want to cure it yourself, I have explained it step by step below.
You can find the complete pork knuckle brawn recipe here as a video or to read through.
Have fun and good luck making it yourself!
Table of Contents
Pork knuckle brawn – What do you need to make it?
Ingredients per 1 kg
- 60 % pork knuckle meat (600g)
- 10 % rind (100g)
- 30 % aspic infusion (300g)
Spices per KG mass
- 0.75 l water
- 0.25 l vinegar
- 15 g salt
- 2.5 g pepper
- 3 g caraway seeds
- 0.5 g bay leaves
- 0.5 g allspice
- 100 g onion
Optional depending on desired firmness: Bloom 240 aspic powder
The equipment to make pork knuckle brawn
Artificial casing or casserole dish
I use a casserole dish for the pork knuckle brawn. However, you can also use artificial casings.
Make pork knuckle brawn – Step-By-Step Instructions
Optional curing of knuckle of pork
As mentioned above. You can buy a knuckle of pork already cured, but of course you can also cure it yourself. As always, it’s up to you. Here I’ll show you how to cure your own knuckle of pork.
You will need the following ingredients for curing:
Spices for 1 liter of brine:
- 1 liter of water
- 97.5 g salt
- 2.5 g Cure #1
- 1g juniper berries
- 2g black pepper
- 4g caraway seeds
Depending on the desired salt content of the final ham, you will need between 20% and 30% of the meat weight in brine. I recommend starting with 20%.
1. First you need to make the brine. To do this, put the water and all the spices except the salt and cure #1 in a saucepan, bring to the boil and leave to infuse for 20-30 minutes.
2. Allow the brine to cool and then add the salt and cure #1.
3. Stir the brine well several times and pour it into a container from which you can easily fill the syringe.
4 Now it’s time to cure the knuckle of pork. Inject the brine (15 – 20 % meat weight) into your knuckle of pork. You can stop as soon as you notice that the brine is leaking out more and more.
5. Then place your knuckle of pork with a little residual brine (approx. 10 % meat weight) in a resealable bag or vacuum bag.
6. Now press as much air out of the bag as possible. Try not to squeeze the pork knuckle too much (otherwise the brine will leak out again). You can then seal the bag.
7. The knuckle of pork must now be cured in the refrigerator for approx. 3 – 4 days. Important: Turn the knuckle of pork every day so that the brine can be absorbed from all sides and is well distributed.
8. After 3 – 4 days, your knuckle of pork is cured and you can make the pork knuckle brawn.
Making pork knuckle brawn
1. Put the water, spices, onion and vinegar in a saucepan. The pot should be large enough to accommodate your ice cream legs.
2 Stir the ingredients so that the spices dissolve.
3. Place your ice cream legs in the liquid. Make sure they are covered with the liquid.
4. Cook your popsicles for at least 2 hours. As soon as the meat separates easily from the bone, they are ready.
5 Remove the bones from the meat.
6 Separate the meat from the rind.
7. Sieve the cooking water through kitchen paper.
8. Cut your meat into pieces. You can decide for yourself how big you want your pieces of meat to be.
9. Cut the rind into small pieces. I recommend that you chop it very small, as you won’t end up with large pieces of rind.
10. Distribute the pieces of meat rind evenly.
11. Optional: If the liquid is not firm enough for you, you can add some aspic powder. Follow the instructions on the packet.
12. Pour some stock into the casserole dish / artificial casing.
13. Pour your mixture and the liquid into either an artificial casing or a casserole dish
14. Pour the remaining stock onto the mixture. The meat should be nicely covered.
15. Leave your pork knuckle brawn to cool in the refrigerator for about 24 hours.
16. Your pork knuckle brawn is ready 😄. Enjoy the taste.
How long is the shelf life of the pork knuckle brawn?
Your pork knuckle brawn will keep for approx. 3 – 4 days in the refrigerator.
An alternative is to cook the pork knuckle brawn in jars.