First, Selecting the ingredient...
Many people love pork knuckle but no place usually sell it just like that (i do see it b4 at paragon market place) . If u looking for a fresh one, u probably need to pre order.
My favourite supplier would be Swiss Butchery or Huber's Butchery. They offer Australia pork which is of higher quality in terms of flavour and texture compared to what the local wet market can offer. Local wet market offers pork mainly from Indonesia's which is somewhat less flavourful and it loses more yield then Australia ones. But the good thing about Indonesia's pork is that the knuckle could cost about only half of what the Australia's one is priced. But for home cooking there is no compromise in quality :)
When ordering, ask for hind knuckle and say its for roasting pork knuckle and the staff will know what to do. Collect one day in advance of cooking as u need to marinade it overnight.
Well, i requested for my pork knuckle to be completely skin and hairless but still... saw some on the knuckle. What u need to remove it are flame torch and knife. Torch the part where there are still hair and scrape it off with the knife. Simple enough?
When it comes to marination, its almost free style. There is not much rule as flavours in my opinion are personal preference. However what is important is the technique of preparing it. Always, use loads of salt and rub it thoroughly covering every surface of the skin to extract the moisture thus giving it a crispy skin. Get it? Moisture = no crispy skin. Remember to pierce some small holes so the marinade can seep in and also it will give a nice skin to the end product. Keep the Knuckle in the chiller and don't cover it. This will allow the chiller to absorb the moisture out of the pork, giving it a really dry skin.However, if you don't have the luxury of one day in advance preparation. what you could do it to coat the skin with vinegar. I use apple cider as it works well with the flavour of the pork. Vinegar namely the acid will start to ""Burn" the skin and coagulates protein on the surface of the skin so it becomes dry. Marinade it in apple cider for 1-2h then just before cooking, its good to tap the pork knuckle dry with a dry cloth just to make sure its dry :)
(top: Salt and Rustica. Bottom: Onion powder, Salt, pepper and apple cider)Every oven is different when it comes to roasting. My oven is pretty close to industrial oven but still just slightly under power. And also i don't have the combination method of steaming and roasting at the same time. To overcome that, i place a tray of ice into the oven and as it melts and turns into steam, it helps moisturize the skin of the pork and prevent the juice of the pork to escape.
Temperature for roasting: 160 DegC
Time for Roasting: 1h 15min
The timing is for pork knuckle of room temperature. If it pork knuckle is chilled add 10 mins to the roasting time.
Well pork knuckle is all about the crispy skin. Remove the water tray and...
Temperature for Crackling: 220 DegC
Time for Crackling: 15 mins
Well, blasting the oven to 220 DegC will generate so much heat that will actually make the air under the pork skin expand so much that it puffs up the skin and creates a really light and crispy skin.
If you have noticed, no oil is added at all. its only pork cooked using its own fat! Its a pretty damn healthy dish!
When serving Pork Knuckle,
U need to rest it first or else if you cut straight after roasting, the juice will all ooze out from the meat so it becomes something like pork jerky.. Dry...
After its properly rested (about 30 mins)
How to carve it? First u need to locate the part where the 2 bones joint together :)
then place the knife in between the bone, cut it down.
after u cut it down u will reach a point u get stuck, twist ur knife to split it apart.
then use ur knife, cut along the soft bones. now u are ready to serve half a knuckle :) the bone still in the meat should comes out easily by pulling it apart :)An essential beverage to go with the pork knuckle... Beer! Especially Dunkel :)
