If you are sure that pork legs are only used for jellied meat, then you simply don’t know how to cook them juicy and tasty. We often underestimate this by-product, with a few exceptions. Meanwhile, in some European countries, leg dishes are certainly included in restaurant menus and are considered a delicacy. If you want to feed your family in an extraordinary and very satisfying way, do not neglect the product, although it takes a lot of time to prepare. This is perhaps the only drawback.
As a rule, pork legs are baked in the oven; in Armenia and Georgia they are marinated. Our housewives make aspic, jellied meat, or simply boil it and serve it as cold slices. Dishes made from legs are an excellent snack for beer; it will be appreciated by men who love to eat deliciously and a lot. I offer recipes collected from all over the world, where they love the product and know a lot about its preparation.
How long to cook
Most recipes for dishes made from fatty pork feet begin with prolonged boiling - the product is boiled, and then stewed, baked or fried. The taste and smell of the finished dish will depend on how you cook them.
The peeled and washed products should be placed in a pan and filled with water so that it completely covers the shanks by 7-10 cm, after which the cooking container is placed on the fire and brought to a boil. At this moment, active scale formation begins - it should be removed immediately.
After boiling, you can reduce the heat slightly and boil the product for another hour under a closed lid.
Then you need to add onions, carrots, bay leaves, as well as black peppercorns and one or two tablespoons of mustard to the pan - in this way, cook the meat for another 50 minutes, then add salt and leave on the fire for about an hour. Only after this can you turn off the burner, however, you should not remove the legs - they must cool in the broth, so they will absorb more nutrients and flavor characteristics.
Keep in mind that the legs should be cooked over low heat with the lid closed. Usually the signal for readiness is the separation of meat from the bone, which usually takes 4-5 hours. If you make the legs in a slow cooker, then you will need a little more time - 6 hours with the “Stew” option.
