Unusually Large Pork Shank

This is the foreshank of a 500+ lb. Berkshire pig.

Here I'm removing the skin, delicately.


The skin can be used as a sort of sausage casing, with the hoof still attached, as in Zampone di Modena.  But that's for another time.  Today I'm braising the shanks.

I salted the meat hours before cooking, to allow it to penetrate into the thick meat.  And then I braised it, in simple fashion, with stock, onion, garlic, bay leaves, Sangiovese wine and tomato.

That's about 8 pounds of bone-in meat, available on our specials board for $100.