How to Pickle Eisbein by Injection - How to Cure Eisbein by Injecting Brine - Cured Pork Hocks
Author: Whats4Chow
Recipe type: Charcuterie / Pork
Cuisine: German / Austrian
Serves: 20
In today's episode we're going to pickle or cure eisbein using the injection process. This process is much quicker and more efficient than the immersion process, where the eisbein are submerged in the pickling brine for 72 hours. The injection technique only takes 24 hours to cure, and is much more economical on ingredients.
Ingredients
For 20 Eisbein
- 70g Prague powder
- 140g Himalayan rock salt / non-iodated salt
- 70g Sugar
- 5ml Coriander seeds
- 15ml Whole black peppercorns
- 3 Allspice / pimento berries
- 3 Bay leaves
- 2 Liters water
Instructions
- To start, measure out 70g Prague powder, 140g Himalayan rock salt, or you can use use any non-iodated salt, 70g sugar, and 5ml coriander seed, 15ml black pepper corns 3 allspice or pimento berries and 3 bay leaves.
- Place the salt, sugar and spices in a medium size pot and add 2 liters of water. Adding boiling water saves time in the next step.
- Heat the pot over medium high heat until boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer, and allow this to simmer for 15 muntes.
- In the meantime, sterilize your basting syringe and put this aside.
- After 15 minutes of simmering, remove the pot of brine from the heat and quick-chill the brine by floating the pot in a sink of cold water.
- Once the brine is cooled to room temperature, add the Prague powder and stir this in until completely dissolved.
- Strain the brine through a sieve into a clean container.
- Draw the brine into the syringe and proceed to inject this into the ends of the eisbein. Fully insert the needle into the center of each muscle. Start depressing the plunger while simultaneously withdrawing the needle from the meat. You will need to inject 5 times on the fat side of the eisbein, and twice on the thin side. Each eisbein will need about 100ml of brine, making this recipe sufficient to pickle 20 units.
- Cover the eisbeins loosely with clingwrap and place them in your refrigerator for a full 24 hours.
- After 24 hours, the meat is fully pickled and ready to cook, or freeze for later use. It will be the trademark deep rosy red color with a unique and slightly translucent appearance.
