Oktoberfest 2025.
- Bottle and Board
- Sep 24, 2025
- 1 min read
Tomorrow (25th of September.) sees the start of Bottle and Board`s Oktoberfest.
Gina and I decided to get into the mood with the classic German Oktoberfest dish, schweinsaxe.
Schweinsaxe is a Bavarian recipe for a lightly spiced, roasted and braised pork knuckle. It is always served with a side order of potato, this is often a dumpling, but might be a potato salad, mash or even simple boiled spuds.
Other typical accompaniments are spiced red cabbage or sauerkraut.
Schweinsaxe.
It all begins with a simple rub, consisting of salt, pepper, caraway seed and crushed garlic. Massage the rub liberally into the pork knuckle.
It helps to make some deep incisions into the meat, this allows the spice blend to penetrate, and for the rind to crisp up.
120 for 120.
Sit the schweinsaxe, in a roasting pan, on a bed of chopped carrots and onions and some more chopped garlic. Add half a pint of stock and half a bottle of dunkel.
Cook for two hours at 120 degrees. After an hour pour over the remainder of the beer.
Remove the pan from the oven, lift off the pork knuckles, turn the grill on to maximum, 230-240 degrees, and place the schweinsaxe under the grill for the skin to become crisp. This will take between 10 and 15 minutes, but keep a very close eye on it!
Strain the beer and stock braised vegetables to make a rich beery gravy. Serve with spicy braised red cabbage, and your preferred potato dish. And of course! Good German beer!
