Name: Spit-Roasted Ham Hocks (Schweinshaxen)
Yield: Serves 4 Really Hungry Germans, 6 to 8 People with Normal Appetites
Cuisine: Germany
Ingredients: 4 fresh (raw) ham hocks (each 1½ to 2 pounds), or 1 pork shoulder (6 to 7 pounds, preferably from the shank end and with the skin); 1 tablespoon dried mugwort or dried sage (see Note); 2 tablespoons Coarse salt (kosher or sea); 2 tablespoons dried marjoram; 1 tablespoon Freshly ground black pepper; Sauerkraut; Rye bread; 2 tablespoons juniper berries (see Note)

Preparation info

Serves
4
Really Hungry Germans

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Planet Barbecue

By Steven Raichlen

Published 2010

About

I call it “barbecue whiplash.” You’re walking along the street and you catch sight of some live-fire cooking so compelling, your head whips around for a closer look. It might be a mammoth shawarma spinning on a vertical spit in a storefront in Israel, or a whole hog being reduced to crisp bites by a cleaver-wielding pit mistress in Bali. My whiplash moment in Germany took place in the old market quarter of Munich, where rows of sizzling, glistening, spice-crusted schweinshaxen