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Pork Leg with Crackling, Mecklenburg Style

4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 piece Pork leg
• Cloves (a little)
• Salt (a little)
• Water (a little)
• Grated bread crust (a little)
• Sugar (a little)
• Crushed cloves (a little)

Instructions

1. Remove the rind from the leg, wash the leg thoroughly with cold water, occasionally stud it with cloves, sprinkle with salt, and place it in the oven in a roasting pan with water.
2. The oven should not be too hot at first, so that the leg does not cook on the outside while remaining bloody inside.
3. Baste well and, as often as necessary, add boiling water.
4. Once it is determined to be cooked through by pricking it with a fork, skim the fat from the broth.
5. Sprinkle the rind side with an almost finger-thick layer of a mixture of grated bread crust, sugar, and finely crushed cloves.
6. Leave the leg in the oven without further basting until the crust has become firm.

Modernized from a treasured 19th-century German cookbook.