Living in Vienna you get acquainted with this roast from day one. You simply can’t say no to such a good looking, yummy tasting tender piece of meat, served with sauerkraut and bread dumplings 🙂

I always wondered how do they do it, how do they get the pork so soft without overcooking it? Meat curing goes back to the ancient times and Austrians as well as Bavarians call this process Suren. They used salt with various nitrates and also spices to wrap pieces of meat for storage, since back then there was no refrigerating technology. This way they could keep meat for a long time without being afraid of it getting spoiled.

The tradition survived and nowadays you can find cured meat at the supermarket or even better you can get it from farmers. I got myself this nice shoulder, about 1,5 kgs.

I simply placed it skin down on a tray with a bit of water. I added some coarse chopped red onions in the water. There is no need to add spices and salt since the meat is cured.

You roast it like this for 30 minutes at 170°C / 338°F then you take it out, turn it skin up and score it like this. Be careful to use a sharp knife for scoring the skin and not to go too deep, just about 1 cm.

Now baste it with the juices from the tray and put it back to roast for another hour.

In the meantime press 2-3 garlic cloves and mix them with ground pepper. After one hour has passed (1 1/2 hours total by now), baste the roasted meat and stuff the garlic pepper mix between the skin squares.

Roast for another 30 minutes or until a fork goes through the meat with little effort.

That’s it, now the skin is caramelized and chewy, meat is tender and easy to slice. Serve with sauerkraut and bread dumplings (Semmelknödel) or simply with mashed potatoes and green salad.

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