This is my knuckle today. Knuckle to wash and put to boil in plenty of water. I have it boiled in 4 litre capacity slow cooker. The product yield of 2,5 - 3 liters. After boiling, carefully remove the formed foam, lightly salt and add the roots.

Beans and pearl barley rinsed till clear water and add to stew to the knuckle. With this method of cooking you can do them without pre-soaking.

After 2 hours check the pork and if it has reached the desired degree of softness, then pull out. My knuckle this time was enough. Shank we'll marinate and bake in the oven.

Instead of a shank to be sent to the soup mushrooms /I raw white, already sliced and frozen/. Prior defrosting in this case is not required.

Now peel and finely chop potatoes. In my youth I read in some cookbook that cutting vegetables for the soup should not be cubes, cubes, since so doing. Put the potatoes in the soup. At this stage you can fry the onions and carrots, but with such a rich broth I don't add extra fat we don't need.

After 10 minutes after the potatoes, add to soup, sauerkraut. Its taste will depend largely on the final result. I recognize no perekalennoe, kislusha cabbage, which markets advertise under the slogan - "for soup". Choose only sweet and sour, the so-called lettuce, firm and crisp. Cook it the minimum time to time to give the soup its flavor but has not lost its hruskoci. Ie minutes 15 - 20 after adding.

Now let's try the soup and, if necessary, doselevel them. 5 minutes prior to readiness add Bay leaf and allspice. Listen to this advice and immediately feel the difference, the soup will be much more aromatic. If you decide to bake the knuckle as a whole, then you can fry a little bacon with the onion and put it in a bowl right before serving or add to the pot at the end of cooking. And if you cook stuffed pork, in soup, you can add the meat from its middle. That's what I did.

Serve with sour cream and greens. I don't add the sour cream, because I'm trying to limit fats where possible.

The soup was very rich and flavorful, with bright and rich taste. Bon appetit!