Schweinebraten, the Bavarian roast pork

Schweinebraten is Bavaria's Sunday roast: a piece of pork shoulder roasted until the skin turns into crackling, served with a dark beer gravy and a dumpling. In English it is often simply called German pork roast. Below you will find where the dish comes from, how the crackling works, what Bavarians eat with it, and the Schweinebraten recipe from our editors in US measures, identical to the one on our German page.

What is Schweinebraten?

GenussErbe Bayern, the food heritage database of the Bavarian agriculture ministry, calls it the most traditional of the state's meat dishes and says no Bavarian specialty has become as important beyond the state's borders. The usual cut is the shoulder, ideally with the skin still on; the neck or the leg are alternatives. It is seasoned with salt, pepper and caraway, often garlic as well, and roasted in the oven on a bed of carrots, celery root, parsley root and onions.

The gravy needs no packet. Broth and dark beer go into the pan, mix with the roasting juices and the soft vegetables, and are strained at the end. In Austria the dish is called Schweinsbraten, a form GenussErbe Bayern uses as well; when the skin is roasted until it puffs up, it is a Krustenbraten, a crackling roast.

From a rich man's dish to the Sunday roast

According to GenussErbe Bayern, roast pork was long reserved for the wealthy: in 1835 pigs cost far more than the average price of meat, and the roast shared royal and noble tables with capon and game. Only later did it reach the kitchens of townspeople and, as a holiday roast, the homes of smallholders and day laborers.

The Austrian Register of Traditional Foods describes the roast as a national dish of Bavarian, Austrian and Bohemian cooking and one of the most important holiday foods since the Middle Ages. In the 19th century it was a fixed part of the meal at Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and Martinmas, and hardly a wedding or church fair went without it. As one large piece fed many people, the Sunday roast was a social event, too.

The secret of the crackling

A Krustenbraten is a Schweinebraten whose skin turns into a crisp, bubbly crust. You need a piece with the skin intact, usually shoulder or belly. Belly carries more fat and connective tissue and is cooked to about 176 °F (80 °C) so that it turns tender.

First the skin is softened in liquid; the traditional recipe published by GenussErbe Bayern sets the roast skin side down in about ¾ inch (2 cm) of water. Then the skin is scored in a diamond pattern, through skin and fat but not into the meat. Finally, strong heat from above makes the dry skin puff up.

German pork roast recipe from our editors

Serves 4 to 6. Prep time 20 minutes, cooking time about 3 hours, resting time 10 minutes. A meat thermometer is strongly recommended, since cooking times vary with cut and oven.

Ingredients

• 3¼ lb (1.5 kg) skin-on pork shoulder (or pork belly for a crackling roast)
• 2 tsp salt, plus 1 tsp coarse salt for the skin
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tsp caraway seeds, crushed in a mortar
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 onions, quartered
• 2 carrots and a chunk of celery root (3½ oz/100 g), roughly diced
• 2 cups plus 2 tbsp (500 ml) dark lager (Munich Dunkel)
• 2 cups plus 2 tbsp (500 ml) meat or vegetable broth
• 1 tsp cornstarch, only if needed

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C), conventional bake. Rub the meat side with 2 tsp salt, pepper, the caraway and the garlic; leave the skin unseasoned.
2. Place the roast skin side down in a roasting pan and add hot water to a depth of about ¾ inch (2 cm). Cook in the oven for 30 minutes so the skin softens.
3. Take the roast out and pour off the water. With a box cutter or a freshly sharpened kitchen knife, score the softened skin in a diamond pattern about ⅜ inch (1 cm) wide, cutting through skin and fat but not into the meat.
4. Put the vegetables in the pan, set the roast on top with the scored side up and pour in 1 cup plus 1 tbsp (250 ml) each of beer and broth. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 °F (160 °C).
5. Roast for about 2 hours, until the center reaches 167 to 176 °F (75 to 80 °C); measure at the thickest point without touching bone. Every 30 minutes, baste the sides of the meat with the pan juices, keeping the skin dry, and add more beer and broth as needed.
6. For the crackling, pat the skin dry, sprinkle it with the coarse salt and switch the oven to the broiler, or to 425 °F (220 °C) top heat if your oven has that setting. Leave it for another 15 to 25 minutes; the skin should puff up and blister. Stay close to the oven, because the crackling burns quickly.
7. Let the roast rest on a cutting board for 10 minutes. Strain the pan juices and vegetables through a sieve into a saucepan, pressing the vegetables firmly, then bring to a boil and reduce a little. Season with salt and pepper and, if you like, thicken lightly with the cornstarch stirred into a little cold water.
8. Slice the roast with a serrated knife and serve with the dark beer gravy, dumplings and cabbage.

Alfons Schuhbeck's trick

The crispy roast pork that the Munich chef has published uses pork belly and works in stages. The meat first braises skin side down in broth at a low oven temperature, then it is scored and roasted on a bed of browned vegetables and potatoes. For the sauce base he lightly caramelizes powdered sugar, adds tomato paste and reduces dark beer until syrupy, with roasted veal bones in the pan. At the end he brushes the skin several times with ice-cold salted water under strong top heat, and garlic, lemon peel and spices go into the sauce only for the last few minutes. The complete recipe is on Alfons Schuhbeck on schuhbeck.de (in German).

What to serve with Schweinebraten

• Dumplings: potato dumplings or bread dumplings to soak up the gravy; see Bavarian dumplings.
• Cabbage: red cabbage in Upper Bavaria, cabbage (Kraut) with the Lower Bavarian crackling roast.
• Salad: a German potato salad, also a classic partner.
• To drink: a dark beer, enjoyed in moderation.

Leftovers are good cold, thinly sliced on bread with freshly grated horseradish, a typical Bavarian snack. The other great pork dish of the inns is the pork knuckle. At the Oktoberfest, roast pork appears on tent menus too: in 2026 the Hofbräu-Festzelt listed it with potato dumplings for €24.70. More dishes from the region are collected in our guide to Bavarian food; the German version of this page, with the same recipe in metric units, is Schweinebraten.