Here’s athea the recipe whose method I had hoped to follow:

https://www.recipetineats.com/crispy-german-pork-knuckle-schweinshaxe-with-beer-gravy/

I’ve never cooked pork shanks. Just thought you might check these for comparison.

Michael Simon - Pork Shanks

Food and Wine - Pork Shanks

That's a fascinating read! Thank-you.

This was in the text: ”Pork knuckles / hocks cut from the front legs of a pig are smaller and often smoked to make smoked ham hocks, for dishes like Pea & Ham Soup.”

The declaration follows the admonision to buy large, hind shanks. Since you say yours are small, and they obviously don't have the required amount of intact skin, I'd smoke and freeze them unless smoked are really easy to buy, or braise them.

Osso Bucco.

Ask the McCoys.

I saw the heading on the summary page and immediately thought of schweinshaxe (the "s" in the middle is attached as a possessive as in English to the first syllable, not the second). Also called eisbein. A popular and delicious dish in Bavaria and elsewhere in Germany.

Find a reliable recipe and enjoy!

Sherry’s post reminded me...subbing pork for the veal.

Ina Garten - Osso Buco

Actually, I used venison shanks. Same idea, same taste. I did not cut into the rounds, just cooked the lower leg shanks exactly the same.

Thanks for the suggestions. After a brief stay in the fridge, I returned these to the freezer, a project for another day.

As for the size, I was aware that I was buying smaller and was fine with that as the recipe talked about feeding two per shank and I was hoping for one per. But the skin issue, that I wasn’t counting on. Unfortunately I bought it from a place where the old butcher had to go fetch the package for a few minutes, so I wasn't about to inspect and reject.

Not right for the recipe you had in mind, but will still be delicious. Cook low/slow. I would SV in some tasty liquid - marinade, wine, etc - then broil or torch to crust, w/ sauce from cooking liquid. No need for exact recipe, just make something up. Red wine, garlic, olives?

I buy these quite often. I just use them as a small roast pork joint. Score and dry the skin. Plenty of meat for two and lots of delicious crackling.

I would cook them in a pressure cooker, using a recipe similar to this.

Pork. Mmmmm

Lars' recipe looks delicious but it appears to use skinless hocks/shanks. I wouldn't braise pork if it had the skin on like the OP's. You'd get gelatinous gloopy skin instead of lovely crunchy crackling.

I do use the pc for smoked ham hocks where the skin contributes to the stock but is removed before serving.

The OP’s shanks appear to me to be skinless so I think Lars’ recipe would be a good fit.

Well spotted, Colleen. I was looking at the top picture, not the vacuum packs. Forget my crackling comments.