Schäufele or Schäufala is a common dish in large parts of Southern Germany and Switzerland.
In the Baden and Switzerland area it is described as what we used to sell in our store in Michigan as a boiled Cottage Ham.

Courtesy Geier’s Sausage Kitchen, Sarasota Florida

By definition: Cottage Ham is the center, lean, boneless part of the pork shoulder, which is cured and smoked. Can be used in soups or just boiled and sliced as a, IMHO, better tasting alternative to regular Smoked Ham.

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Franken Schäufala

Photo linked from Wikimedia Commons, taken by Benreis

This brings us to the Franken Schäufala, a delicious, traditional meal in Franken/Franconia, the region of Northern Bavarian.
Here they take the bone-in Boston Shoulder Butt with the skin left on. The skin gets scored and the piece of meat is roasted about the same as our Bavarian Pork Roast, click for recipe. (This link will be replaced when we publish our Schäufala recipe on Inges Kitchen).To replicate this dish here in the USA is a little bit tougher, as I do not know of any butcher shop where you can find a Pork Shoulder with the skin attached, unless you buy a whole pig and have it cut that way. In some areas there might be butcher shops which still process whole hogs.

As the crunchy skin/crackling defines this dish we will try to come up in the future with a recipe that might be close.

But as of right now you will have to spend the money on airfare and transportation to get a taste of that remarkable dish.

The picture of the above meal was taken at the Held brewery in Oberailsfeld, which was one of the early places we featured on our Bavaria4U blog