What do I do with wild boar...?

In a fit of enthusiasm at our local meat market, we bought a big piece of wild boar. I really like boar when I've ordered it in restaurants, but I've never tried to cook with it/cook it. Any suggestions, thoughts, ideas, etc. would be greatly appreciated! I'm a decent home cook, and am willing to try recipes that take a long time, have a lot of steps, etc. -- I just don't want to experiment on my own with such a nice piece of meat.

Posted by: MTMitchell
September 19, 2011

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8 Comments

8 Comments

pierino September 20, 2011

Wild boar braises well. I haven't yet read the Batali recipe but I'm sure it's good. A braise/ragu is a sure fire way to go. I always work in chopped rosemary and sage and crushed juniper berries. That latter really make it stand out and accent the slightly gamey flavor.

MTMitchell September 20, 2011

Thank you, all! So...I shared these ideas with my husband, and he was very, very enthusiastic about the beer-honey-rosemary-marinade-then-grill idea. Something about keeping the piece of meat whole and cooking with fire seemed to quite alluring to him. I am going to take a little off the side, so to speak, and make a ragu, too, since home-made pasta with a nice, slow-cooked, boar sauce appeals to me! Looks like Sunday is Boar Day at our house!

Meatballs&Milkshakes September 19, 2011

I second ChefJune's reference to the Mario Batali recipe, it's delicious. I always make extra when I make ragu because it generally freezes well and you can use it with different kinds of pasta, gnocchi, etc. Fresh pasta is preferable to dried pasta with ragus, it's more traditional.

Asamoska September 19, 2011

I shoot my own wild hogs. We always marinate the meat in beer (a good stout), honey and rosemary. The marinade gets rid of a lot of the gamey flavor. Then, grill it. Excellent. We do most of this outside over a campfire. It's probably easier at home.

MTMitchell September 19, 2011

Yay! All great ideas and resources. Thank you so much. It's a pretty big piece of meat (and there's just the two of us), so I'm thinking that I might be able to do a couple of things with it....boar pate, ragu and stew all sound yummy.

ChefJune September 19, 2011

I love to "play" with game meats, and I have a cookbook by John Ash that deals with various treatments of all different kinds.

So far, the only thing I've done with boar is make a ragu for pasta. Lots of Italian sites/books talk about Boar Ragu.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/pappardelle-with-boar-ragu-recipe/index.html This is supposed to be Mario Batali's recipe. I've enjoyed this dish at Babbo, but don't know whether this recipe is the same as I ate there.

aargersi September 19, 2011

What cut did you get? A stew or a chili is always a trusty road to take ... but if you have ribs or a tenderloin then might want to go another way .... I am guessing that what you have is probably pretty lean, so I would suggest adding in some fat (in the form of bacon, or duckfat comes to mind) and if it's wild-shot it's got a gaminess to it - so strong flavors in terms of your aromatics and herbs .... it will be fun to experiment!

Greenstuff September 19, 2011

My wild boar experience is French, and there are also a lot of Italian recipes. You can google them and get a lot of good advice. I strongly recommend making a stew. If it's something you're comfortable with, wild boar pates are really good too.
Here's one French website with both pate and stew (I like a little orange zest in mine), as well as some quicker recipes http://www.gourmetfly.com/Cookingwildboar.html

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