Wild boar marinade

[Inishta]

My recipes tend to be a bit organic........they change according to the mood so no precise measurements are given.

Up to a bottle of red wine dependant on size of the beastie........less the taste test of course.
Slosh of vinegar.........I like the cider variety
Garlic chopped
Onions quartered
Carrots chopped
A few cloves
6/7 whole Juniper berries.........important if you can get them
Couple of bay leaves
Oregano Dried or fresh
Chopped parsley
6/7 Black peppercorns
Some decent sea salt

Put all ingredients in a pan, bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Allow to cool before putting over the boar. Marinade for a couple of days turning or basting the joint when you remember. I tend not to use the marinade for sauce or cooking.

The joint can then be cooked in any number of ways. It's your choice

Enjoy

[Xabia Jim]

Re: Wild boar marinade

Inishtia:

I notice there's no oil in your marinade, Is the wild boar naturally oily?

Do you hunt or buy your wild boar?

I've had black bear done in a similar red wine marinade, very tasty!

XJ

[Inishta]

Re: Wild boar marinade

Hi XJim,

I don't add oil to the marinade as a personal choice, because of the long marinade time.........up to 3 days. If I was marinading overnight for stews, steaks etc. I would use oil. Wild boar is not at all oily and when cooked as a joint is more akin to beef than pork. Also, because it is skinned, there is a tendancy to loose some of the fat layer. The long marinade time is as much for tenderising as it is for flavour. The reason I do not use the marinade as a base for the sauce is that I do not hang the boar before freezing and it has a fairly high blood content. It is invariably in the freezer within hours rather than days. I seem to remember reading somewhere about keeping the boar in a slurry of ice water for a few days to get rid of the blood. I'll maybe do a bit more research and try it this year.

I have been on the hunt for the last two boar and, as Turkey is a Muslm country, the hunters don't normally have a use for the carcass consequently the animals are not an endangered species. I regularily get telephone calls to ask if I would like to buy some.

There is still bear here in Turkey but I've never heard of them being hunted.

[PizzaPolice]

Re: Wild boar marinade

Yeah, That sounds better.
After reading your initial post, it seemed you were using liquid smoke in your marinade. HUGE Bozo No-No.
Can you tell us the average temperature of the WFO during the cooking period.
How long was hunk of boar in the oven. Covered at any time?
How was the texture?

I'm having some difficulty using the WFO for this purpose. Last week, 6 pork butts with a dry rub, took over 12 hours. I am used to using an offset smoker where a 225F temperature can be maintained over the entire cook time.
With the WFO, I start with a 500F temp and let it moderate to 400F. During the first 2 hours, I'll stick in some wet hickory chunks on the coal bed.
The next morning, I find they are very tender (can be pulled off the bone) but not like the hand shredded pulled pork (falling off the bone) that is rendered by the smoker. Also, they lack the pink smoke ring and the signature smoky taste.
I may have to abandon this endeavor.
The next experiment will be Italian Beef. Same regimen minus the smoke.

[gjbingham]

Re: Wild boar marinade

Inishta,
Wild boar is tough to come by around here. You've got to go out and find that pig and kill it before it kills you. Mean animals, from what I hear. After all my years in the outdoors, I've never seen one, yet they have an open season on boar here because their numbers are exploding.

Consider yourself lucky on the boar. Prices must be pretty good. I had a friend who was a Syrian Muslim. He could smell pork when he walked into a room. His face would turn absolutely green just thinking about eating it.

[Inishta]

Re: Wild boar marinade

Yeah, That sounds better.
After reading your initial post, it seemed you were using liquid smoke in your marinade. HUGE Bozo No-No.
Can you tell us the average temperature of the WFO during the cooking period.
How long was hunk of boar in the oven. Covered at any time?
How was the texture?

Hi PP, the boar was marinaded then hickory was put on after for a couple of hours before cooking in the BBQ sauce.

First comes the wild boar..........marinaded for 2 days as normal but cooked in a barbeque sauce this time after a couple of hours coated in Hickory Smoke.....probably what you would call liquid smoke. 3 hours cooking and it was fantastic

The oven was heated till the dome went white (see photo on banquet topic) and then fire pushed to the back of the oven and left for the oven to settle down. No more wood was added after that. I don't know what the temp was. My IR thermometer is still in the UK awaiting collection. Boar was put in covered for the first 2 hours........then another hour uncovered. It was left to rest, very important, for 1 hour before carving. Texture was tender but your not going to get 'falling off the bone' with boar unless it is slow cooked for a greater time. More the texture, and taste, of roast beef.