[bughut]

I'm making an eclectic meal for about 10-12 tomorrow night. Multi national and probarbly more suited to a BBQ. But I've really got to start using what i have in the freezer instead of constantly buying stuff. It needs defrosting before christmas anyway to make way for all the pre cooked stuff.

Menu is chicken wings Spicy, oven baked, with a cornmeal crust
Bokwurst sausage.
sticky ribs
wild boar meat balls
Wholemeal cous cous mixed with roast veg - courgette/aubergine/red onion and peppers. served with a rich tomato and pepper sauce (chunky and rustic)
Kubze flatbreads
Greek salad
Very hot onion and tomato salsa
Greek yogurt

Mixed fruit pavlova

Shropshire blue cheese, Somerset brie, Scottish cheddar and oatcakes, homemade indian orange chutney.

Too late obviously to ask for advice on the menu, but I've spent a lot of time online trying to find a recipe for minced haunch of wild boar. Our local farmers market has started selling all wild boar cuts and all i've tasted is the sausages...Lovely. Very rich and lots of flavour. I reckon boar will take a highly spiced recipe across the board. Does anyone know if the same rule applies to Wild boar as with pork. In that, one can grill every part of the beast. Or do parts of it need long slow cooking?

[abefroman]

Originally Posted by bughut

Too late obviously to ask for advice on the menu, but I've spent a lot of time online trying to find a recipe for minced haunch of wild boar. Our local farmers market has started selling all wild boar cuts and all i've tasted is the sausages...Lovely. Very rich and lots of flavour. I reckon boar will take a highly spiced recipe across the board. Does anyone know if the same rule applies to Wild boar as with pork. In that, one can grill every part of the beast. Or do parts of it need long slow cooking?

Boar is more tender than pork, you can cook it medium rare if you're doing the tender loin (or at least that's how it was served to me at a restaurant on Sanibel Island).

[MaryB]

If it is true wild boar and not farm raised trichinosis is an issue with medium rare. I would take it just past that for safety. Flavor wise it can take a bit more seasoning than the standard farm raised nasty pork

[boar_d_laze]

Buglette,

If I understand you correctly, your question concerns "minced haunch," as in, "minced" (which we 'muricans call "ground"), and "haunch" Here, the haunch sometimes includes the loin, and sometimes not. Since you're mincing, I'm going to assume that your haunch does not.

So what we're left with is, you want to make and use ground boar meat.

Wild boar has less fat altogether than domestic swine. This doesn't make it more or less tender, but does increase its propensity to cook dry. Most boar fat is "soft fat," while most pig fat is "hard fat." Soft fat doesn't taste very good, while hard fat does.

If fresh or fresh-frozen, wild boar haunch should be soaked in icy cold water for at least 24 hours before preparing for mincing. The haunch should be deboned, and trimmed very clean with all visible fat removed and discarded (got dogs?). Cube the meat, and add some cubed pork fat to it, in order to get a respectable fat content of at least 15% (20% is better, IMO). Chill the cubed meat and fat, before mincing (grinding).

You can use ground boar in any way you'd use ground pork -- in addition to the Scotts/English and Northern European things which leap immediately to your Caledonian mind you can do terrines, pates de campagne, rillettes, parfaits, and a bunch of effete Frenchified stuff as well. Vive la Frenchified!

And, if pork likes fruit -- boar is nuts about it. Same thing with spice.

As long as you remember to trim the soft fat, replacing and adding to it with good, hard fat, ye'll nae gae agley.

BDL

[bughut]

Thanks for that BDL.

I actually bought the meat already ground. Don't think I'd ever bother doing it myself as we have such good butchers locally. I was more curious to know if I could apply the same rules to wild boar, as I would to pork. It's quite pricey, as I would expect - About 3 times the cost of ground pork and i wouldnt want to ruin it.

The meatballs were a great success btw. I would highly recommend plenty of black pepper. The sausages I tried were made with apricots , which totally goes along with your fruit theory. They were scrumptious!

I'm not terribly Frenchified myself. I dabble, but my forte is inventive/rustic if thats even a style... It's worked for me so far anyway.

I appreciate the input. It's logged away for future reference. Cheers

[DuckFat]

Originally Posted by MaryB

If it is true wild boar and not farm raised trichinosis is an issue with medium rare.

That's way too broad of a statement to have a lot of validity. All wild boar meat is not automatically going to contain trichinosis any more than all farm raised meat is going to be exempt.

[MaryB]

Trichinosis in farm raised pork is a non-issue. Wild pork and bear meat have a very high probability of trichinosis. "Trichinellosis, also called trichinosis, is caused by eating raw or undercooked meat of animals infected with the larvae of a species of worm called Trichinella. Infection occurs commonly in certain wild carnivorous (meat-eating) animals but may also occur in domestic pigs." from Trichinellosis Fact Sheet | Division of Parasitic Diseases | CDC

[DuckFat]

Originally Posted by MaryB

Trichinosis in farm raised pork is a non-issue.

I trust you realize that their is a significant difference between farm raised pork (hogs) and wild boars. Earlier you made a blanket statement that "trichinosis IS an issue with MR" but only if it's not farm raised. That's just not accurate. In fact you appear to be contradicting yourself as you noted Trichinosis can (and does) occur in domestic animals as well. Domestic pork IS farm raised unless you are trying to toss feral hogs into the mix which is another whole can of worms (pun intended). If you are in the USA you are not working with "true wild boar" unless you are using imported game as all boars in the USA both free range and on ranches are hybrids.
In regards to bear meat there are indeed some areas where trichinosis is an issue like some GMU's in AK. In other states and even in many GMU's in AK that is a non-issue in bear flesh.
While it is true that wild boar or feral hogs are more likely to have the parasite you are trying to paint with a very broad brush and such absolutes just don't fly. Estimates by some are that .125 % of all farm raised pork still carries the parasite. That's millions of potential exposures annually in the USA alone.
In regards to trichinosis from ranched boar meat being safe one of the studies done by the CDC indicated that over 15% of the recorded outbreaks were from boar meat purchased directly from farms and another 10% was purchased from markets. Suggesting ALL farm raised boar meat is safe and all wild game is infected is simply not accurate. Not by a long shot.

[KYHeirloomer]

unless you are using imported game as all boars in the USA both free range and on ranches are hybrids.

Strictly speaking, this isn't 100% true.

Yes, the majority of "wild boar" in the U.S. are actually feral hogs (such as the famed razorbacks of the Ozark Mountains), or croses of wild and domestic swine. But there is one noteable exception: in the Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina there is a wild population of true wild boar. These had escaped in the late 1920s or early '30s from a private preserve that imported Russian and European wild boar. For two reasons they were able to breed true: 1. the remoteness of the area provided vast acreage for them to forage with no farm animals nearby, and 2. because NC has had a fence law since 1935, there were no free-ranging domestic pigs for them to cross with.

The "wild boar" found on most private game clubs nowadays are usually wild-trapped feral hogs, most of which come from Florida. Those are, indeed, hybrids, with some true wild boar included in the mix. Very often, however, they do throw an almost pure example. The first such boar I ever hunted was indistinguishable from a Roosian---totally black except for a little snow on his cheeks, and self-sharpening tusks that would really do a number on anything they came in contact with.

Peccary, native to Texas and the southwest, are a distant cousin to wild boar. But in many respects, at least from a culinary point of view, they can be treated the same.

[DuckFat]

Originally Posted by KYHeirloomer

unless you are using imported game as all boars in the USA both free range and on ranches are hybrids.

Strictly speaking, this isn't 100% true.
however, they do throw an almost pure example.

I believe it is accurate at least in the sense of game animals or game ranches producing meat. There has indeed been a few groups of pure wild boars brought into the USA in recent years but AFAIK those were not for this purpose. There is always the possibility that there may be a single isolated pure bred group left but as of yet that has not been documented.
As you noted the last true "wild boars" as in the species (not just hogs running wild) were released prior to the 1920's in a few states including California and Texas. By the 1960's those groups were no longer distinguishable as "boars" according to biologists. There are plenty of game ranches with feral hogs and hybrids that use the term "wild boar" in a generic sense. AFAIK there is not one of those in the USA with a hunting or breeding program of "true" wild boars but rather European Hybrids. When those cross breed with feral or domestic hogs they can not throw a pure bred or almost pure bred wild boar. That's genetically impossible. I assume what you are talking about is feral hogs that grow tusks. Feral hogs can do that but that does not indicate they are "boars" (species). It doesn't help any that many simply refer to large males with tusks as "boars". There is a report from the biologists at Texas Parks and wildlife that researched the lineage of true wild boars (species) in the US and that you may find interesting. Peccary or javelina are indigenous and IIR they are technically neither pigs or hogs. If you think you can treat them the same in a culinary sense I am going to go out on a limb and guess you have never dealt with one of those stinky little buggers or you are just a bad whammmer jammer. They smell as bad as a Caribou in rut!
Piiiiiiiiieeeeeew
You may find this interesting as it addresses a few points you hit on.


Distinguishing Feral Hogs From Introduced Wild Boar And Their Hybrids

[MaryB]

Trichinosis in farm raised pork has become exceedingly rare and overall there is less of it "From 1997 to 2001, an annual average of 12 cases per year were reported in the United States." so yes it is possible but most cases are related to wild or feral animals and not farm raised pork (and I am not defending factory farm raised pork, I think is is tasteless).

[DuckFat]

Originally Posted by MaryB

"From 1997 to 2001, an annual average of 12 cases per year were reported in the United States."

That statistic includes all cases of trichinois reported in that period (USA) including wild game so trichinosis has become un-common over all and not just from farm raised pork. Even if we attribute 100% of the 12 annual cases to game meat we have no idea if any of that is from wild boar. In years past there have been 12 cases or more from a single incident. I do agree with you that farm raised pork may be safer in regards to trichinosis but most farmed meat is also pumped full of steroids and anti-biotics and other potential hazards. I just don't see game meat as some thing to fear.

[KYHeirloomer]

I just don't see game meat as some thing to fear.

I don't think Mary was even hinting at that, DuckFat. She was just pointing out a potential problem.

The whole argument leaves me cold. Even in the old days, when the parasites and disease were more common, the numbers just didn't justify the hysteria. Sort of like the recurrent botullism arguments---the actual risk factor is so small as to be ignorable; which is what I do.

including wild game so trichinosis has become un-common over all and not just from farm raised pork.

I don't think that's a warranted conclusion. Why? Because the amount of wild game consummed by Americans is miniscule. So there's no basis for drawing any conclusion about the presence or absence of the parasites in wild game animals.

Most game eaten in America comes from farm raised animals, so that doesn't count on this discussion point.

[DuckFat]

Originally Posted by KYHeirloomer

I just don't see game meat as some thing to fear.

I don't think Mary was even hinting at that, DuckFat. She was just pointing out a potential problem.

The only issue I have is with the blanket statement that there IS an absolute issue with wild boar and that there is no issue with farm raised pork. I don't know if she meant CAFO pork or farm raised game but there is simply no current documentation to support that or any reason to fear using boar meat. I don't want my ground pork or boar MR either way but that has nothing to do with trichinosis. I can think of a few issues with CAFO pork that far out weigh that of wild boar. I wonder how many continue to kill pork (wild and farmed) twice out of irrational fear.

Originally Posted by KYHeirloomer

The whole argument leaves me cold. Even in the old days, when the parasites and disease were more common, the numbers just didn't justify the hysteria. Sort of like the recurrent botullism arguments---the actual risk factor is so small as to be ignorable; which is what I do.

I agree. By all accounts the it's basically a non-issue.

Originally Posted by KYHeirloomer

I don't think that's a warranted conclusion. Why? Because the amount of wild game consummed by Americans is miniscule. So there's no basis for drawing any conclusion about the presence or absence of the parasites in wild game animals.

I'm not sure I understand your point here. The statistic that Mary is quoting from the CDC regarding 12 cases a year includes ALL reported cases. That includes game meat. I am not drawing any conclusions about game meat or farm raised meat at large based on those statistics other than to simply state that 12 cases a year is so absurdly small it's a non-issue even *IF* all 12 cases annually in the US are from game meat. Which we simply do not know to be a fact.
What we do know is that there have only been an average of 12 cases a year reported over the last several years so it's clear that reported cases of trichinosis have become un-common.

Originally Posted by KYHeirloomer

Most game eaten in America comes from farm raised animals, so that doesn't count on this discussion point.

I'm not sure where you are getting that statistic from but I would be very interested in seeing any supporting documentation. While it's just my opinion I do disagree. We literally have millions of sportsmen across the USA harvesting tons of game meat annually and consuming it. The consumption of farm raised game meat in the USA is fairly small and that includes imported game. The majority of which I would think to be venison.
If there is a case of trichinosis in the US it is reported to the CDC irrespective of whether or not the culprit was farm raised game, wild game or CAFO pork.

[MaryB]

My main point was to make sure you cook pork to around 145 internal. That won't dry it out. I don't think you could get me to eat rare pork no matter where it came from. CAFO pork tastes nasty to me and I try to avoid it when possible.