Grand Opening: Boar Butcher Shop!

If you missed Part 1 of Russian Boar, go back.  Anyway, Welcome to my butcher shop 🙂

At this property, there have been a few logistical problems when we have a successful hunt.  It’s far.  So by the time we arrive back to Urban Lyfe, it is late, we are tired, and we throw some ice in the cavity of the animal (we gut the pig in the field for Coyotes) and wait 12 hours before skinning and breaking it down to its usable parts.  This time we decided to process it differently.  With Tender Loving Care.  Because I don’t own a meat-aging room, I can’t hang a 300 pound animal in a cool temperature (somewhere between refrigerator and freezer temps).

So we went with the dry-ice alternative.  First, clean the butcher block & hose off the inside of the boar of dirt, mud, guts, blood.

Skin the animal on the butcher block (my truck bed)

pig leg for the neighborhood dog. it’s easier to hoist the animal upward, but we do what we gotta do today.

We don’t want to waste any part of the animal. Cut out the Wild Boar Cheek which will be great in a small braise.  I could have done a much cleaner job; on the other side was a clean cut.

it is dark and we are drinking wine and skinning the beast together. Next step is to take the errant pieces of hair off or cut the fatty membrane that doesn’t add much in taste that the few pieces of hair stick to

Machete, boning knife, and paring knife. Cut off the essential pieces: pork cheeks, shoulders, legs, filet mignon (inside loin), outside loin, bacon/belly, spare ribs, used a saw to cut the short ribs and baby back ribs

Next step: Operation ICE was to bring the meat down to temperature in an ice bath and to let the blood come out of the meat since we didn’t have a meat aging room.  Some people are concerned water gets into the meat, but here the blood comes out, and since we don’t freeze the meat we are not scared of freezer burn.  30 minutes in the ice bath, drain, pat dry with towels.  Step after (unpictured): put Dry ice on the bottom of the cooler and stack lengthwise, two hotel pans on top of the dry ice to separate the dry ice from the meat.  Meat on top.  Dry ice keeps the cooler at refrigerator temps.  The Separation between the bottom and the meat allowed the blood to drip down.  Thus the meat was extremely fresh without the “iron” taste that blood has, and we were able to accomplish this without having to “age” it.

The next step involved thinking about what was to be cooked :):)  We wanted to taste the natural flavor of this wild boar and there were a few important factors to consider.

  1. we processed this wild boar very differently than before by icing it and dry-icing the cooler.
  2. Normal wild boars off this property range from 50-250 pounds. This was above that spectrum, and it was male, which can affect the flavor of the meat and also could be tougher since the males are more active.
here’s a picture of the meat – very clean, 3/4 of the leg meat was taken off this, it reminds me of a rabbit carcass.
I enjoy the two butchers and take a break with wine and the camera. Started with Fanny Bay, Santa Barbara, and Pacific Gold Oysters, then got to work
working the ratios of pork back fat to shoulder & leg meat. 1 gram off.  It’s better to have the meat and fat extremely cold when placing through the grinder, so it doesn’t melt.
grinding meat & fat
Mixing the fat and the meat until the mixture “sticks” to your hand (means it’s mixed well)
because the intestine sausage-stuffing procedure was laborious I forgot to snap pictures (was probably just drinking too much wine). On the left: SAUSAGE in the cold steel sauté pan.  On the right we used the bones to make a JOOK (rice porridge)
Ori wore this shirt.  I had to defriend him on Facebook. it’s officially over.
the base for the ragu: carrot, onion, celery, wild boar meat, red wine, San Marzano tomatoes, black truffles
salt, pepper, Seared & sealed the ribs on the sauté, pressure cook with some star anise, cloves
Wild Boar Filet Mignon – salt, pepper, and a little mustard
Yesterday was a testing stage, and for the night we made 4 types of sausage: 2 types of sausage links including: spicy paprika sausage, peppercorn-garlic-fennel sausage, cinnamon-cumin sausage patty, paprika-ginger-chili flakes sausage patty.  We made a Wild Boar Ragu w/ red wine and black truffles.  Braised baby back ribs. And One of the two filet mignons.   It was super fun. More to come 🙂
Notes:
  • The first ratios for the sausages were ratios used for farmed pigs from the restaurant; we adjusted the ratio as the fennel brought out more saltiness.
  • The backfat was procured from Rocker Brothers Meat
  • Playing with your food is FUNNN!
Some Lemon, Maldon smoked Sea salt w/ touch of brown butter to finish.

3 Comments

  1. Great inspiration…I am going to get a wild boar in a few weeks, so this is very good info.

    I’ve read that wild boar contains a lot of parasites, therefore it is recommended to cook thoroughly.

    how did the bacon turn out?

    • Thank you. You know, I haven’t seen any yet. I’ve shot 15 in the last month and half. The bacon is very tasty I make them from the fatter females, as this property they are eating a very rich diet. As you can tell I don’t mind eating them “rare” 🙂

      Where will you be going?

      Some of the males have nice bacon too, just depends when you field dress and look at the carcass, you evaluate if you will be making bacon.

      Warm regards,

      Erik

  2. Going to a “canned hunt” as I want some meat. (A place in upstate NY.) Its a bit too cold for a breeding wild boar population in my neck of the woods.

    Have you ever done a jamon? Wondering how that might turn out.

    Rob

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