Attempt at bacon - wild boar...

[WeberSwede]

Ok,

Two weeks ago Moose hunting season kicked off here in Sweden. South Sweden is a little bit short on them, central Sweden is suffering from wolves so, not much hunting there, and northern Sweden - plenty of them as usual.

Result was our hunting team also opted in the wild boar. Nothing fell by my own gun/hand, but, two days gave 6 wild boars, one moose "kid" and one fox.

One of the wild boars came with me home, as the rest of the hunting team had their freezers bulging already.
When parting it up - I figured I'd try something new.

So, basically - I did "bacon" cut, I did what is called "pig neck" cut and I also did "Christmas Ham" cut. - along with a few other, more "common" cut types.

The bacon-cut:

I made a mix of salt, sugar and regular pepper (black - small pellets) and used it as a "rub" on the bacon cuts. The salt of course contained nitrit (the component which should prevent botulism building up).
All went into vaccum packings and stayed in fridge for 7 days, turning them over every second day.

Yesterday - time to smoke.
Due to Weber Smokey Mountain not really working well with cold smoking (and only one type of smoking powder) I spoke to a friend working as a chef in restaurant and he said - warm smoke is ok too.

Not tried it before, I was a little concerned as I had not tried out temperatures, amount of briquettes, water level etc etc..

But, almost full open regulators, a champagne cooler size of water plus another jug of water, and plenty of briquettes and doing the "small amount of hot burning briquettes in center on non-burning briquettes"-lightning method, I ended up on a pretty fixed temperature just above 100 degree celcius. Little too hot according to my chef friend but - first try so - something to experiment with next rounds.

Anyhow - some water drips on the meat after rougly 50 minutes and also a turn, and passing a total of 1h30 min, time to get them out. 

And - voila. Not exactly like bacon usually looks (have not tried them yet - want the smoke to "even out" in them so, tonight - there's going to be a test. ) but, let's see where this will end up.

Enjoy,
WeberSwede

[toiga]

Looks delicious!

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[cigarman20]

I'll bet that boar belly is delicious!


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[Stoneage]

I've done wild (American) pig. It needs to be cleaned carefully so as not to be "gamey" & harvested preferably female & fairly young.
Is boar similar?
Being a huge Asterix & Obelix fan I'm fascinated!

[WeberSwede]

Hello all,

Well - me and my wife tried it the other day. We fried it in a regular frying pan with butter - as you would with normal bacon.

Result - tasty, yet SALTY.

I've realised there might be confusions about the expressions.... language - what nightmares it can cause......

To explain how I understand it:

wild boar = the entire 'type' - male, female, young/old.
Sow - old female wild board
boar - seems to be the word for the "grown-up" (more than 2 years old) male wild boar...

Anyhow:
The perspective we have here in Sweden is that any wild boar up to 90 kg is fine for eating.
Sow's might not be the best - can be chew'ey.
Boar itself - also chew'ey and on top of that, some have a slight taste of "urine" as some hunter friends I have, describe it.

Solution - avoid hunting the sow - just the piglets.   the big boars which can be in the area - well.....if need be shoot - and try. if the meat tastes bad - get rid of it. So, mark up all the vaccum bags when you freeze it.

This one specific, was a female, about a year old we guess. Had not had piglets yet.

So, this is ideal for food actually. My wife and I happens to like the "game" flavour. And comparing wild boar (all types) to hare and roe deer - wild boar is not that heavy on the "game" flavour. At least not here in Sweden.

Hope I have shared some insights on the matters discussed.

@cigarman20 - judging by your username, I think we may have a common liking apart from enjoying Weber stuff AND good food.

Cheers
WeberSwede

[Stoneage]

The "Urine" taste is what we call "Gamey". its mostly uric acid in the fatty parts.

[WeberSwede]

@Stoneage - Oh! Interesting. Because when I speak (and afaIk most Swedes, too) of "gamey" flavour, I am more focused on the non-fatty parts of the meat and that flavour. Wild game meat which has spent considerable time hanging to "mature", before being butchered, have this "gamey" flavour much more "tangible" or - how to explain it.

But, maybe we actually talk about the same thing, I don't know.

To stay on topic..... and not ending up on side track...

I'll try and see if I can upload some more pics on the result, BEFORE the extra fry on the kitchen "stove".

[WeberSwede]

As per images - not much fat here, unlike a regular pig.

But, again - turned out nice with the Hickory smoke flavour and the mix of the "curing salt", some sugar and regular black pepper rub.

Cheers,
WeberSwede

[Stoneage]

Looks awesome.

[WeberSwede]

@Stoneage they were pretty nice.

I had the fortune (even though I did not shoot anything myself) to have another wild boar waiting to be butchered, after this weekend's hunt. I think I will try a second time, just to see if it was not "pure luck" on these...

Cheers,
WeberSwede