As I mentioned before, Cliff went wild pig hunting on Sunday and brought back a good amount of meat. To spare some of my more sensitive readers, I won’t go over the details of what we did to prepare the meat. I’ll just show you the aftermath which is now in our freezer:
For those of you who don’t know, wild boar (pig) is extremely lean. It’s much different tasting than the pork you’d buy at the supermarket. It definitely doesn’t compare to the bacon we know and love. Since it’s so lean…it has to be made just right to prevent overcooking it.
Tonight, Cliff took the boar into his own hands and made a delicious dinner. He cooked it just right! The roles were reversed in the kitchen…I held the camera….and he basted the pork.
He cooked up a piece of the boar called the backstrap. Apparently, this is one of the more delicious cuts of meat on this animal. He decided to butterfly the meat and stuff it with…what else but garlic and some pepper jack cheese (this meat is so lean…we need some fat!).
Next, he placed the pieces of meat back together and wrapped them in roasting string. I was quite impressed with his tying abilities here. I’ve never tied a roast before….he obviously has!
I decided tonight he is good at everything. It sort of drives me crazy…but also reminds me why I love him so much.
Next, he got the cast iron skillet out, poured some oil on it, and let it heat up for a couple minutes. Before putting the boar in the oven he was going to cook it a little on each side in the skillet. While the skillet was heating, he mixed together a sauce to baste the meat with. He combined garlic powder, chili powder, all spice, cinnamon, cumin, salt, pepper, olive oil, and honey.
The skillet was finally smokin’ hot! Time to cook the outside of the meat.
Next, he moved the meat to the roasting pan and brushed the sauce onto it. He roasted the meat for about 15 minutes or until it reached the proper temperature.
We had a tiny mishap with the cheese. As you can see, it all basically melted out the sides. I was totally okay with that since I secretly love burned cheese (I know it’s terrible and gross but tastes so good I swear!).
Finally, the meat was done. Cliff took it out of the oven, cut the strings off, then let it sit for a little. While the pork was cooking we also cooked up brown rice and broccoli. We ended up also serving the pork with some mandarin oranges to give it some sweetness.
This turned out to be a delicious dinner. You can definitely taste the difference between wild pig and domestic. It is much leaner, but Cliff’s recipe tonight had a great amount of flavor and tying it with the roasting string held in some juices. The cheese definitely didn’t hurt either. This was my first time tasting wild boar and I have to say, it’s pretty good!
It’s not easy to find wild game out there. That’s because the farm raised animals taste so much better (they have a ton more fat). If you stumble upon any though, I definitely recommend you try it!
That seriously looks AWESOME!