You know what pork tastes like, but when you visit a state like Texas, you are gifted with the opportunity to try wild boar meat. Wild boar runs free in the forests in the southern United States and you are offered the hunting trip of your life, able to take home your prize. But first, it’s important to understand: what does wild boar meat taste like?
Wild boar meat is close to its cousin, the domesticated pig, but not quite the same. The meat is darker and richer with more intense flavors caused by its diet and lack of fatty deposits. It is often noted that a wild boar tastes like a cross between pork and beef, and sometimes even better!
Wild boar can be found in Eurasian countries mostly, but also can be found in small patches in the southern United States. The wild boar is a wild and free-roaming cloven-hoofed swine-like creature. Wild boars typically consume everything in their environment that is natural including nuts, acorns, grasses, and cereals.
Wild boars are hunted and dressed similar to domesticated pigs. Big differences between the wild boar and the domesticated pig occur in their state of living before slaughter, cooking, and consumption. Wild boar roam freely while most domesticated pigs do not.
How Does Wild Boar Taste?
Because domesticated pigs are often packed into fenced areas and kept in pens, the taste of pork is pretty docile. On the other hand, wild boar roam freely and have a natural diet of nuts and grasses. This causes the meat of the wild boar to be less fatty, more nutritious, and has a deeper color to it.
The darker color of wild boar meat can be attributed to the rich amount of iron that a wild boar naturally accumulates. The meat doesn’t have a gamey taste like venison or bison, but is rich and full of different flavors of whatever the boar had consumed in its lifetime. Different tastes can be found in different wild boar from different parts of the country, or even the world.
Pork, the Wild Boar’s Cousin
Wild boar can be considered a close relative to the pigs that produce pork. Domesticated pigs produce pork, ham, bacon, and other familiar parts of the pig. A wild boar can be sectioned just the same and cooked as such.
Wild boar has a significantly different taste than pork from domesticated pigs. Pork is docile and mild, often needing seasoning to make it taste like something, but wild boar already naturally has a distinct taste. It has less fat in its meat than the typical domesticated pig and it will often consume nuts and grasses causing the meat to have a nutty, deeper flavor.
How to Prepare Wild Boar
Wild boar meat can be prepared the same way as regular pork or other cuts from a domesticated pig. The differences in meat lies in the texture and fat content. Regular domesticated pig meat is lighter and fatty, and wild boar has a darker red meat and is more lean and dense.
Wild boar can be used 1:1 in any recipe requiring pork, depending on the cut.
How to Use Wild Boar in a Meal
One of the best ways to experience wild boar is in a well-cooked rack of ribs!
Apply a coating of barbeque sauce to both sides of the rack
Wrap the rack of ribs and place into the oven
Check on the ribs after about an hour-rotate if need be
The ribs should be done between 2-4 hours of cooking
Heat up the remaining barbeque sauce
Serve with your choice of sides and enjoy
Conclusion
Wild boar is a type of swine-like creature that resides in the forests of the southern United States and in most Eurasian countries. Wild boar is similar to the domesticated pig, except has significant differences in lifestyle and eating habits. Wild boars consume a natural diet of nuts, acorns, grasses, and wild cereals.
Wild boar meat has a nutty and slightly sweet taste to it. Its meat is darker than the average domesticated pig due to a higher iron content. The meat is less fatty than typical beef and has a tighter grain giving way to a different experience; almost like pork, almost like beef, but not quite.
