Wild boar running free

Twenty to thirty years ago eating wild boar was considered as a luxury. The meat was rare and rather expensive. It was only available during the hunting season, from the beginning of October till the end of January. And you only had it on very special occasions. But times have changed and today you can get the meat all year round. That’s mainly due to the fact that the hunt is no longer limited to the above mentioned months. And for once the environmentalist and animal protection organizations don’t protest. Over the last years the number of wild boar has rapidly increased and in some regions the animals even disturb the ecological balance and become a menace to the population.

Photo : www.lavalleesauvage.com

Some years ago we were having lunch on the terrace of a restaurant in the tiny village of Willers, in France just across the border with Belgium. Suddenly we heard a rustle in the nearby undergrowth, followed by a snorting noise. Luckily the undergrowth was fenced in because to our surprise the snout of a fierce wild board appeared from between the branches. The animal stared at us with nasty eyes and stamped with one of his short forepaws. When my friend ticked with his knife against his glass, thus producing a sharp, high-pitched noise, the wild boar snorted again, turned around and disappeared in the bushes.

When the waitress came to serve our meal we told her what had happened and asked whether the boar was the restaurant’s pet. She looked slightly alarmed. “No, of course not. Was he back?” she enquired. It turned out that the boar which was a wild one, had been terrorizing the village for weeks. One day it had walked into the village square where it had chased after a little Yorkshire terrier belonging to one of the villagers. The little dog had made a narrow escape and the boar had been back regularly looking for a new victim. Hunters had tried to track it down, but the animal had always managed to disappear in the woods before someone could take a shot at it.

To reduce the overpopulation organized hunting is authorized all year round. The ‘civet de marcassin’ is the most common type of boar meat available. The low fat meat is cut in chunks with a diameter of 5 to 7 cm. It’s stewed on a low heat for two to three hours until it is nice and tender. The name ‘marcassin’ is in fact wrongly used as a ‘marcassin’ is a baby boar, a piglet, while the ‘civet’ is from an adult animal. The little piglets look particularly cute with their striped coat, which makes it looks as if they were wearing pajamas

In an earlier post – When Miss Piggy goes walkabout – I’ve written about an old practice that consists of breeding piglets with a wild boar and a domestic pig, thus creating a ‘sanglochon’, a half-breed swine with an extremely tender and slightly gamy tasting meat. The ‘sanglochon’ piglets are the cutest, with either a striped bottom and pink top, or the other way round.

Last week we had ‘civet de marcassin’ twice: the first time at La Bleue Maison and the second time, on Sunday, my home made version. Although they tasted slightly different, they were both delicious. I’ll post the recipe of my home made version tomorrow, in case you’re interested.

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