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🐗 Braised Wild Boar with Red-Wine Sauce

An aromatic pot roast for special occasions: deeply seared on the outside, juicy and tender within. Unlike a saddle of roe deer, wild boar is not served pink but cooked right through – with wild boar, that matters for food safety.

Serves: 6 Time: approx. 2.5 hrs Difficulty: Medium Core: ≥ 72 °C
Mandatory for wild boar: trichinella inspection. In Germany, wild boar may only be sold and eaten after an official trichinella test with a negative result. Buy only from suppliers who can show the passed inspection (game tag or game-origin certificate). Always cook wild boar through (core at least 72 °C) – never raw, never pink.

Ingredients

For the roast

For the red-wine sauce

Method

  1. Take the roast out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking, pat it dry and season generously all over with salt and pepper. Preheat the oven to 160 °C top/bottom heat (140 °C fan).
  2. Heat the clarified butter in a casserole until very hot and sear the meat hard on all sides (2–3 minutes per side) until a deep crust forms. The roasted flavours (Maillard reaction) are the foundation of the taste.
  3. Remove the roast and set aside. Sweat the onions, carrots and celery in the casserole until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic, juniper, bay and peppercorns and roast briefly.
  4. Deglaze with the red wine and loosen the roasting residue from the base. Pour in the stock, bring to the boil and return the roast to the casserole, sitting it on the vegetables.
  5. Braise in the oven, covered, for about 2 hours. The roast is done when it is fork-tender and the core temperature is well above 72 °C. A pot roast reaches a high core temperature anyway – which is ideal, because wild boar has to be cooked through.
  6. Take out the meat, wrap it in foil and rest for 10 minutes. Pass the braising liquor through a sieve and bring to the boil. Mix the flour with a little cold water until smooth and thicken the sauce with it (or reduce it uncovered). Stir in the lingonberries and cognac if using, season with salt and pepper, and finally whisk in the cold butter.
  7. Cut the roast across the grain into finger-thick slices and serve with the sauce. It goes well with red cabbage, bread or potato dumplings and glazed chestnuts.

Core temperature for wild boar

DonenessCore temperatureAssessment
Pinkbelow 70 °Cnot permitted for wild boar
Cooked through (recommended)from 72 °Csafe – tender & juicy when braised
Why cook it through? Wild boar can carry trichinella and other pathogens, just like domestic pork. Only cooking it fully (core at least 72 °C) makes the meat safe. During a long braise it stays tender despite the high core temperature, because the connective tissue breaks down.

How to get it right

Good meat is half the battle. Buy from a hunter or a trustworthy dealer and, for wild boar, ask to see the trichinella certificate. Young piglets are tender and mild, older boars more robust.

Sear hard, then braise low. The crust brings flavour; the long, gentle cooking brings tenderness.

Allow resting time. Ten minutes in foil lets the meat juices redistribute – the roast stays juicier.

Marinate? Usually unnecessary. Young wild boar tastes delicate. Only for very old, strong-smelling meat can a marinade (e.g. in buttermilk or red wine) make sense.

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