Wild Gastronomy: What Does Wild Boar Taste Like? (2024)

In the popular Asterix and Obelix comics, the wild boar features prominently as a choice of meat for feasts and celebrations.

In fact, the term “fat old wild boar” is used by Impedimenta to refer to her husband, chief Vitalstatistix.

Anyone who has tasted wild boar will say it is amongst the tastiest meats in the world.

If you have not eaten wild boar or curious about what wild boar tastes like, you are missing out on some rich flavor and taste.

If you wonder how a wild boar tastes, you need to taste it to find out why it is a favorite with chefs and people in general.

What is Wild Boar?

Wild boar is a mammal that resembles a domesticated pig to some extent in terms of overall appearance.

It is, however, leaner and more agile than pigs as they live in the wild. Another difference is the longer snouts in wild boars.

They are native of Eurasia and North Africa but were also introduced to the Americas and Americas and Oceania.

You can eat them with no guilt as they have been classified as ‘least concern’ under the IUCN Red List of threatened species.

They are considerably invasive as they quickly multiply, and they can thrive in almost any kind of habitat.

What Does Wild Boar Taste Like? Does Wild Boar Taste Good?

The meat of wild boar is also called pork. We shall, however, call it wild boar meat in this article.

Because wild boars look like pigs, many think they also taste the same, but they don’t. Wild boars are, in fact, much tastier.

The meat of wild boat appears darker than domesticated pigs as they are richer in iron content.

Also, wild boars have far less fat content than standard pork and are richer in protein than beef.

As such, it is fast gaining popularity with health-conscious people.

Because it has less fat and cholesterol but is high in protein, it tastes like a cross between pork and beef and has a distinct juicy and rich flavor.

To understand the nutritional content of wild boar, you would need to compare it with other popular meat like beef, pork, and chicken.

Cholesterol in milligrams: The cholesterol per 100 grams in wild boar is 55 milligrams. It is 62, 71, and 57 milligrams in beef, pork, and chicken, respectively. It is lowest in wild boar.

Protein in grams: The protein per 100 grams is the highest in wild boar. While it is 26.1 grams in wild boar, it is 19.6 each in beef and pork and 20.5 grams in chicken.

Saturated fat in grams: The saturated fat per 100 grams in beef and pork is more than twice the wild boar amount.

The saturated fat per 100 grams of wild boar is 5.2 grams and 11.2 and 22.5 grams in beef and pork, respectively.

Chicken, however, has lower saturated fat of 4.3 grams per 100 grams.

Unsaturated fat in grams: The unsaturated fat per 100 grams of wild boar is 2.9 grams, while it is 4.1 and 8.3 grams for beef and pork, respectively. It is 1.4 grams for chicken.

How to Cook Wild Boar?

You can accomplish with wild boar, more or less what you can with pork. You can roast the loin over a grill as steak.

You can use the soft belly region as bacon, and the shoulders to make carnitas.

Not only that, but you can also mince the meat to make sausages, meatloaves, or meatballs.

There are hundreds of mouth watering wild boar recipes on the internet.

Some exciting recipes are Malaysia wild boar curry, hot and spicy wild boar curry, wild hog BBQ recipe, wild boar stew in red wine, braised wild boar, etc.

Remember, you need to cook wild boar at a lower temperature than other meats.

Overcooking can cause the lean meat to dry out.

In the case of frozen wild boar meat from the supermarket, do not defrost in a microwave.

That’s because it can dry up and make the meat harder.

Conclusion

We bet your mouth is watering by now, reading about the delicious taste and ways you can cook it.

If you are bored and want to experiment with new dishes apart from the usual ones, you should try out wild boar recipes.

It is available in plenty in the wild and also a healthy choice of meat.

What are you waiting for? Buy yourself some wild boar meat and start cooking right away!

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