This is a coarse, country-style wild boar sausage recipe that stresses the flavor of the boar. I use only a few herbs for flavoring, which allows the taste of the meat to come through.
Don’t do this recipe with a stanky old boar; use only smaller animals or those with clean-tasting fat. A way to test this is to cut off a piece of fat and fry it in a pan: Does it smell nice? Then make these sausages. If not, make boar chorizo or another heavily spiced sausage.
And yes, you can substitute domestic pork or duck or venison in this recipe just fine.
Makes about 5 pounds, or about 20 sausages
- 3 1/2 pounds wild boar meat
- 1 1/2 pounds pork shoulder (make sure it’s fatty)
- 25 grams sugar
- 34 grams kosher salt
- 10 grams garlic powder
- 10 grams dried thyme
- 15 grams minced fresh rosemary
- 10 grams minced fresh sage
- 1/4 cup ice water
- 1/2 cup white wine
- hog casings
- Chill the meat until it is almost frozen by putting it in the freezer for an hour or so.
- Take out some hog casings and set in a bowl of very warm water.
- Chop meat and fat into 1 inch chunks.
- Combine the sugar, salt, garlic and herbs with the meat, mix well with your hands and let it rest in the fridge for about an hour.
- Grind through your meat grinder (you can use a food processor in a pinch, but you will not get a fine texture) using the coarse die. If your room is warmer than 69 degrees, set the bowl for the ground meat into another bowl of ice to keep it cold.
- Add the wine and water, then mix thoroughly either using a Kitchenaid on low for 60-90 seconds or with your (very clean) hands. This is important to get the sausage to bind properly. Once it is mixed well, put it back in the fridge.
- Stuff the sausage into the casings all at once. Twist off links by pinching the sausage down and twisting it, first in one direction, and then with the next link, the other direction. Or you could tie them off with butcher’s string.
- Hang the sausages in a cool place for up to 4 hours (the colder it is, the longer you can hang them). If it is warm out, hang for one hour. Once they have dried a bit, put in the fridge until needed. They will keep for at least a week in the fridge.
- If you are freezing the sausages, wait a day before doing so. This will tighten up the sausages and help them keep their shape in the deep-freeze.
