31 October 2022

Une cuisse de sanglier

You might not know what that means. Cuisse means "thigh", and a sanglier is a "wild boar". On dictionary.com I see this definition: "a wild Old World swine, Sus scrofa, from which most of the domestic hogs are believed to be derived". American friends who live a few miles upriver from us sent an e-mail Friday evening and said they had a special gift for us. Could they stop by on Saturday morning? Yes, of course. The gift was the raw, fresh leg of a boar weighing 4.8 kilos — just over 10 lbs. They have a neighbor who hunts and who shares the game he kills... let's say, "harvests".

There are a lot of wild boars in the Saint-Aignan area, and according to reports there are plenty of them that live in the vineyard or surrounding woods out behind our house. I've never seen one out there, but I have seen them up near the Château de Chambord, and even in the woods just across the Cher river in a forested area that's less than three miles from our house. Most of the time you only see them after dark, but one morning I was driving over to Romorantin, 15 miles east, and I saw a herd of them, 25 or 30 strong, cross the road in single file not far ahead of me. I slowed down and watched them climb up an embankment and disappear into the woods.

On Saturday I looked for information about cooking sanglier. The Larousse Gastronomique food and cooking encyclopedia says that les jeunes sangliers ont une chair délicate — the meat of a young boar is a delicacy... I hope it's true. I cooked half of the boar's leg we were given yesterday. We decided we wanted it well done — it's a variety of pork, after all. Then I found a French recipe on the 'net for what is called effiloché de gigot de sanglier. Just now, I found an English-language blog post on the same subjectpublished by a man who calls himself Chef Dennis.

So yesterday I cooked about half of the gigot / cuisse de sanglier in the slow cooker for 8 or 9 hours, with a carrot, a stalk of celery, a large shallot, and five or six garlic cloves. I put in some vinegar and spices and herbs to give the meat good flavor. I just tasted it and it is good. But it needs a sauce, so I'm going to do something new (for me) and make a batch of western North Carolina barbecue sauce to have with the pulled meat. Normally I use eastern NC sauce, which has no tomato or sugar in it, just vinegar and spices including hot red pepper and ground black pepper. Here's the recipe for the NC sauce that has tomato in it. You might enjoy watching this short YouTube video featuring a cook who shows how to make the sauce and has a western NC accent. Here's a link to part 2 of this post.

13 comments:

  1. Should be good. I have been thinking about slow cooked pork shoulder recently.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Coincidentally, I had just bought a boned-out, rolled pork shoulder roast a week earlier, and put it in the freezer for later. The boar has a little more flavor than domesticated pork meat, but it isn't gamy or strong.

      Delete
  2. You were lucky to see that parade of sanglier! I'm surprised at the size of that herd.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wish I had taken my camera with me that day. It's so unusual to see the sangliers in the daytime.

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. There were a lot of little ones in the herd, and maybe 10 or 12 adults.

      Delete
  4. Before I got to that last paragraph I thought, that's just crying out for some BBQ sauce. I will be curious to hear your full review on the taste.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The taste was very good. We had the pulled boar, or "boarbecue', for lunch yesterday, and then put three lbs. of it in the freezer.

      Delete
  5. I will be interested to hear yours and Walt's reaction to sanglier! The pulled idea with bbq sauce sounds good! How lucky for you to receive that "prize" of sanglier!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I made a barbecue sauce that was sucrée, salée, et épicée.

      Delete
  6. I forgot to mention that on the drive back from picking up my dear friend and neighbor from our airport, he told me about the wedding and several days he spent in your hometown, Morehead City NC!!! I was so surprised, as he hadn't been specific before about where it was to be held. He just raved about the weather, the food and above all, the beach and warm water! He didn't roll up his pants to even "test" the water, but the kids that were in the group did and they had an exciting time in that warm water (most were from Minnesota). I was able to share some of my learning about your blogposts I remembered about the area!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is an amazing coincidence. Do the people who were getting married live in Morehead?

      Delete
    2. Yes! I am eager to see his photo and learn more about the N.C. connection. I dropped him off quickly so I would be on time for my scheduled 5th COVID injection. I will report back as soon as I get together with Brian this week.

      Delete

What's on your mind? Qu'avez-vous à me dire ?