Rooting around with wild boars cont.

First and foremost, the boars themselves are due respect. The times in my career when whole animals were brought into the kitchen, a sense of reverence settled into the truest of cooks and chefs. Albeit we tend to be a bit more calloused in our humor, we feel a duty to respect and utilize everything we are given to make great food to be shared by many. Along the way, I have learned that to appreciate the “fruit” of the foods we eat, learning about its roots in the cultures and cuisines from around the world leads to true understanding.

Alright, let’s go deeper into the roots and way back when. Wild boar were loaded onto ships and brought to this side of the pond through the early shipping routes taken by the Europeans soon after Columbus. The boars served their purpose on the ships well. Brought aboard early in weight and size, they would eat the remnants, leftovers and any spoilage of the crews “culinary delights.” Their continued growth led to some tasty meat by the time they entered the Caribbean and the shores of Mexico and ultimately changed the diet of the land they soon roamed wild. The usage of boar meat in cooking spans all borders of the world. With a texture very similar to pork and a flavor similar to lean dark meat, it crosses all culinary boundaries and is simply interchanged with pork. Enough with the history lesson, let’s get to the boar that arrived at the back door of Niche.

Tags: caribean, cooking tips, culinary anthropolgy, spice trade, wild boar