Recipe: Campfire Boar

Roasting Whole Wild Boar Over a Fire, with Wild Herbs, Seawater, and Spring Garlic Chimichurri.

Have you ever roasted an entire wild boar? It’s a very long process, but if you get your campfire ready and follow this recipe, the end result will be the most delicious roasted pork experience you’ll ever enjoy.

Ingredients

Wild Boar:

• 1 wild boar (150 lbs.)
• 2 5-gallon buckets of seawater
• 10 long branches of rosemary (roughly 2 feet in length)

Chimichurri sauce:

• 1 lb. spring garlic
• 2 large bunches Italian parsley
• 2 tbsp. pimenton dulce
• 1 tbsp. Espelette chili
• 10 garlic cloves
• 2 large shallots
• 2 cups sherry vinegar
• 1 lemon zest and juice
• 3 cups Seka Hills extra virgin olive oil
• Sea salt to taste

Process

Wild Boar Roast:

With a heavy cleaver, open the boar at its backbone at the rear and front legs to receive a roasting spit. Place lateral spits on front and rear legs, securing with bailing wire at its feet. Place the horizontal spit through the guides on the lateral spits. Pound the lateral spit guides into the ground, roughly two feet away from your fire, taking care to perfectly measure the distance between guides. This step is critically important to ensure easy placement and turning of your barbecue.

Start your fire with 25 pounds of oak wood. Let the fire catch and burn down about halfway before you place the boar into the spit guides. Place the boar into position, skin side away from the fire.

Here’s where the fun starts. Retrieve two buckets of the cleanest seawater you can find — this is a perfect recipe for a beach-side roast. If you can’t get seawater, dissolve rock salt in fresh water to replicate the salinity of the sea. Using your rosemary bushes as a brush, baste your boar with saltwater every half an hour or so to maintain moisture.

Add logs to the fire every hour to keep an even fire. The roasting time will be 8 to 10 hours in total. Turn your boar once roughly three-quarters of the way through the roast. There are many variables involved with roasting a whole animal, such as your fire, the wind, time, and so forth. So take care to keep your fire low and place the boar in the correct position in the beginning. Make sure that the wind doesn’t blow the fire into your barbecue.

Chimichurri:

Place a large pot of water on a stove top. Clean the spring garlic of any dirt and its fibrous bottom. When the water has come to a boil, season it with salt. Blanch your garlic for 30 seconds, then immediately transfer it to ice water. When sufficiently chilled, place it on a kitchen towel to dry.

Hand chop the spring garlic, garlic cloves, shallots, and parsley. Place in a large bowl and add lemon juice, zest, sherry vinegar, pimenton, Espellete chili, and sea salt. Let this mixture marinate for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, stir in olive oil and adjust seasoning to taste.

To Finish:

Line a large picnic table with a disposable plastic tablecloth and place the boar on it. Cut off the wire with wire cutters and discard. Remove the spits and cover with aluminum foil. Let rest for 30 minutes.

Cut the boar into sections. At this point, it’s easiest to pull the meat apart with your hands. Use two pairs of latex cloves to protect your hands.

Place your roasted boar on several very large plates, with your chimichurri on the side. Garnish your plates with large branches of rosemary, spring garlic, and halved lemons.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in Carnivore Magazine Issue 5.