Wild Boar Meatballs
Wild boar meatballs are about as rustic Italian cuisine as you can get and something you must try if you have wild boar meat.
Ingredients
Making good meatballs requires a few ingredients.
Don’t get put off by the long list; you can easily find all these ingredients in your local supermarket.
A good meatball is an infusion of flavor from the herbs and spices of the meatball and the sweetness and earthy flavor of the wild boar.
This recipe is only for the meatball and no other sauces. I did this because I like to add wild boar meatballs to various dishes.
I add them to pizzas, make sandwiches, make Swedish meatballs, etc., and it pairs well with all these.
Most ingredients here are dry herbs to add complexity to the meatball.
While you can vary quantities or herbs, I chose these to blend with the wild boar meat.
Also, note that I have pork belly in the ingredients because pork fat and hog fat are very different.
Hog fat has a powerful smell and flavor and is not palatable for most people.
Cooking
There are a couple of options for cooking wild boar meatballs.
As mentioned above, they work in a wide variety of dishes, so much of these will influence the cooking method.
If you make them with marinara sauce or gravy, the best approach is to pan-fry them on a cast iron pan to get a nice browning first.
After you have a nice color on the outside of the meatball, you can finish cooking them in the sauce.
If I am making a meatball sub, I cook them in the oven.
One of my favorite things to use wild boar meatballs for is pizza. I cook them about 80% of the way on the pan for this.
Next, I break them into smaller pieces and top the pizza; the meatball will finish cooking in the pizza oven.
Wild Boar Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1.6 pounds of wild hog meat
- 7.8 ounces of pork belly
- 1 teaspoon caraway/fennel
- 1 tablespoon red chili peppers
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon parsley
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt see note 1
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup parmesan finely grated
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Trim the wild hog meat to remove excess fat, sinew, and silver skin. Chop into small cubes to fit in your grinder, place in a large bowl.
- Cut the pork belly into the same size cubes as the hog meat and mix in with the hog meat. Set this mixture in the freezer for 15-30 minutes until the outside becomes slightly stiff.
- Once the meat is sufficiently cooled, grind the mixture evenly using a large hole die.
- Add in the milk to the breadcrumbs and set aside.
- pour all the spices over the meat and gently mix
- add the cheese and breadcrumbs and gently mix some more. Do not overmix the meat, just enough to spread the ingredients evenely.
- Sit the mixture in the refrigerator for another 15-30 minutes.
- Remove the mixture from the fridge and form into even balls
