How to Make Wild Boar Salami – A Game-Changing Recipe
- Type
- Cured sausage
- Level
- Advanced
- Rating
- Rate this recipe
Today I show you how you can make a delicious wild boar salami yourself. The preparation takes a little time, but it’s definitely worth it!
Making salami is often a big challenge, especially for beginners, because you need a certain ambient temperature and humidity for optimal ripening.
What’s important to me is this: Of course, raw sausage ripening is best done with a ripening oven. Alternatively, though, there is the option of doing without, as I also explain in this post.
You should definitely check out my make your own salami article if you’re a beginner, as you’ll find all the necessary information for making salami in detail there.
Here you can find the complete wild boar salami recipe as a video or to read through.
Have fun and good luck making it!
Table of Contents
Wild boar salami – What do you need to make it?
Ingredients per 1 kg
| Ingredient | Grams | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| game meat from the leg of wild boar | 700 g | 70 % |
| pork back fat | 300 g | 30 % |
Spices per 1 kg
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| salt | 29.5 g |
| dextrose / sugar mixture – 50 % dextrose / 50 % sugar | 4 g |
| Cure #1 | 2.5 g |
| black pepper | 2.5 g |
| white pepper | 1.5 g |
| garlic powder | 1 g |
| caraway seeds | 1 g |
The equipment to make wild boar salami
A meat grinder cuts the meat into small pieces so it can be mixed with the seasoning. Cut the meat into pieces that fit the feed tube before grinding.
Sausage stuffer, grinder attachment or funnel
Use a sausage stuffer to fill the mixture into its casing. A stuffing attachment for your meat grinder or a hand funnel also works when you are starting out.
Spice grinder or mortar
Freshly ground spices taste best. Use a spice grinder or a mortar, and grind the spices completely. Ready-ground spices also work.
Smokable fibrous casings
For maturing raw-cured sausages, I recommend smokable fibrous casings, caliber 55/25. They support the drying and maturation process.
For readers in the EU: you can buy these casings in my German shop. Smokable fibrous casings, caliber 55/25, 5 pieces.
Place to dry and mature the sausage
To age this raw sausage, you need an environment where both humidity and temperature are relatively constant. There are several possibilities for this. I have already matured cured sausages in the fridge or cellar without any problems.
Optional: If you want to be on the safe side, then a ripening cabinet is the best choice. My recommendation: Dry Ager DX 500
Make wild boar salami – Step-By-Step Instructions
Cut the meat and fat into pieces suitable for mincing. You can adjust the size depending on how big your mincer is.
Put the meat pieces in the freezer for 1-2 hours to freeze. This will help you later with the mincing and ensures that the mass does not get too warm.
Put the spices in a mortar or spice grinder and grind the spices.
Now you can grind the meat. Depending on how coarse or fine you want your wild boar salami, you can use different perforated discs here. Honestly, this is a complete matter of taste. I use the finer perforated disc for the wild boar salami.
Add the spices to the mixture and mix well for about 3 – 5 minutes. The sausage meat should have a good binding.
Fill your sausage meat into casings. Whether you use natural or artificial casings is up to you. It is important that the casing is suitable for raw sausages.
Also tie the other end with kitchen string. Make sure that there are no air pockets. If there are, you can easily pierce them with a needle.
Hang the salami for 48 hours at high humidity (>95%) and temperature (20-25 degrees Celsius, 68–77 °F) to ferment. You can spray the wild boar salami with water here sometimes to maintain the highest possible humidity.
After 48 hours you can hang it up in any cool place. The humidity should be about 80% and the temperature not more than 15 C° (59 °F). If you don’t have a maturing cabinet, then in many cases you can hang them in the basement if the parameters are reasonably suitable. That’s what I did for a long time.
After the drying time your wild boar salami is ready😄. This varies greatly depending on what caliber you use and what your environmental conditions are. Depending on the desired degree of hardness, you can let the sausage dry for between 2 and 8 weeks. Important: The maturing process takes time. Be patient until you reach your desired degree of hardness. Have fun making it!
Frequently asked questions
What is wild boar meat, and which cut goes into this salami?
What is wild boar meat, and which cut goes into this salami?
Wild boar is the wild pig, and the two names are one animal. The meat is darker than pork, firmer, and a great deal leaner, and it tastes of game rather than of a stronger pork. That last part is what makes it a good salami: the flavour is still there after weeks of drying, where a mild meat would have given most of it up.
I use the leg. It is the big lean muscle on the animal, it comes off in clean pieces, and lean is exactly what you want here, because the fat goes in separately and on purpose. Trim it properly before anything else: tendons and silverskin do not break down while a salami dries, so whatever you leave in you will meet again in every slice.
Why does a wild boar salami need pork back fat?
Why does a wild boar salami need pork back fat?
Because the boar brings almost none of its own. A raw sausage that dries for weeks needs fat in it or it turns hard and crumbly instead of firm and sliceable, and the taste goes the same way, because fat is what carries the spices. Adding it is not a compromise on the game — it is what lets the game come through.
Back fat is the fat to use, not the softer fat from elsewhere on the animal. It stays firm going through the disc, so it comes out as clean particles instead of smearing into the lean meat, and it holds its shape while the sausage dries. That is also what step 2 is for: cold fat cuts, warm fat smears, and there is no fixing it afterwards.
How long is the shelf life of the wild boar salami?
How long is the shelf life of the wild boar salami?
Your wild boar salami will keep for several months. However, it will gradually lose more moisture and eventually dry out completely. Therefore, it makes sense to store them vacuumed in the refrigerator.
