need experienced advice on smoking a boar shoulder


 

Nicolas

TVWBB Member
i'm going to pick up a boar shoulder relatively soon and want to have my plan in place before i do. with no experience at having made one i'm thinking that i will just treat it like a pork shoulder and smoke it until it's done. i'm concerned that as a leaner piece of meat than traditional pork shoulder it will be dry in the end. has anyone done this?

additionally how did you eat it and what did you serve it with?
 
See here.

I serve with the usual if I barbecue it: a homemade barbecue sauce with a significant fruit component. For boar, usually berries.
 
I can't imagine that it would be any different than, smoking anything else. Its definetly going have less fat so you want to introduce some fat like a bacon weave or some lard.
 
Hmm. Berry BBQ sauce sounds good but I usually serve pulled pork with just a straight vinegar sauce. I'm open to tying a sweet sauce though if you think the flavor of the boar is more suited to it. So is there no reason to layer it with bacon? And what about a rub or injection?
 
Berries (or many other fruit possibilities) does not necessarily equal sweet. I think the more gamey flavor of boar goes rather well with fruit - but I also think smoked meat of any kind goes well with fruit. Whether you make the sauce sweet or not is up to you.

I don't 'layer' anything with bacon. I'm not interested in smoking bacon, I'm interested in smoking the meat. Putting bacon on will reduce evaporation at the meat's surface but that's about it. The melting fat of the bacon will not 'keep it moist' or 'soak into the meat' or anything remotely like that.

If one wants to add fat to the interior of the meat one needs to lard it. For boar, especially shoulder, I rarely bother. Instead, I prefer to foil once the meat hits the upper 150s.

I'm not a fan of bothering with injections for meats that I plan to pull or chop. I use a finishing sauce instead (not to be confused with a serving sauce). You certainly could inject if you prefer.

I make a typical rub, something such as this or this.
 

 

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