(Recipe according to Thomas Röttger, Restaurant Thomas Röttger, Rennerod/Westerwald)
For 4 persons: 1 nice head of savoy cabbage, 1/2 tsp caraway, 1.5 kg wild boar meat (half shoulder, half belly), 3 eggs, salt, pepper, nutmeg; 2 cl juniper schnapps, some marjoram, 100 fresh wild mushrooms, 100 g butter, 20 g flour, 50 g dried meat, finely diced; 250 g cream, lemon juice.
Cut out the stalk of the savoy cabbage and boil the head in salted water with the caraway seeds, not too soft. Take out and quench in ice water. Then remove the leaves one by one and spread them out to dry. Put the meat through the mincer, mix with the eggs and the chopped mushrooms, season with salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg. Brush a 5 litre pot with butter and line it with savoy cabbage leaves. Now layer the meat mixture alternately with the remaining cabbage leaves and close the pot. Cook in a bain-marie for about 2 hours. Prepare a roux with butter, dried meat cubes and flour and fill up with the braising juice from the pot. Add the cream and cook for 20 minutes; season with salt, pepper, nutmeg and lemon juice. Serve with boiled potatoes.
With Waldemar Thomas at Wildschwein-Jung
Friedrich Wilhelm Jung is a trained winemaker, but he also bakes bread. And hunts. Not only wild boars, but those with special zeal, because they raid his vines. The shrewd black boars don't make do with the first best grapes, but are sure to find the ripest, sweetest ones. First of all the Müller-Thurgau, whose early ripening grapes they even nibble from the only vine of a whole vineyard full of still unripe Riesling vines. The far less shrewd deer are meanwhile imitating the wild boars; if you graze a piece of roe deer or wild boar at the moment, it has a stomach full of grapes, Sigrid Jung tells us. A winegrower in the Ruwer valley told me that his wild boars prefer sweet grapes, which has the advantage that the animals are so enchanted by the delicious fruit that they disregard their usual great caution and are easier to hunt.
This is necessary, but the wild boars have been multiplying unusually strongly for years, indeed their entire rhythm of life has changed. Blame it on the large cornfields. In their protection the - originally nocturnal - wild boar now eats its fill undisturbed during the day and, in view of this secure food basis, reproduces to excess. On the other hand, however, wild boars have remained respectful game animals, their English name "Wild Boar" characterizing not only the mighty boar and its sharp tusks. That a sow and her freshlings are not to be trifled with, of that you can be sure, and anyone who has ever taken part in a drive hunt has become acquainted with the tricks of wild boars. And their enormous speed.
Sigrid Jung admires the wild boar and appreciates its primitive character. In general, the game has it good on the Rhine heights. Not only with corn and wine the table is richly covered, but also with wild cherries and fruit trees everywhere. Wild boars also know how to find all kinds of tasty things: acorns, potatoes, nutritious roots. Thus their meat is of great delicacy, that of the younger animals mind you; not of the cute, striped freshlings, nor that of the up to 3 centner heavy old boars and bucks, called by the French loners, even "Eremiten". Clubs and backs of so-called defectors, good 1 year old wild boars, is to be had at the guys. As well as wild boar ham (from November). And smoked wild boar belly, a top class dried meat. Dry-cured, well seasoned, but not salty, it tastes wonderful with Dornfelder sparkling wine, sliced wafer-thin and served with the owner's wood-fired bread. Thomas Röttger, on the other hand, cook, hunter and game breeder from Rennerod in the Westerwald, brings savoy cabbage stuffed with wild boar meat to the table.
Winery
Friedrich Wilhelm and Sigrid Jung
Ernst-Esch-Str. 4
55425 Waldalgesheim (near Bingen)
Phone: 06721-34877
Fax: 06721-34903
Email: jung.nahewein@t-online.de
Opening Hours: Sale ex farm: Sat, between 9 u. 16 o'clock is always someone at home; otherwise by tel. agreement.
from Waldemar Thomas