from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
A wild
boar.
www.flickr.com/photos/col_and_tasha/7434634804/
Sanglier
– A wild boar;
Laie
- A wild boar sow is a
Marcassin
- A young wild boar.
In the
USA, wild boar are also called razorbacks, Russian boars, and wild
hogs.
French diners love wild boar, and restaurants want to satisfy their customers. With great ingenuity, the French have produced a solution, and for nine or ten months a year, all the wild boar meat comes from farmed wild boar. Wild boars are enclosed in vast forested areas where they are fed, fattened, and produce the next generations. These wild boars are being farmed even though they do not know it. The farm-raised wild boar is far better fed, far healthier and the meat is tenderer than the really wild, wild boars; the herds are also inspected. The wild boar on many French menus, outside of the hunting season, will not have been very wild but they will be very tasty!
On select restaurant menus and in butchers’ shops and supermarkets you may find wild boar chops, steaks, sausages and more on sale 12 months of the year.
Farmed
wild boar in the enclosed part of a forest.
www.flickr.com/photos/jhecking/6105854027/
Wild Boar on French menus:
Daube de Sanglier – Wild boar stew. Daubs are traditional stews from Provence that are now on menus all over France.
Filet Mignon de Sanglier Sauce aux Airelles, Purée de Céleri et Chou rouge. A cut from a wild boar fillet served with a European cranberry sauce and accompanied by celery puree and red cabbage.
Wild
boar steaks
www.flickr.com/photos/matupplevelser/4643767335/
Le Dos de Sanglier de Chasse Française - A thick cut from the back of a truly wild boar from a French hunt; for game this cut is considered the choicest cut. The words sanglier de chasse mean from wild boar from a hunt.
Pavé de Sanglier Grand Veneur - A thick cut from a wild boar; the hunter's cut. The sauce Grand Veneur is a traditional red wine and berry sauce served with wild game.
Saucisse de Sanglier – Wild boar sausage.
Outside of large towns, there are some specialized restaurants that are only open during the hunting seasons. Additionally, French cities and towns, there are also restaurants where the whole menu or part of the menu will be dedicated to real wild game in the hunting season.
The health of wild animals reaching the public.
The health of gibier, wild game, caught by hunters, in France, is tightly controlled and all wild boars, farmed or really wild, must by law have a small part of each animal’s meat sent for examination before being sold. Hunting season menus will note menu de chasse, the menu from the chase, the hunt, or the animal's name followed by the word sauvage. A menu offering sanglier, wild boar or faisan, pheasant, cerf, venison, or other game without a caveat the restaurant will be serving farm-raised animals and birds.
Watch out when you are driving in the French
countryside.
Hunting is a popular French hobby and it is well supervised; each French department is responsible for setting the dates. Endangered species may not be hunted at all. Wild boars are far from an endangered species in France and, in fact, that they are a fast growing and very serious pest in many of the farming communities of France and so the hunting season for wild boars has been extended.
Wild boar are tasty but.............
Outside of the hunting season, French farmers are forbidden to cull wild boar populations. The farmers’ fields of corn, maize, and other field crops have assisted the wild boar population to increase exponentially. The growth of the wild boar population in France is indeed a serious agricultural problem. Wild boar are also coming into towns and villages and are involved in over 30,000 car accidents a year.
Wild
boar on farmland at night
www.flickr.com/photos/maong/110222607/
Wild boar in the languages of France’s
neighbors:
(Catalan - senglar),
(Dutch - wild zwijn), (German -wildschwein), (Italian - cinghiale) (Spanish
– jabalí, jabalí euroasiático), (Latin - sus scrofa).
Wild boar in other languages:
(Bulgarian - Дива свиня), (Chinese
(Mandarin) 野猪 – yězhū), (Corsican - cignale
or singhjari)(Danish – vildsvin), (Japanese -イノシシ), (Korean - 멧돼지), (Polish –
dzik), (Hebrew – hazir bar - חזירי בר ),
(Norwegian – villsvin), (Tagalog - ang baboy-ramo), (Ukrainian - свиня дика), (Russian
- дикая свинья).
--------------------------------
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Copyright 2010, 2014, 2019
--------------------------------
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