This recipe is for a beautifully cured wild boar loin or Lonza. Our wild boar loin has plenty of back fat left attached to the loin which adds flavor and succulence to the final product.
The following recipe is made from wild boar striploin. I am able to get wild boar striploin from dartagnan.com. A link to purchase is given below.
Buying your own Wild Boar Striploin
If you want to purchase from D'artagnan I recommend getting on their mailing list and then waiting for a 40% off sale. They only come around a couple of times of year, but its worth the wait. Everything I have purchased from the website has been top quality.
Curing the Lonza is quite simple. My recipe is adapted from book "The craft of Italian Dry Curing, Salumi" by Ruhlman and Polcyn.
Ingredients:
1 Wild Boar Striploin (about 1 lb in weight)
Martin's Bar-b-que Season'd Salt
Toasted cracked black peppercorns
Dry White Wine for rinsing the meat
More Toasted cracked black peppercorns for drying
Steps:
1. Weigh your Lonza so you know how long to cure it.
2. Dredge the striploin/lonza completely in seasoned salt and put into a zip-lock bag. Add cracked peppercorns (about 1 tablespoon) and seal the bag removing the air from it as best you can.
3. Place the bag on a baking sheet and put a second baking sheet on top of the bag. Place about 8 pounds of weight on the top baking sheet to compress the lonza. Put it all in the refrigerator for 1 day for each 2 pounds. If your lonza is less than 2 pounds, cure it for less than 1 day. In my case I cured two separate 1 lb loins for 10 hours. Timing is fairly important if you do not want an overly salty end result. For my weights, I use 3 cast iron pans.
4. Remove the lonza from the bag and give it a good rinse under cold water. Dry the meat with a paper towel and then rinse it with white wine.
5. Weigh the lonza once again. This weight will be the baseline so you can tell when it has hung to dry long enough.
6. Coat the lonza with about a tablespoon of black pepper per 1 lb. Tie up the lonza for hanging in the drying chamber.
7. Hang in the drying chamber for 4 to 6 weeks, or until it has lost 30% of its weight.
8. Slice thin and enjoy!