A wild-hog country ham from Auburn, Alabama, chef David Bancroft.
In at least one respect, it’s a pity we aren’t French. If we were, few would sneer, or snort, or wrinkle their noses and push back from the table when presented with a serving of rich, cognac-colored
daube de sanglier. But place a crock of wild-hog stew on most American tables and that grating sound you hear might be chair legs scraping hardwood.
That’s changing, and in ways that should delight hunters, cooks, and others who have embarked on this most postmodern of culinary journeys: the path to loving the wild hog. That feral hogs are an overpopulated blight on the South and beyond is undisputed. That they have an emerging place in both restaurant and home kitchens is an increasingly accepted truth. Rich and robust, wild hog meat can span the flavor spectrum, from sweet to earthy, as the animals tend to take on the terroir of their environs, be they acorn-rich hardwood ridges and bottoms or cornfields border