Introducing game flavor to meat

[rjchew]

I made Elizabeth David's Paparadella con Lepre from her Italian Food this weekend. It is a wonderful autumnal dish. I cut up two rabbits and marinated the pieces in red wine, juniper berries, pepper, bay leaf and a little onion overnight.(This part is not from Italian Food, but I do it to make the rabbit taste more like hare - gamier).

I saw this marinade as a way of giving game flavours to non-game mear. I'd like to try this with pork, to see if I can get a gamier hog/boar flavour. Does anyone know other flavours to use or even methods of cooking to give normal meat that extra dimension?

[gfweb]

My sense is that that marinade was originally designed to hide gaminess. We might associate this taste with game, but none of these ingredients seem gamey to me.

[Mjx]

I made Elizabeth David's Paparadella con Lepre from her Italian Food this weekend. It is a wonderful autumnal dish. I cut up two rabbits and marinated the pieces in red wine, juniper berries, pepper, bay leaf and a little onion overnight.(This part is not from Italian Food, but I do it to make the rabbit taste more like hare - gamier).

I saw this marinade as a way of giving game flavours to non-game mear. I'd like to try this with pork, to see if I can get a gamier hog/boar flavour. Does anyone know other flavours to use or even methods of cooking to give normal meat that extra dimension?

gfweb has a point, these seasonings can't make meat taste more gamey (although they are popular seasoning with game, so it might evoke game dishes, even in the absence of gaminess).

The best bet for adding a game-y note would be incorporating fat from game into the your recipe, although game animals do tend to be pretty lean. I had some rendered deer fat for a while, that I used in a lot of things.

You could also try aging the meat.

[hathor]

I don't think you can make a silk purse into a sow's ear.

There is no way a piece of pork will ever taste like boar. Boar is deep, dark black-blue meat, so is hare (lepre).

Juniper berries taste marvelous with game in a complimentary way, but may overwhelm domesticated meats.