Drinks advice

Wild boar stew with Hooghoudt Korenwijn Zacht en Moutig

In the pan is wild boar that has been rolled in flour, browned and then simmered for an hour and a half in reduced red wine with onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf, clove, thyme and rosemary. Opposite stands a korenwijn of wheat, rye and maize with a lot of traditionally distilled malt wine, full-grained and intense yet soft in taste.

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Wild boar ragout with polenta
Photo: dahowlett, CC BY-SA 2.0

From the shelf

The bottle

Hooghoudt Korenwijn Zacht en Moutig comes from Hooghoudt in Groningen, which has been distilling since 1888. It is a korenwijn of 38% ABV in a 70 cl bottle, made with wheat, rye and maize and with plenty of traditionally distilled malt wine; the description calls it full-grain and intense but soft in taste, with lightly spicy notes of juniper. It does not give an exact malt wine share or a maturation period. The designation korenwijn requires at least 51% malt wine in the alcohol component, at least 38% ABV and at most 20 grams of sugar per litre; at 38% ABV this bottle sits exactly on the legal lower limit.

Hooghoudt Korenwijn Zacht en Moutig

The combination

Why this works together

Wild boar is dark, muscular meat, iron-like, with a game flavour that only deepens after an hour and a half of stewing in red wine. The reduced wine adds tannin and acidity, and the clove and rosemary add a resinous spiciness. That is too much for a young jenever and even for a light old jenever. A korenwijn is the right measure here: with at least 51% malt wine in the alcohol component, it has the weight to hold its own beside this meat, and the full-grain sweetness of wheat, rye and maize works on the wine's tannin the way a splash of cream would. The lightly spiced juniper note ties in with the rosemary and clove in the pan. Because this korenwijn is soft in style and not heavily cask-aged, it does not push the game flavour under wood.

At the table

The dish

  • For 4 people
  • Ready in 10 minutes, plus 1 hour and 30 minutes of braising
  • Type main course

What you need

  • 500 g wild boar meat
  • 65 g wheat flour
  • 85 ml olive oil
  • 1 onion, coarsely chopped
  • 1 large winter carrot, coarsely chopped
  • 1 stalk of celery, roughly chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 2 tablespoons tomato purée
  • half a bottle of full-bodied red wine
  • 500 ml beef stock
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 3 cloves
  • 1 teaspoon peppercorns
  • a few sprigs of fresh thyme and rosemary
  • salt and black pepper

How to make it

  1. Cut the meat into coarse pieces. Put the flour with salt and pepper in a bag, add the meat and shake it well.
  2. Heat the olive oil in a heavy pan and fry the meat for about 5 minutes per side until it is brown all over. Spoon the meat out of the pan.
  3. Fry the onion, the carrot, the celery and the garlic for 5 minutes in the same pan.
  4. Add the tomato purée and fry it briefly with the rest. Pour in the red wine and let it reduce by half.
  5. Put the meat back in the pan and add enough stock to just cover it.
  6. Add the bay leaf, the cloves, the peppercorns, the thyme and the rosemary; if desired use a tea infuser so you can easily remove them later.
  7. Put the lid on the pan and let the stew simmer on low heat for 1 hour and 30 minutes until the meat is tender. Season with pepper and salt.

In the glass

Serving

Pour the Hooghoudt Korenwijn at room temperature into a tulip glass, filled to the rim. Korenwijn should not be chilled: the full-grain sweetness that here picks up the tannin of the wine sauce needs warmth to open up. Put the bottle on the table next to the pan and pour small glasses, so that the jenever does not rise above room temperature.

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Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan personen onder de 18 jaar. NIX18