Southeast Texas Thanksgiving Recipes – Cook Your Own Wild Boar

Cooking with Kids – Thanksgiving Edition

Herb Rubbed Pork Loin

Are you looking for a truly special Thanksgiving this year?

Prepare a meal from foods you have harvested locally – like the Pilgrims and their Native American hosts.

Our family has enjoyed wild ducks, redfish, and venison during the holidays.

One of our favorites though is pork loin from wild boar the boys hunt at Sam Rayburn or Dam B.

I got a lot of my culinary influence from a group of older gentlemen at the fish camp who liked to say about any recipe, “First you saute some onions and garlic”. Their influence remains with me today.

One pork loin
One small onion
(5) cloves of garlic
Juice from one lemon
⅓ cup olive oil
Tony Chachere Cajun Seasoning
Garlics Salt
Aluminum Foil

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

Use your blender to create a marinade with the olive oil, garlic cloves, lemon juice, and onion. Do you have an herb garden at your home? Feel free to add your favorites to the marinade.

Take a pece of aluminum foil. Give it a light coating with spray oil. Place your pork loin on the foil. Pour the marinade over your pork loin. If needed, hand rub it to coat the entire piece of meat evenly. Wrap in foil to seal in the juices. Optional: Return to the refrigerator for a couple of hours to let the meat soak up the flavor.

Place the meat on the rack in your roasting pan. Poke holes in the bottom of the foil with a fork to let the juices drip out and away from the meat.

After 90 minutes, test the temperature at the center of the pork loin. Your ideal temperature is 145 degrees. If the ribs are thicker or store bought, wait until the two hour mark to check the temperature.

We served this pork loin with rice and roasted vegetables: asparagus, carrots, and cherry tomatoes. We put each vegetable separately in a large bowl and mix in olive oil and salt. We put the vegetables on a single layer and roast at 350 for about thirty to forty five minutes. You can add a little sugar or cinnamon to the carrots or a little balsamic vinegar to the asparagus.