Ark of Taste, Australia
Goldfields’ bull-boar sausage, Victoria
THE bull-boar is a beef and pork sausage produced by the Italian-speaking Swiss population of the Victorian goldfields since the 1850s. It is not known why so many Swiss-Italian immigrants chose to settle in and around this area. Certainly there are similarities to the northern Italian and Swiss mountainous regions, and of course language barriers made it important to congregate together. Some Swiss and Italians made their fortune on the goldfields, but the less lucky saw their future in agricultural pursuits, such as wine-making and dairying, as well as using other skills such as stone-masonry. Many agricultural and social activities still survive in today’s community, along with many names of Swiss and Italian origin.
Spices, wine and garlic make bull-boar a distinctive sausage. The recipe is at risk of extinction in the Swiss/Italian population because of the huge investment and time and labour to make a batch of these sausages. To Italian immigrants, it was simply referred to as salsiccie or ‘sausage’.
It was called bull-boar on the goldfields by the English-speaking settlers because it contained both beef and pork in roughly equal proportions, with lean beef and pork that is roughly half fat and lean. The sausage is made with wine in which garlic has steeped and has a sharp, almost ‘high’ taste. It is less fatty than most sausages so can feel slightly dry. It is full of spices such as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and allspice, so during cooking it releases an aroma like a meaty hot cross bun.
Every family in the district has their own recipe which are all carefully guarded secrets. In many instances, apart from their family name, it is their last link with their Italian-speaking forebears who settled the area. The traditional way of cooking bull-boars is to drop them into a pot of water and then bring it to simmering point for 10 minutes.
Today, bull-boar sausage is made by a handful of local butchers. There is danger of the name being used to produce inferior product. In Hepburn Springs – a center of Swiss-Italian immigration – an annual festival celebrates local food traditions, including bull-boar sausage.
Area of production
Victorian Goldfields
Contact
Richard Cornish
Post Office Box 500
Elsternwick Victoria 3185
T 03 9532 7997
F 03 9533 0944
Email
Other Australian Ark of Taste foods
[...] girls from codenamemax.com was out having pizza in Errol St North Melb, and was raving about the Bull Boar Sausage used on her [...]
My Grandfather Alan Lee from Yandoit introduced me to them and I have been hooked since. I have tried the many local central vic butchers who have tried to get the right recipe but the only place to go is the NEW STEAD butchers
Boil them
Fry them
Hang em up and cure them
Yummy
Agree with C H Broad with regard to Newstead version, this recipe seems to have less fat than in the old days.
When making it seems that meat must be fresh not frozen and that filling must be very slow so no air holes if drying.
My families attempt in the late 60′s, using “the best” of our 2 recipes, and made in November produced a near disaster. Our parents “saved the day” by removing the drying meat from the skins and preserving it in Fowlers bottles. (n home freezer). We ate spagetti Bolonaise made with the sausage until it was finished.
It needs to be noted that preserving meat in ” Boiling Water ” type preserving systems is no longer recommended.
More recent ‘tradition’ is to stuff a boned turkey breast with sausage and roast in a susage shape, a;;ow to cool and slice as cold meat.
Sanwiches (white bread, cooked sausage) are a feature of Yandoit funerals that are worthy food memories for those lucky eough to enjoy the hospitality of that community.
Reasons for the migration of so many Swiss Italians to the area during the gold rush period are docuemented in Ron Barassi “who do you think you are” documentary. There was overpopulation in the valley they came from and the return of successful gold prospectors from the 1850′s goldrush triggered the migration.
Castlemaine also has many different recipes in different butchers and I understand also a Kyneton butcher claims a good one. Winters Flat butcher is a good example, better for frying.
Newstead butcher is a great example, but I encourage people to try different recipes. Try 7 minutes boiled (from fresh) no pricking the sausage.
Long live the bullboar!! Real meat salsicce.
Our Family history is from Dalysford Vic. One of my ancestors married into one of the Swiss Italian families that settled in th area. Bull Boars have been a tradition in our family since the late 1860′s. Next weekend the Roberts clan boys are having a bull boar making weekend where we will learn the original family recipe as passed down by my grandfather Edgar Roberts who worked at the Dalylsford Bitcher for a number of years in the 1920′s before buying the general store which he ran until 1953.
We will l
Earn the original traditional recipe as well as experimenting with spicy chile version. There are 14 of us going we have miners and our own sausage maker from the old butcher. We will keep the tradition of the bull boer going and my 2 tear old son is coming as the youngest member and my uncle Greg at 61 will be the Patriarch and has made many batches of Bull Boar. Since my Father Kem passed away in March this year he is the keeper of the recipe/holy grail of bull boar making.
I am looking forward to passing the knowledge from generation to generation and I hope we are still enjoying the flavour of the best typr of sausage ever created.
Enjoy them if you get the chance, the Dalysford butcher where my Grandfather worked still exists and still makes bull boars.
Cheers all. Tim Roberts, son of Ken and Grandson of Edgar.
Pardon the typo,s above. I meant grinders instead of minors though the Roberts family came to Australia to work in the underground gold mines as they were coals miners from Cornwall UK. So you can excuse the mistake. My fathers name was Ken not Kem (oops). Cheers all and bull boarers go best bbq’d and split down the middle as they start to heat. They sort of look like a hamburger when kooked this ways but taste divine. Tim
My family lived at Newstead, Victoria, and were “family butchers” until about 1940. My father, James Butler, was also a breeder of Tamworth pigs and frequently took a carcass to the Swiss-Italians at Yandoit. I remember visiting Yandoit with my father as a girl of about six. My father received a recipe for bullboars which he ultimately gave to his friend, Alistair, MacLaren, who opened the original butcher’s shop at Newstead. The legislation had changed and it was no longer legal to slaughter livestock outside an abattoir. I also recall that the recipe given to my father included red wine, presumably made at Yandoit.
A meal of bullboars, usually cut and grilled, was enjoyed by my family over a period of many years.
Isabella Russell (nee Butler). Born 1934.