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08/11/2026

While editing this video, I got a reminder that exactly one year ago I made tacos again. So my taste buds seem to crave this time of year: the tropical summer, or the wild memories of my younger self in Central America. Whichever it is, I outdid myself this time.

Birria made from wild boar shanks and other tough cuts, like the sirloin heads. Both are full of silver skin, so it takes a while. If you’ve never tried birria tacos, find a good Mexican place and go. They’re full of flavor, you eat them with your hands, they’re sloppy and dripping everywhere, and damn, they’re good.

I started by toasting my spices: dried papaya seeds, which I use as pepper, a cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, chile pequín for the fire, and bay leaves. After a good toasting, I ground them for later. I browned the shanks in butter, and the brown butter flavor improves the end result, so don’t be scared of a bit of color. In the leftover butter I fried onion and garlic, and all of it went into the braising pot. My rosehip paste took the place of tomato paste, covered with wild boar stock and the ground spices. Then it went into the oven at 110-120°C until the meat dropped off the bone.

For the sweet corn tortillas: cook the cobs with the husk and silk on, since they add flavor. Once chilled, purée the kernels with salt, then mix with corn flour and a bit of wheat flour. Form balls and press them in a tortillera.

The other main part is the pico de gallo. It’s usually made with serrano or poblano peppers, but I went with celery instead, so call it my celery pico: tomatoes, red onion, celery, coriander, lime juice and salt.

Once the meat was soft enough to cut with a spoon, I removed it and the bones, puréed the braising liquid, and simmered it down to concentrate. Poured over the meat. Save some of the liquid: after frying the tortillas, dunk them in it and fry them again. That’s the birria way. Fill them with the meat, add the celery pico and lacto-fermented mango, and serve with limes and coriander leaves.

Maybe deep inside me there’s a Mexican after all. I’m not joking, this might be the best taco I’ve ever had.

03/11/2026

A while ago, I made pumpkin jam using a recipe dating back to the 1800s, and I finally managed to use the very last jar!

And what better way to say goodbye to it than with a pumpkin tiramisu, made with homemade pumpkin liqueur? 🎃

The result? A lovely autumn twist on a classic Italian dessert, with pumpkin, warming spices, coffee and a little homemade boozy goodness.

And because we are apparently watching our calories... 😂 (while happily eating an entire tub of mascarpone!)

If you'd like to give it a try, I've put the recipe below. And if you're curious about the homemade pumpkin liqueur, just ask in the comments and I'll share that recipe too!

28/10/2026

Halloween is here, and my Transilvanian soul couldn't just let it pass. I'm a big fan of cannoli, but I'm an even bigger fan of Heston Blumenthal: making something that builds an expectation in your mind, and then, when you taste it, breaks every rule. So I ended up with savory cannoli.

The idea got planted last winter while I was filling cannoli. Liver, Parmesan, a cannoli shell, and of course the blood. I'd make you a blood sausage cannoli, but even I'm not that experimental 😅. So the "blood" is a Spätburgunder reduction with some port for fruitiness.

Pro tip for the dough: after it has rested, laminate it through a pasta machine. The eggs give you enough moisture for a perfect dough, but it needs countless passes: run, fold, run, fold. The color should end up uniform and the dough elastic. I rolled it to setting 4. Thinner is great for restaurant style, but setting 4 is perfect for homemade.

For the decoration I used the same cutouts as in the previous video: charcoal mixed with flour and water, dried, then fried at 175°C. It's done in seconds. L**e your cannoli tubes really well, Diddy style 😏, so the dough doesn't stick. And seal the shape with egg white. Nothing else works.

For the filling: Parmesan cream and leftover wild boar liver pâté. The w**e is reduced to a quarter until syrupy, mixed with gelatine, poured into straws and frozen overnight. Parmesan cream goes into one side of the tube, then the liver, then I poke a hole in the middle, push in the frozen "blood", and seal it with more Parmesan cream. A dusting of smoked paprika on top. When you bite in, you get all three major flavors at once: the saltiness and umami of the Parmesan, the minerality of the liver pâté, and the fruity w**e bomb that ties it all together.

Served on a bed of red sauerkraut with lacto-fermented mango and carrots for crunch and fruitiness. Happy Halloween!

27/10/2026

Halloween is upon us, so of course I had to make something. This one is also part of the upcoming Ever-growing Pantry: I used pumpkin jam I made last year that still needed a purpose.

I started with a basic shortcrust of butter, sugar and flour. I wanted it black, so I added 2 spoons of charcoal. That made the dough too dry, so I added a whole egg, which turned it into a pâté sucrée. I rolled it out and baked it in my tartlet forms to make shells.

To keep the shells from going soggy, brush the inside with a thin layer of egg yolk and milk and bake for 1 minute at 180°C. It acts as a barrier against the filling's moisture, so you get a crisp shell and a creamy filling.

For the fillings I used what was in the pantry: last year's pumpkin jam and grenadine molasses. Both get their own videos in the upcoming series. For now you can use pumpkin purée (bake the sliced pumpkin, then sweeten with sugar or honey) and buy grenadine molasses, or reduce grenadine juice on low heat and add sweetener once it has reduced considerably.

I reheated both, added gelatine, and chilled them. Pro tip: cover them with clear foil, touching the surface, while they cool, so no dry skin forms. Once cold, blend each with a handheld mixer and pipe into the shells. The "bloody" grenadine goes in first, then the pumpkin. The sweet-sour grenadine works perfectly with the pumpkin jam.

On top: jack-o'-lantern cutouts, dusted with charcoal powdered sugar. The cornstarch in the mix keeps the pattern crisp instead of smearing into a blur.

24/10/2026

I have to admit this is maybe the laziest wild boar recipe I've ever made, and I'm not afraid to say it.

This deboned ham was supposed to end up in the meat grinder. By the time it thawed, I was three recipes deep into a cooking session, juggling three dishes with one oven and one ceramic stovetop. It's exhausting, but everything went well. The meat came out closer to medium-done than I planned, but even so, wild meat is good meat. As always, this boar was Trichinella-tested, and I cook wild boar to 70°C internal.

So I skipped dragging my big boy Fleischwolf out of storage and went simple. I cut deep slits into the inside of the ham, salted it well, dusted it with garlic powder, rolled it tight, and tied it with butcher tw**e.

For the crust I wanted walnuts, because I still have way too many. Ground walnuts mixed with a bit of cornstarch so they stick to the meat, then into the oven at 160°C, no convection, for a roast that's gentle rather than aggressive.

On the side, Brussels sprouts blanched first so the color pops, then pan-fried in butter. For the sweet-and-sour counterbalance: plums I picked two years ago, lacto-fermented for 5 days, then drowned in gin and aged in a dark place. I cooked them down in a Pinot Noir reduction into a compote.

Like I said, a lazy recipe, so no written recipe this time. Sometimes the best dinner is just a good piece of meat and a few things you already have.

20/10/2026

A year or two ago I made you an onion pie. But onion pie isn't just a German thing. Like most cuisines around Central Europe, you can't really say "this dish is German, that one is French." Most of them are cousins, with maybe two ingredients that differ, and the core stays the same.

My favorite was still the German one with smoked ham, which I showed you this year, when we celebrated midsummer by baking onion pies in a wood-fired oven in a restored Backhaus in a village nearby.

This time I wanted to make something French to balance the goat cheese I bought at the farmers' market. And nothing screams "je suis ici" like a tarte tatin 😅

The French love their shallots, so they're the star here, together with balsamic vinegar and caramel, topped with leftover dough from my pâté en croûte video. The aged goat cheese grated on top was the perfect balance for the fruity acidity and light bitterness of the dish. Just amazing.

17/10/2026

Three years ago I bought my first wild boar from Daniel (.jagd). Since then I've wanted to treat wild boar like the domesticated version, and show you that with a bit of adaptation you can make the same dishes, just with more wild flair.

For most recipes, a typical 30 kg boar does the job. But for a Kassler roast, maybe my favorite German dish, you need a big boy. The search started long before wild boar season, and finding one big enough was a challenge. The same guy (.jagd )who sold me my first one saved me again. Special thanks for the neck roast, without it this video wouldn't exist.

Why is Kassler such an amazing dish? The meat is cured, then slow-smoked until it hits the perfect temperature. Served with creamy potato purée and sauerkraut, you get juiciness, acidity and creaminess in one bite. Thank God it takes so much work to make from scratch, or I'd be twice as fat 😅

Joke aside, scroll down my page and you'll find the traditional domesticated pig version. This time I went a bit off the rails and made my own red cabbage sauerkraut for the wild boar, to make it a proper Gone Wild video.

13/10/2026

After last week’s plum tartlets, let’s go back to sweet. And nothing screams stone fruit better than a cobbler. The ease of this dish is amazing: a walnut batter, plums, and the oven does the rest. Served with a plum compote and a big spoon of sour cream.

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