Boar Meat Floss: Creativity in Processing Local Food

Making boar meat floss in Sorong, Southwest Papua

By Trustha Rembaka.          

Humans have the potential to be creative, and to develop something for their survival. Creativity itself, according to Britannica literature, is the ability to create or realize something new, whether a solution to a problem, a method or device, or a new object or art form.

The demand for self-development and independence encourages the spirit to find a way out by utilizing one's potency and the various potencies around them. This is the starting point for the Multiplicator of Stube HEMAT in Raja Ampat to map out the potencies that exist in its service area, both in Raja Ampat and Sorong and its surroundings. There are various findings such as human potency who have a high enthusiasm for learning new things, the diversity of marine and agricultural products, and the profession of local people, some are fishermen and others are hunting wild boar.

One of the steps taken is processing wild boar meat into floss. This idea came up because boar meat was processed for consumption in a day or two, while there had been no efforts to process the remaining meat in other forms, so the idea of making pork floss came. Rev. Grace Nanuru, S.Th., the Multiplicator of Stube HEMAT in Raja Ampat initiated training on making wild boar meat floss in August in twice meetings, on 7 and 11 August 2023 in Majaran, Sorong regency. Women, both housewives and young people, took part in the training. The floss product targets local households, people in the Aimas and Sorong as well as tourists who need typical Southwest Papuan culinary delights.

In practice, it used wild 3-5 kgs boar meat, with basic spices of shallots, garlic, galangal, turmeric, candlenuts, brown sugar, lemongrass, tamarind, lime leaves, and typical local spices besides coconut milk and cooking oil. The meat is shredded and mixed with grinded spices then fried over low heat so that it cooks evenly. The final step is to drain the cooking oil using a spinner. This recipe produced 40-50 packages of 50 grams floss with selling price of IDR 20.000 per package.

Some buyers claimed that they like the original floss with its distinctive sweet and savory taste and others like the spicy floss variant. These two variants are an alternative for consumers to buy according their taste.

The breakthrough of Multiplication Stube HEMAT in Raja Ampat by producing floss, creates a new spirit for development, even targeting local culinary-based entrepreneurial opportunities in Southwest Papua. Let's show creativity based on local potency! ***