I've never tasted wild hog and never hunted them. Yesterday, a friend of mine in South Carolina killed a 250lb boar with a knife while the dogs held it's attention. When I made the comment that "I guess you'll have some good eating", he said the fellow he was hunting with, who is also a butcher, told him that boars weren't good to eat, just sows. Was he just giving a personal opinion? :dunno:
if it was run by dogs it might not be very good...same with every animal pumped full of adrenaline and lactic acid. as a kid we would catch them with dogs...put them in a pen...throw corn to them and castrate....then butcher 3 months later. Good bbq!
A boar that big likely wont be good alone but with some marinating....or some heavy smoke bbq it might turn out great. If he was rank and in the rut chasing a hot sow....might be a little gamey.
I would try eating one shot with bow in calm state...but if run half way around the county by dogs and then killed up close by guy with knife....I am sure it is going to be a job to find something enjoyable to eat.
Let me know how it goes if you try it...
What he said x2
I'm sure that cooking it just right would render it quite edible and even tasty!
One of the biggest myths going. For a big old one, soaking in saltwater for a day helps, but I have eaten 3 boar over 250#(and a couple of sows around that heavy), and they all were delicious. Doesn't mean you couldn't get a rank one, but that would be the exception around here, rather than the rule. The hogs around here have good access to agricultural property, and eat pretty well. A big swamp hog might be different. I would have volunteered to dispose of it.
Hey Patrick.....I'm in Tulsa. Do you happen to know any good hog spots somewhere close to Tulsa or at least somewhere between me and you??
I appreciate it.
Patrick Gibble
Tulsa
Brock pretty much nailed it. If a hog is worked up they are going to be less tasty than one who was calm when it met it's maker. I have had a worked up young sow taste terrible that I caught with dogs.
On the other hand if a big boar is taken out quickly, while relaxd they can taste OK. I always try to cook a piece before it becomes dog food.
As far as salt, don't ever do that if you're going to make sausage. The salt will add to the curing and will wreck otherwise good sausage, I have the tee-shirt. I like to soak any wild game in salt water as long as no sausage will be made.
Intact boars over about 200# have a smell and taste to the meat called "BOAR TAINT" . The bigger they get the more they taste like they were soaked in buck lure. Huge old Domestic breeders are worth about $25 and only used in pepperoni (I can taste the taint in pepperoini pizza). A $250 pounder boar might be able to be used in a spicey sausage if you are lucky. For eating we go for 75-150#s.
Skitch, you need to get out to Heyburn.
I don't add the salt but I'll soak the meat in a trough with ice and keep adding ice till the water runs clear. I've done this with hogs that were sleeping when they were killed and I've done this with trapped hogs that were going bananas when they were kilt.
I've never tasted a bad hog that I processed.
Thanks VG...ill do that. That was supposed to be a PM. OOOPS. Did not mean to hijack! Appollogies to all. (But ill still take the advice! ).
QuoteOriginally posted by michaelschwister:
Intact boars over about 200# have a smell and taste to the meat called "BOAR TAINT" . The bigger they get the more they taste like they were soaked in buck lure. Huge old Domestic breeders are worth about $25 and only used in pepperoni (I can taste the taint in pepperoini pizza). A $250 pounder boar might be able to be used in a spicey sausage if you are lucky. For eating we go for 75-150#s.
So Michael, maybe your taste buds are more sensitive than mine. If you can taste boar taint in pepperoni pizza, I suspect there might be a hint of it in your garden salad, too.
I've ate a lot of hogs, most had their testicles attached...the ones that didn't, were sows. I've never bit into a pig and said, "Tastes like taint to me."
The only odd tasting pig I've ever ate had a big open cyst looking thing on its back. And that tasted like soured meat...not this taint stuff.
They make great dog food! Seriously my dogs love 'em, the nastier the better.
I've killed a few big boars....never experienced a 'rank' one.
They all made great sausage.
But I have heard about rank smelling hogs.
I killed a 180# sow a few years ago and it was the best breakfast sausage i have ever eaten. The chops were so stout smelling i couldnt eat them. Maybe something happened at the butcher, dont know.
Guys ask us this question all the time. "Are the big boars good for sausage only?"
I'm sure everyone's taste buds are a little different, but personally, I've never experienced the tainted taste.
I do put my meat on ice and keep draining the water, and keep adding ice till the water runs clear, then process it.
My partner Jim, has a brine made with part sugar, part salt, that he claims will make any hog very edible if there is any question.
IMHO it's just too good of meat to waste.
Irv Eichorst
www.truesouthadventures.com (http://www.truesouthadventures.com)
Guys ask us this question all the time. "Are the big boars good for sausage only?"
I'm sure everyone's taste buds are a little different, but personally, I've never experienced the tainted taste.
I do put my meat on ice and keep draining the water, and keep adding ice till the water runs clear, then process it.
My partner Jim, has a brine made with part sugar, part salt, that he claims will make any hog very edible if there is any question.
IMHO it's just too good of meat to waste.
Irv Eichorst
www.truesouthadventures.com (http://www.truesouthadventures.com)
I`ve killed boars I could not eat that were noticably rank when I walked up to them on the ground. A lot of people can eat them and don`t "notice" the smell and some can`t eat them. I can tell you while skinning one if its one I gotta give away.Coastal hogs are worse. I am talking about boars not sows. I`ve never killed a rank sow. Its all in the "marbles".
To me its nothing to do with tough or chewy or taste. Its the smell. If you try to cook one of these mature rank boars from the coast in the house your wife will make you throw it out before it gets done. Has happened here.
If you`ve never killed many big boars you may think thats just how they smell. Thats why I choose to shoot the 60 pounders myself.RC
We use to keep a small fry pan near the skinning rack.Cut a little piece of ham meat near the nads and fry a small piece if it smells like Robert was talking about and you will know very fast quit skinning get rid of it and only do the frying outdoors.We try to shoot only sows and in the 80-100 lb. range for the best eating.Kip
I never make sausage out of sows unless I'm out or nearly out. Then I'll allocate some for sausage. That 300pluser I shot w Ray was yummy....I kept shoulders n all straps...and had hams sausaged.
BTW.....she smelt like 300#s of sweet feed.
my uncle had the same thing happened to him that RC spoke about .....he tried to cook a rank boar in his house and it ran the whole family out
You WILL be able to tell immediately whether your hog smells too bad to eat. Killed a 150# (coastal) hog a years ago that plain smelled rotten while skinning it. Didn't get any better over oak fire smothered in BBQ sauce! Nastiest thing I've ever smelled & couldn't eat one piece! Only hog I never ate & still don't know why he smelled so bad?
I wonder how much their diet has to do with it. We had a cow that got into a sack of onions about a day before the butcher showed up and we ended up throwing most of it out. Smelled like a dead skunk!
If it was run by dogs you could not pay me to eat it..lol
Most of the dog hunters out where I go catch them and castrate the boars for the next guy. My personal favorites are the 40-50 lb roasters.
I have yet to find a booar or sow that wasn't just fine on the table and we've killed some big ones. The brine recipe beaunaro mentioned is nothing fancy and has been around 800 years or so. It works great on all pork.(google: brine for pork)Just don't let it soak too long in the brine mixture, 24 hours max. It speeds up the cooking time and helps keep the meat moist.
I shoot the 50-100# hogs, more tender.
That said, I imagine pigs from one environment would taste different than from another. We hunt citrus groves mostly, the pigs grow up on citrus, whole corn, pecans, and acorns.
I'm with RC..
QuoteOriginally posted by Pat B.:
I'm with RC..
Me too.
Yeah, I don't want anyone to misunderstand me. I wasn't saying there is no such thing as a rank boar, just that I haven't run into one yet. Don't automatically assume that a boar over 200 pounds is going to be rank. My butcher said that he has seen them be rank weighing only 150#, and seen others over 400# be fine. He said that if you try to cook it and it drives you out of the house, you will know, lol. The only javelina that I shot was like that. Changed the liquid in the crockpot 3 times, and it was almost edible at the end.
I agree with the soaking in salt water. I also like to cook for 10-12 hours slow in a crock pot. Meat literally falls off the bone which I just scoop out.. I'm sure there are those out there that are rank but I think the idea that a big boar is automatically unetible is a shame, I've eaten and enjoyed plenty.
Absolutely, most are excellent !!!
But occassionally, whew !
I've shot two rank boars. One was the morning I ws leaving florida on an afternoon flight. The guide suggested i ice it down in ice water and salt to cool it down before putting it on the flight. So for three hours i had it in a ice water salt slush and that hog smelled fine when i took it out to put it in another cooler for the flight home. It tasted great too. Another one i just made into sausage after icing down and that was great too.
i always guessed it was like black bears...many will tell you they are inedible but the bear I have eaten was outstanding...fatty but outstanding.
I think it has to do with a few things... what they are eating, how they were taken, how they are handled AFTER the kill.
if eating acorns, grasses, roots, berries, etc...then that is a positive.
if eating winter kill, eating from garbage dumps or dumpsters.....or in case of bears immediately after they come out of hibernation they still have all those toxins and stuff in their system
then a calm animal shot with rifle or bow that died quickly is a positive...versus one that ran for a mile afterwards or was chased by hounds for 2 hours beforehand.
finally...care when dressing to not contaminate meat with various glands or secretions....keeping meat cool....and then preparation for the table.
I firmly believe all of these things come into play and I think what they are eating and how they are taken (running for miles or calm) makes more impact than anything else.