...size hog for eating???

Geedubya's comments earlier today got me to thinking about this. The one below, a sow which weighed right at 50 pounds, gets my vote as that was some of the tastiest pork I've enjoyed.

Some was grilled; some as cooked in more typical bar-b-cue fashion. And it all disappeared VERY quickly...

For me, the sows of 40-75 pounds get my vote as there is plenty to go around, is always delectable and a size easy to work with even for an individual out in the field. (Dressing the large ones alone gets to be quite a chore after a while.)

So, let's hear your thoughts.

The same post got me thinking as well. I have always maintained that up to and around 200-lbs is still a good eating hog. Obviously there are exceptions to the rule, but I usually consider a meat hog around 150-lbs on down........JMHO

I agree as to the "perfect" weight! Just split 'em down the middle and get them on the grill.

I am getting hungry!!

Bob

I think that those in the 100-125 pound range are the most "efficient" - meaning the best combination of tasty pork and quantity of meat per beast. In that weight range, I think the sows are better tasting, though I've never had a truly nasty boar at that weight. All that said, I never pass up smaller pigs, as I very much like to smoke those in the <50 pound range whole and feed the entire critter to unsuspecting guests.

I agree with you Tom, a sow of about 80lbs = perfect. Course nothing wrong with those under and a bit over either. Mais C"est Moi chere.

size hog for eating?

Let me stir the pot (or the embers) a little

"eating" covers a pretty broad area.

While I agree a hog in the 50 to 80 lb range is probably more tender, there are a number of factors that come into play.
While never conducting an emperical study with a control factor or group I might make some observations.

Used to hunt east texas. we had what we called "piney woods rooters" which were basically domestic hogs gone feral. As I recall they could taste pretty bitter. However if you would pen one up and feed him corn and table scraps for a month he could provide a pretty tasty roast or loin. I would say location and diet are factors.

Also the cut of meat and the type of preparation make a great deal of difference in the enjoyment factor.
1. I take a number of hogs every year. I have two freezers for game so this gives me a lot of options. In butchering hogs for my own use I keep quarters for roasts, ribs for slow cooking, loins for grilling. I also have pan sausage and link sausage made solely out of pork.
2. Preparation makes a big difference. Here a couple of months ago I shot a 70 lb plus sow on a friday night. I really didn't want to skin it but I had never met the guys that were visiting the landowner, and not wanting to make a bad impression, I skinned it out, quartered it and seperated the ribs from the backbone. My guys came up the next day. I started about 9 in the AM. I took the tenders and the loins (or backstraps), and the ribs, seasoned them with some garlic powder, black pepper, accent, and tony chacheries creole seasoning. I covered the ribs with foil and put the tenders and loins in a gallon plastic freezer bag. I put all back in the fridge. About 2 PM, I came back and basted the ribs with Jack Daniels barbeque sauce sealed the foil and put them in the oven at 225 degrees. I slow cooked these ribs about five hours at this temp. The same time I took the tenders and loins and added a bottle of zesty Italian dressing and 4 ounces of teriyaki sauce to make a marinade, sealed up the storage bag and put it back in the fridge to marinate. At about 7:30 that evening I got a fire going with charcoal, got the coals hot and then added a little of pecan wood for smoking. When the coals were hot I cut the loins into butterfly steaks and put them on the grill with the tenders and cooked them just right.
Same pig, different cuts and different ways of prep. All tasted pretty good if I do say so myself. I also popped some fully cooked jalepeno cheese venison hot links and some ears of corn on the grill to boot. Add some slow cooked pinto beans that have been seasoned with the aforementioned venison hot links and you’ve got a pretty good meal, even by deer camp standards.
GWB
Ps
After that all you need is a white chocolate "Kit Kat" bar, a good cheap cigar, a couple of shots of "Patron, and a couple other liars sittin' around the fire.

You just had to go and do it again, didn't you Geedubya. There is no food in the fridge, I'm out of wild pork and venison, it's 6:30 PM and I was hungry before I read your post and now I am positively ravenous! Damn. We've got to put a hunt together in Texas -- I want to eat at your table!

Geedubya--as we say on our lease: "I wonder what the poor folks are eating tonight?" I like to take a 80-120-lb sow and remove the hams, tenderloins, and shoulders, cut the ribs & neck off the backbone, and then cut the backbone in two pieces (crosswise). Season with your choice of seasoning, and then put the meat (I call it a rack roast) in a smoker over pecan, mesquite, hickory, or blackjack oak for 4-5 hours. Just don't get between the rest of the group and the meat when you holler "come and get it". Oh yeah, the neck makes great soup--just drop it in the pot, cook it until the meat falls off the bones, and proceed with soup making.

And, they all make good eating--some are just better than others. And, our Mexican lady cook could turn a 300-lb boar into a freezer full of the best tamales---

dustoffer,
10/4 on all that. My youngest son's best friends mom makes some of the best tamales you ever tasted. I'll give her a hind quarter for herself and she makes me several dozen, both venison and pork.
GWB

There he goes, as if on predictable cue...and right before supper time.

I'm leaving now for Pearland to see what I find in GWB's kitchen!!!

GWB-You need to get into marketing for restaurants. You could put anyone's taste buds into overdrive!

quote:

Originally posted by Bobby Tomek:I'm leaving now for Pearland to see what I find in GWB's kitchen!!!

GWB-You need to get into marketing for restaurants. You could put anyone's taste buds into overdrive!

I'll meet you there, Bobby!

Hey guys, I'd normally say come on down, but I leaving in a little while with some buds to go to Ganado to hunt for the weekend. Got an invite to hunt on a big coprorate lease that is located next to Lake Texana and a game preserve. Bowhunt for white-tails and hogs, and do some varmint calling. Hopefully I'll pick up some more venison and a porker to two. Maybe we can hook up later in the year.
GWB

Good luck on the hunt! There are some nice deer in that area. Whatever you do, don't nap on the stand. The mosquitos there are the size of a dove...though maybe the cooler weather will keep them at bay. Heck, I heard one hunter emptied his 870 before he realized those flying creatures weren't doves -- and that the d&q #7 1/2s didn't even faze 'em.

And don't forget to post pictures...

Do y'all use Thermacells in Texas? We use them in Florida, and in fact you don't want to climb into a stand without one.......

Geedubya -- good luck on your hunt and take a bunch of photos -- most importantly, have fun! We'll squeeze a meal out of you at a later date!

My favorite eating pig is 250 to 275 lbs.

Truth is I have never killed a bad eating pig.

My wife shot a small 50-60 'pounder once and it was a little tough, had no fat on it.

My biggest pig a boar, that weighed 325 to 340 lbs [my scale only went to 300 pounds, this pig passed the 300lb mark on the scale], was one of the best tasting pigs I have taken.

I still maintain that the best eating size pig for a small group/family, is one that dresses out about 3 to 4 pounds.

Cuts up into about 10 pieces.

Season the meat to your taste, coat with flour and chicken fry.

The stuff will melt in your mouth. JMO.

You guys want good eating, If I can each year, about now, I catch a handfull of wild weaners. I tame them down, and put them in my orchard. The plums start to drop in december, then the apples and finally towards autumn the pears. Then I kill them at about 70-80lb dressed. Can't be beat.
As for answering the question properly, around here anything under a 120lb is good as long as its young. Older pigs we usualy combine with a mutton and make into sausages.

Haven't hunted pigs in a few years now, but used to like to take'em around 50lb to about 150 or so, had a pit dug and slided in the yard for hawiian style pork cook offs

Here are a couple from this weekend I personally think are the perfect eating size.

Congrats, Mohawk -- great photo!!

How are you going to prepare those two hogs?

I don't think they get too big to eat, although typically sows are better than boars. Now: having said that, about eight years ago my son shot a boar of ~225# on a Texas public draw hunt. I quartered him up and left him on ice for about three days. When the time came, I took fat from just above the root of the tail, rendered it down and cooked some of the boar's backstrap in his own lard, figuring if he was going to stink that should do it... Other than the meat being a bit chewy, I defy you to tell the difference between it and a pen raised pig!

May have been lucky, but the biggest piggie I've shot tasted great. We didn't have the means to weigh it. The estimates ranged from 175 to 225 pounds.

Was very handy to have a big John Deere with a front bucket to pick him up.

Smaller ones were terrific.

I have heard tell of big boars that smelled so bad they were put out on the trash pile immediately.

I don't think they can be too big but the biggest I've actually eaten was a boar that went just a fraction over 300 pounds and he was some fine BBQ. I guess if I had my choice for a eating pig, I'd take a 125 pound range sow. I keep saying I'm going to "rotisserie" a whole pig but haven't set it up yet.

I'm sure most of you guys know this, but since Bobby made a comment about efficiency of cleaning......unless I'm trying to save the hide, which so far I have not done on a pig, I split them down the back, basically just running a knife more or less straight down the backbone to the tail area. From there on we handle them just like a deer. This back split makes it a LOT easier to skin them, especially on the bigger boars with a shield. Note: but, unlike a lot of people, we skin our deer and pigs hanging from the head. Many times I work with a butcher friend of mine, he's faster than I am but together we can start with a deer on the ground at the skinning pole, and have it skinned, quartered, back strap and tenderloins out, ribs cut out and on ice in the ice chest in under 30 minutes. Pigs are a fraction slower but not much, depending on size. While saving the hide on a deer, I can do it alone in about 45 minutes but I've never timed it exactly, I usually take my watch off.

mstarling--our lease had a few hunters that had the same opinion about smelly big boars until we taught them otherwise. Use great care in skinning the boar, and start by skinning the belly from the back of the ribcage to the rear, and at least 6" on either side of the boar parts. Skin it all the way to the backside, and cut these parts off and discard. Change knives and proceed normally. The greatest part of the smell is in the part you cut off, and once skinned, it's another piece of BBQ meat to me.

Only two pigs I've hauled to the trash heap had both been wounded and had awful infected wounds--one had its lower jaw shot off 4 weeks before by another guy on the lease and was suffering and smelled terribly. They went straight to the trash pit for buzzards, caracaras, and coyotes.

if a boar has been run'ed, gun'ed, or wounded and ran, he's gunna smell, and I will normally pass...

if he looks healthy, and Death surprises him, he'll be pretty good to 150-200lbs...

Dustoffer, I am going to disagree a bit,, ... heh, but you've seen me skin a boar, and that I don't get the smelly bits on the meat!! I took about 240, and thought it was perfect... cut into the meat, and it smelled like a lockerroom!

Any healthy sow is going to taste DARN good, especially is she is just chewing away when you give her a lead tranq!

35-100 lbs eats GOOD

jeffe--I remember well your job on the boar--but I've been fortunate as I've never had a bad-smelling boar once I got the boar parts and hide off the carcass. It will happen one day--I'm sure.