OK, so I've heard 1001 different opinions on hogs and their quality as far as table fare. Most expound on how some (large boars, mostly) are rank and inedible, and a myriad of factors influence taste. I've only killed one pig; a ~230 sow. It was one of the very best meat I've ever had, not just game meat. I'm headed down to FL to kill another, and don't care about 'trophy' stuff. Should I only get an opportunity at a boar, is there any size considerations I need to know as far as eating quality, other than the basic 'smaller/younger' is better? TIA for any thoughts.

From this side of the world, in general the feral pigs all taste allright as long as they live in an area that allows them a varied diet.Its when they live in monoculture forests that they can start to get unsavory flavours.
With the big boars, we tend not to take the chance though, and make them into sausages adding about 10-15 kg's of mutton for every 40 kg's of pork, chuck in a couple of packets of mixed herbs, and the results are superb.

Ta for your input. I appreciate it.

There really are no absolutes, but in my experience when they start heading north of 200-lbs in weight, boars started getting stinky. That said, there are always exceptions to the rule. I have found sows to be good at whatever weight. I normally consider 200-lbs and down to be a meat hog. But that's just me......

as a rule, i consider sows to be graet eating, and boars on a case by case basis.. it's easy to tell.. cut back a piece of meat and smell .. if it smells like a rank gym locker room, it will be gifted within a community or two in my area. However, some "high end" places want to serve BOAR and nothing tastes like BOAR but big ole rank pig..

I've had <100# boars taste very strong.. and some large ones that were good eating.

I go along with Whitworth and Jeffeosso on their assessments.

If the boar stinks when you walk up to it, your probably not going to try and have it processed.

The last big pig I shot was a solitary boar that went around 250 live weight, but was excellent hunting.

The first one I ever shot went 325 field dressed and even the ground meat stunk when cooking and we ended up tossing what we had of that animal.

The sows seem to be good at any size, and with the boars I would go with the 200 maybe 250 and under being a go and bigger than that a no go, but again, it is more of a case by case basis as to each animal and where it lives and what it has had to eat.

Best of Luck on your hunt.

quote:

The last big pig I shot was a solitary boar that went around 250 live weight, but was excellent hunting.

That was supposed to be eating, because the hunting is always excellent.

Small Senior Citizen typing malfunction there.

My experience is much like jeffe's, but out of more than 100 dead ones, I only had one that had such a strong smell I wouldn't even take the tenderloins home--gave the whole hog to our church custodian for tamales.

Our resident vet says the most important thing is to start on the belly, about 8" or more in front of the male plumbing and start skinning there first--making sure you stay wide until you get it all loose and can hang it back over the tail away from the meat. THEN, change knives (or wash your knife with soapy water) and wash your hands/change gloves before you do the rest of the field dressing. If the boar isn't real rank about 99% of the smell goes away with the hide and plumbing.

Processed 3 small boars yesterday--60-80 lbs, and there wasn't a hint of strong smell on any of them. Going to be some good BBQ.

KG

Like you I find wild pig meat some of the best table fare there is.

I have shot a lot of wild pigs. I have nefver had a bad one.

I have shot 2 boars over 300 lbs. I weighed one and it bottomed out my scale so we figured it was 324 to 340 baised in how far below 300 the pointer was.

Those 2 boars were two of the best pigs we ever ate.

My favorite size is 225 to 275.

I have shot pigs that smelled so bad that most people would "leave em lay".

But once the skin is off, the smell was gone.

I have shot pigs on 100+ degree days, I just get them gutted, skinned, butchered and on ice pretty quick.

If it is below 40 degrees I just gun them and will let them hang for a day or so just like a deer.

I like wild pig meat better than deer and elk.

quote:

Originally posted by N E 450 No2:
I like wild pig meat better than deer and elk.

yep!

It will vary according to their diet along with other factors, not the least of which is age, sex and whether or not their adrenalin was pumping at the time of the kill. If a hog is feasting on carrion and soured grain, etc., no matter what you do to the meat probably won't make it edible.

On the other hand, some large, older hogs I've taken that had been hitting sweet corn and sugar cane fields along with protein pellets and cattle cubes turned out to be exceptional. On the flip side of the coin, I've also taken young hogs that were in good condition, processed quickly and yet would drive you out of the kitchen if you tried to cook the meat (and no amount of aging on ice would help, either).

So as to the original question: the answer is not cut and dried as multiple factors come in to play and will affect the outcome as much as does the processing of the game itself.

Thanks for the responses, folks. NE, no kidding on the eating quality of some of them. Here's a couple pics from the last one. Everyone that I served it to still raves about it. Me included!

What I have found is that most importantly is what they have been eating.
At different times of the year in different areas they can be eating different things, for instance if they are eating a lot of moss it can give them a very distinctly funky smell and flavor.

Damn, Gari, was it necessary to post up the photos???? It all looks great, but the backstraps on the barbeque -- well, it just doesn't get much better than that......

quote:

Originally posted by shankspony:
From this side of the world, in general the feral pigs all taste allright as long as they live in an area that allows them a varied diet.Its when they live in monoculture forests that they can start to get unsavory flavours.
With the big boars, we tend not to take the chance though, and make them into sausages adding about 10-15 kg's of mutton for every 40 kg's of pork, chuck in a couple of packets of mixed herbs, and the results are superb.

No offense, but anything that needs mutton to tone down the flavor is a bit on the wild side for me.

Most boars I've taken were very edible and non-stinky. The few that had a high odor during cooking did not reflect that in the taste. But then I may be one of the few who actually ate one that stank in the pan.

I'm no expert, but in my Animal Science classes in college (it was my major) they talked about this with breeding boars. These are boars that are mature, domesticated, and have been fed a commercial diet their entire lives, and they still stink. What our prof. told us was that they generally do stink, even when cooked, but the taste is fine. Commercial meat packers would still use boars only for sausage and mixed them in so that even if they stunk, it would be a small percentage of boar in each piece of sausage. I want to say, though I'm not sure, that it was more of a sexual musk thing than anything else, like killing a buck during rut. That's why the smell goes away after dressing and skinning, you have removed the musk glands. Coon is well known for this also.

this one was great soak em in ice water and pineapple juice for about a week and they all seem ok to me.

Oh mercy that looks good!

quote:

Originally posted by Kamo Gari:
Oh mercy that looks good!

Yes indeed! You guys are killin' me!

is it overkill to wrap wild hog in bacon on the pit?

daniel77

no it is not.

I usually bone out the hams, and cook them on the grill. They are low in fat. We wrap them in bacon, usually with a "jallipino" pepper stuck in there as well.

The bacon keeps it from being too dry.

Try cutting a little pocket here and there and inserting a pat of cream cheese as well. Don't tell your cardiologist. Do this with duck breasts on the grill and you can make a squeamish wife ask you when you're going to go duck hunting again.

quote:

Originally posted by daniel77:
is it overkill to wrap wild hog in bacon on the pit?

It is NEVER overkill to wrap anything in bacon! I feel better now that I've said that.....