Yesterday I happened upon a bunch of piglets and got four of them. I thought I really had something for eating. They smelled bad while cleaning, but I figured that was normal. I cooked one for dinner, and it didn't smell good at all. I pulled the meat from the bone and used a lot of BBQ sauce and it was still barely edible for the smell. No second helpings.

This morning I threw away the bunch of them.

Last winter I shot a sow in the same vicinity and she had a smell somewhat similar to these recent piglets, but not as strong.

I am surprised that the piglets smelled bad.

I'm looking for advice and info on this subject. For one thing, cleaning a pig or hog is a lot of trouble, and I would like to avoid the process, just to have to dump the meat.

Another thing --- these piglets had a lot of some sort of skin parasite, like lice (large), but not fleas. Ugly!!! How likely is it for those things to take on a new host, namely me, during the transporting and/or skinning process? I took precautions such as high rubber boots and disposable gloves, and I took a shower right away, and put all the clothes I was wearing including the jacket in the washer right away. In other words, I stripped in front of the washing machine and put the clothes in as I took them off.

KB

KB, from experience, the vast majority of external parasites are species specific. They might crawl on you, but once they figure out that you are not whatever their original host was, they will get off of you.

Don't know what the problem was with the piglets or the adult pig, but if it stinks when it is fresh killed, let the coyotes/buzzards have it and move on to something else. Other than a fairly normal pig odor, they should not "Stink".

I got one hog last year, in early April as I recall, during my trip to East Texas. It was a young boar about 100 lbs or a little heavier. He was hit with a neck shot, so no running off. I remember the lack of stink as I was cleaning it, and the almost total lack of odor from the meat in general, once butchered. It was a really good eating pig.

I wish they were all that way.

KB

Another thing:

I was thinking about the possibility of butchering a hog without removing the guts.

The way I have it figured is the hang the hog the normal way, hind feet up and spread; then skin as normal. Next, remove the backstraps, then the front shoulders, then bone out the hams while still hanging. I bone them out anyway, so I might as well do it while it's hanging.

What's left can be lowered into a container, to haul off.

Seems like a good idea, but I won't know for sure till I try it.

I just hate messing with hog guts, and will be glad to sacrifice a little meat if it keeps me from having to deal with removing the guts.

Also, I try very hard to make head or neck shots on hogs, if I plan on butchering it. The older I get, the less I can tolerate the stink and mess of a hog that's not head or neck shot.

What's your experience on this one?

KB

KB you can do them that way, either hanging or while they are laying on the ground or in the back of a pick up. I split them down the back, pullout the backstraps, then do the front shoulders and hams and the reach in and pull out the tenderloins. This leaves the hide/carcass and guts all in one package. From my experience apart from a clean, pig smell before butchering, the meat should have just a clean meat smell to it.

Next one, I'll give it a try. Once hung up, I'll start skinning down the back instead of the belly.

If it stinks at all, I just won't process that one. At least I have the memory of the Texas pigs to give me a standard to go by insofar as stink or not. Now that I think about it, in years past the hogs I've taken in Texas, and chose to butcher, none stank.

The only stinky ones have been here in Georgia.

Late today, I asked a local friend about this issue. He is a guy who hunts with dogs and catches lots of hogs and traps too. He said that he sees a lot of hogs that don't stink and are fine for butchering. That's encouraging.

There are areas around here where I would like to hunt, (or search) but it would be a bitch getting a hog of any size out to a place where I could drive the truck. Now that I think about it, I could deal with such a hog like we used to do in Alaska with deer or caribou or whatever way back in the bush. We just boned it out where it lay. I could do that again, and not hang it at all, just do one side, then roll it over on the hide to get at the other side. I'll have to see what I have here to use as a pack, but I think I left it in Alaska. I'm not gonna use my nice day pack for hog meat, even wrapped up in plastic. I may have to improvise, given the opportunity.

PS: After short thought I figured out what to do in the back-in-the-bush situation. I've got one of the plastic roll-up sled thingys. If not too heavy, I could slide the whole hog on the sled. I'm concerned about the quality and cleanliness of the meat, of course, and I think the results would be much better if I can manage the skinning and meat handling with the hog hanging under my shed. That would make it easier to peal the nasty hide back away from the meat, then perhaps change gloves for the boning out.

KB

I just got back hunting on Gatogordo's place and cleaned all three pigs as you describe. Hung by the back legs, skinned down to the neck and cut the shoulders, then loins, then I boned the Hams off while hanging and didn't separate the bones. Even took out the tenderloins from under the short ribs and the guts stayed in the carcass. Lowered the carcass down, hooked it up to the 4 wheeler and drug the remains out for the buzzards. First ones I've cleaned, but I don't think I'd try it any other way...got pretty good at it by the third one.

KB:

Any chance there's a dump not too far away?
I was in deer camp one yr when a kid killed a bear cub that stunk to beat hell just like a dump. I even refused to help them unload it off his horse. Days later I walked by the saddled horse and it still stunk.
Just a thought is all.

Good luck and you've got the right idea on butchering them. I've done elk and deer that way sometimes. Works great to toss the meat hunks on the snow, then when done pack it layered in the cooler with snow. Not much snow in Ga though.
Wish you well,
George

The place I'm talking about has no dump for many miles. We have agriculture all around. Right now there are several green fields, winter wheat I think. Some fields still have the remains of the corn harvest, and waste corn is still on the surface. Between the fields are the areas not suitable for tilling - too much water - and these areas are hardwood, where the hogs live by day.

There are also large areas that are pine plantations, which are relatively open because of controlled burning.

I am speculating, but perhaps the smell is because the hogs have all been eating the sour corn since last fall. Also, I worry about the ag chemicals that the farmers use. One difference comparing the area in Texas where I hunt and here in GA is the farming. In TX there are no crop fields nearby.

Yea, frozen ground and snow is real nice when it comes to field butchering. Georgia mud is no substitute.

KB

KB:

you sure could be right aboaut the sour corn. Never seen it, but, haven't been around such things much either.

Hope you can figure it out. Damned shame to waste good eats because of that. Much better to toss it than get sick though, that's for sure.
George

A lot of parasites indicates a diseased animal and on that basis alone I wouldn't eat it !
Here a deer with a few ticks would be OK but a lot would be a warning !

I think you are right about that.

Also, I suspect that a bad smell probably indicates something wrong, if not disease.

KB

I feed out a couple of pigs from time to time for myself and a friend who is a farmer. He gives me all the corn I need to feed them. I used to sour it before I feed it and after the first set, you could definitely taste the soured corn in the meat. The second set I fed out I did not sour the corn and added some pig feed to the corn. The taste was gone on those two. I was not able to use the stall with a concrete floor for the third set just a dirt floor in the barn. The two pigs, after about three months started to stink, just like a wild pig. They had rooted around the pipe and pushed dirt up to lay in and would constantly lay in their own waste. Those two definitely had that wild smell, even after I started hosing them down often before I took them to the locker plant.

Crazy as it may sound, I think that those that have fresh water, all the time for drinking and wallering don't seem to have the wild stink or taste. I have taken some pigs around here that were around several stock tanks and creeks, with flowing water, that had no smell to them. Some that have been taken far away from fresh water or around creeks with stagnate water had that stink. I took a very large sow in Mexico that four men could not load. The ranch hand butchered her and we ate the loins the next evening and they were excellent, no stink at all. She had the Rio Grande for fresh water as well as two large stock tanks. On this ranch, there was not any stagnant water around.

There isn't any scientific data to back this up, just personal observations.

I shot a Bushpig in Zimbabwe that was tough to get close to for a trophy picture. Boy did he stink!

Swifter:
Thank you sir. This post reminds me of a couple observations over the yrs I've noticed.

Here in Colorado we have brush called Sage. It smells quite strongly for months. yrs ago we killed a bunch of cottontail rabbits in the sage. They stunk so bad I couldn't stand to dress them out, then the cooking was even worse. Ended up throwing the whole bunch out.

Catching trout and putting them on a stringer to die. Comparing those with the same fish from the same pond and kill taking off the hook, then skinning and putting on ice. That evening eating we could taste the difference between them.
Since then, I kill immediately skin soon after and ice 'em down soon as possible. Sometime when you're thinking about it, do this test and see if I'm not right.

It's much the same as gut shooting something, chasing it half the day and finally killing it. It's hardly fit for the dogs to eat.

There's many things that will affect the taste and smell IF we'll only think it thru.

Wish you well, good post KB.
George

Some ocean fish have natural internal parasites. If caught and trwn on the deck , parasites immediately go into the meat. The same fish, but thrown on ice , the parasites don't do that !!
Maybe the fresh water fish are similar.

Only ocean fish I've caught were king salmon.
Messed around and let the meat spoil and bad advice dissolved the skin too. all I got was memories and some pics the ex took when we split. So it's down to only memories now.

Never gave a thought to parasites, thanks for the additional info. Shall keep that in mind.
George

Never had a bad tasting boar, no matter what size he is. Eaten small ones to huge ones. All of them perfect.

I have had two sows that were just not edible. Horrible. Absolutely horrible.

Go figure.

The only theory I could come up with was that maybe the sows were in heat. But that theory wouldn't fly with a piglet. Don't know what to tell you.

I have had pigs smell bad on the "outside" but never on the inside.

I have killed several pigs in the 250 to 285lb range, and 2 boars over 300 lbs, one I did weigh at 330lbs. Both tasted great.

The worst tasting pig I ever shot was a small one. I try not to shoot any pigs under 125 to 150 lbs.

My favorite size is 200 to 275lbs.

The wife and I eat a lot of wild pig meat.

I have killed one that stunk really bad and took a couple of bites of sausage made from another one that should not have been processed.

I killed my first feral hog in 1994 or '95. No real idea as to his live weight but hanging weight, gutted was 325 pounds. You could smell that pig 10 yards from his carcass. Meat looked good, and I had it processed, but when we got it home, the meat still had the smell which got worse when cooked and we could not eat it. We ended up throwing it all away.

A few years later an acquaintance killed one that had a similar smell. He would tough it out and eat some of the meat but no one else could stand the stuff, in fact his wife would get sick just smelling the stuff when it was cooking.

I admit that from experiences over the past 15 years or so with quite a few hogs, those are the only two I have been around that smelled that bad.

Both were older animals and both were bigger animals and both were boars. So while it is normal for feral hogs to have nothing more than a pig smell on their hide with nothing more than the smell of fresh clean meat after skinned and cut up, there is an occasional pig that will fall outside of what is normal.

Seems to be an awful lot of theories about why some pigs smell/taste so bad, wish we could come up with the answer. I shot one down by Victoria, Tx. a few years ago, young boar, 160lbs, no smell to him. Trouble is, I shot him at 7:30PM, was picked up from the stand at 2:00AM, he laid out there ungutted in July heat all that time. Couldn't eat a bite of it. GW

Laying there un-gutted for that length of time was the problem. I have had clients shoot pigs when the temperature was 110+, got the pigs gutted and in the shade, and the meat turned out just fine.

That is an easy one to fix, get the guts out of that critter A.S.A.P.

The two animals I described were shot in December and gutted where they fell. Any animal shot and left un-gutted for that long at ANY time of the year stands a chance of spoiling.

In the case you are describing goat whiskers, I would have gutted the animal and probably skinned and cut out the quarters and laid them on the hide so they could cool out a little.

I have related this story before on this site, but years ago my son shot a boar of about 170-180 lbs. By the time I got within 15' of him, I knew what he was. Regardless, I threw him in the truck and we took him back to clean and quarter. I did that as quickly as I could and we got him on ice. I left him that way for five days, keeping the water drained off and the meat cold.

When it came time to process him (and I do all that myself) I decided to see if he was going to be edible, as there was a bit of boar smell left in the meat. I cut a slab of fat off the carcass just above the root of the tail, melted it in a skillet, and then took about 4" of backstrap and cut it into 1/2" thick pieces. I rolled it in seasoned flour and cooked that hog in his own grease. Outside of the meat being a bit dense, you couldn't tell it from commercial pork bought from a meat counter...

I am with Wendell: I have eaten a lot of boars, and I firmly believe that if you kill them clean (I head shoot hogs; it is the biggest part of them...) and clean them quickly, then take care to get all the glands out of the meat, boars are just as edible as sows. The tricks are clean kill, prompt cleaning and icing, and then meticulous cleaning of the meat as it is processed.

And typically butcher shops won't take as good a care of your meat as you would, in my estimation...

Thanks gentlemen for this topic - I learned a lot of meat of feral hogs.

I am from a part of the country where we do not have feral hogs so the only way to hunt them is on high fenced hunting operations (so technically they are not feral but farm-raised). I had to throw the meat away for the first and only hog I killed. I found it strange that other hunters said the hogs from these high fenced operations was the best pork they ever ate.

Looking back on it, the blood had a putrid stench. I thought it was normal but now I realize it was just a bad one. I absolutely hate to waste meat, so I never went on another hunt for one. After reading through this, I will hunt another one - this time maybe in Florida or Texas.

quote:

Originally posted by mete:
A lot of parasites indicates a diseased animal and on that basis alone I wouldn't eat it !
Here a deer with a few ticks would be OK but a lot would be a warning !

Another thing that contributes to lots of ectoparasites--fleas, lice, etc. is dry weather and no mud for them to wallow in. When they wallow and get a good coating of mud and it dries, the parasites are entrapped. Then when the mud flakes off, the bugs are gone too.

All feral pigs stink! They have a sweet smell that I can not stand. Some boars stink way worse than others. More than one time while squirrel hunting I had sounders cross up wind a head of me that I could smell ten minutes later. Only to catch up with them on the other side of the pasture. Never ate a good one! Swine bangs, though rare is a very serious ailment people contact from them. Thank you I am not that hungry yet!

Got some a couple of hours' east of Dallas and they were very tasty. No hint of any "unnatural" smell at all. I'm almost out of pork - time to go back.

Normally, no. I have had some that were not cared for properly, old or sick that did.
Most are damn good table fair. So much so that the GF wants to have as many in the freezer as possible. Wild hog chops are a delicacy in my house.

My first experience with wild hogs was in the Hill Country of Texas and later in East Texas. I shot several there - seven in one trip. None of them smelled bad. The last trip I got one young boar about 100 lbs and he had practically no smell at all. I butchered him and enjoyed the meat. I also butchered several of the others and became accustomed to the notion that most wild hogs do not stink.

Then here in Georgia my experience has been different. They all have that sweet sickening smell, and some worse than others.

About a month ago I found where some had a wallow in the mud of a small creek. It was still too hot to hunt them then, but now it's cooled off. So I've set up a corn feeder about 75 yards from there on dryer ground. My stand is about another 100 yds away. I'm going to try again, and if the next one stinks, I may have to figure that it's something local causing it.

After all, it's only a day's drive out to east Texas, where the sweet smelling pigs live.

It must be the sour corn, esp. since Pegleg's Zim. bushpig also stunk. I'm guessing it was baited w/fermented maize.

I've shot hogs/pigs in several states, and all "ate good". Of course a shoat will taste better than a boar. In Florida some guys live trap hogs & castrate the males to be released & hopefully hunted later. These barrows might not grow big tusks, but they get fat and taste great!

General folklore around my pig hunting is they taste like what they eat more so than many other animals. Hogs that eat meat or carrion are the worst; hogs that have access to grain are the best. At the height of the last big oilfield company I worked for, we were feeding 9,000 to 12,000 lbs of hog feed a week to keep the numbers up for year round client entertainment and employee hunting. It was mostly milo (sorghum) with some alfalfa and other adjuncts for nutrition. Best damn pork I ever had and a real advert for free range livestock.