Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Hog hunters - culinary questions

I've only had mostly elk and antelope processed. I realize hogs/pigs may be A LOT different. Thanks in advance for your patience with someone who knows nothing about pig processing.

Do they differ a lot from processing domestic pigs? (not that I would know anything about domestic ones either)

Can a processor cut bacon from wild ones or are they just too lean?

Does pig processing tend to lend itself to more breakfast sausage? Put another way - I realize pork loins are the prime. I suppose chops would be the next most desireable (though not for me personally). Will a processor do pork ribs? Baby-back? For an ungulate grind would be the remainder of meat but I'm thinking it might be different with swine - maybe breakfast sausage/bacon with the remainder.

Someone told me it is better to shoot 2 little ones and let the big ones walk if wanting the best quality meat. Sounds reasonable. Is this true?

In my experience with both domestic and feral hogs:

Sows weighing less than 200 Lbs are the best tasting.

Processing is the same for both domestic and wild.

Just my opinion

Rabbitdog

I've been flying down to Texas every February for the past several years to hunt pigs. I've shot some bigger ones, as there is no virtue to avoiding killing any of them, but the 75-150 lbs ones turn out the best meat. Fortunately, we kill enough of them that there is enough meat.

I generally go with steaks, a couple of hind quarters, and meat that I grind when it gets home. I can make it into smoked meat, fresh meat of various flavors, or plainn ground meat. Have never had any with virtue toward making bacon -- way too lean.

Pretty easy to handle, and really good to eat!

Biggest one I've killed...


Good eating size...


Some things are just fun...


And I leave in less than two months!

Dennis

i make hamburger, sausage, frying steaks! My favorite is leaving the front shoulder whole, inject with tony chacores marinade or filter viva italian and mix butter, season salt, then inject the shoulder! Throw it on bbq pit for a hour and a half, wrap it in foil and pour some marinade in with it. Throw it back on pit or in the oven, till it falls apart! Talking about great eating! I also through it in a electric slow cooker, injected, with potatos, and onions, cook till it comes apart! I also use picante sauce dumped on it, in the foil or slow cooker!

Feral hogs don't have much for bacon. They are leaner than a domestic pig, but they still have a considerable amount of fat on them.

All of the 15-150lb pigs I have killed have been excellent eating. The sows I have had were good even over 200lbs. Old boars have been hit or miss. When they start getting over 200lbs we occasionally find one that is rank. Just the smell of it cooking is enough to turn most people off.

To me the best prok I have ever had are the 15-30lb suckers. Absolutely delicious . They are almost as much work to skin as a 200lb hog, but they are oh so good.

I have only had pigs from California, but I can't imagine them being all that different in other states. The flavor is richer than domestic hog, but not gamey and still very porky.

You can process wild hog just like domestic hog minus the bacon. Ham and sausage off of wild pigs can be fantastic.

My favorite sized hog:


My brother and father with 3 dead hogs of varying sizes. These were made into sausage and roasts.

They're all the same species, but just different breeding. It's kind of like butchering a beef steer vs a dairy steer. The beef steer will have much larger muscles. Both are good meat but the beef breed has just been bred for more of it.

Also it is going to depend a lot on what the hogs have been eating since fat carries the flavor.
Around my part of Texas hogs forage mostly on acorns. Acorn fat hogs have soft fat. You can put a slice of side meat that covers the pan on the fire and it will wind up about the size of your thumb.
One year we had a massive late crop of wild onions. All hogs were pre seasoned when you cooked them.

Pig fat is largely unsaturated, unlike the saturated fat found on ruminants. Unsaturated fat can bond with chemicals found in many feeds to give it some bad flavor.

I've always processed wild hogs about the same as I do a deer.( Or should I say I've always processed deer about the same as a hog,since I've killed way more hogs than I have deer.) Steaks, maybe a roast,and sausage(link and pan)

I prefer my wild pig to hit the plate in the form of either pan sausage or link.

The processor will do whatever you ask him to do with it. If you can pick & choose go with the sows up to 200#. Bacon is a lost cause on wild pigs as it comes from the exterior of the rib cage which is very very lean on a feral hog. Might as well forget about the bacon.

I process hogs the same as deer also. I tend to cut as many steaks as possible including the loin, hams and even the shoulders and rump (smaller but still good steaks). I actually have to remember and save a roast or two or everything will end up as steak.

The neck is deboned and either used as a rolled roast or ground for sausage. Pure sausage meat is only made from the meat trimmed off the bones that won't make a steak. We kill lots of hogs so we save the trimmings from several hogs and deer until there is 100-200 pounds of meat to be ground into sausage. If I am really low on sausage and don't have enough trimmings, I may kill a hog that will be dedicated for grinding (except the loins and hams).

I prefer link sausage, but will usually make about 1/4 of the sausage simply ground and seasoned for pan sausage, meat loaf and as ground meat in other recipes.

Very rarely I will kill a hog that has a lot of blooded hog in it's mix and is very well fed and fat. Then I can cut bacon and render the fat to lard....but that's a pretty rare wild hog that has this much fat unless you regularly "work" hogs in your area and cut the young boars.

A bit weird may be for you guys who live in "BBQ country" but if you get time try this way.

Wild Boar marinated with juniper berries


For 6 persons

2 pounds of wild boar meat without bones or nerves
2 carots
4onions
20g of real black chocolate
3 soup spoonful of olive oil
2 soup spoonful of flour
1 soup spoonful of balsam vinegar or Xeres vinegar
Salt and pepper from mill

For marinade:

75cl (a bottle) of red wine C�tes du Rhone, Bourgogne or real good Californian Red
Laurier-sauce, rosemary, thyme (we call this bouquet garni)
Half orange (untreated is better)
One schallot with a clove picked in
One head of garlic with skin
15 juniper berries crushed with the flat of a knive
1 carot sliced

One day before cooking (if the wild boar, feral pig is less 60kg) 2 days if heavier:
cut the meat in dices, put them in a big dish with all the marinade ingredients. Cover and let rest in the fridge or cool room.

The cooking day:
Separate meat and ingredients from the wine. Keep meat and "bouquet garni, throw away berries, garlic, schallot. Press the half orange and take some orange zest with a sharp knive.
Salt and pepper well the meat.
Warm the olive oil in one stewpot, when oil smoke put meat one piece at a time and turn them during 3 to 4mn. Add the flour, the wine from the marinade, the orange juice, the bouquet garni and orange's zests. Stir a bit to mix all the ingredients. Let cook 2 hours on low fire with cover.
Then add the carots, sliced onions, taste and add salt and pepper if needed. Add chocolate and vinegar. Leave it on fire one hour more. If the sauce is too much liquid make it reduce slowly on fire without cover. Control for it don't stick in the stewpot.

Serve it in the cooking stewpot (after removing of "bouquet garni") with red fruits, mashed potatoes or mashed celeriacs. italian gniocchi or tagliatelle will go too...

If the wild boar/pig weight more than 75kg (180pounds) or is a bit old, add a big glass of vinegar and a small glass of cognac to the marinade. Give it one day more in cool room or fridge.

Enjoy it.

Dom

Out of whole bunch of hogs, I've killed one with enough belly to make bacon, and he was a young boar I'd been watching since shortly after his birth, maybe weighed 100 pounds. We love the ribs, cooked slow and long in an electric smoker or crockpot. Shoulders are cooked the same way, usually shredded for pulled pork BBQ. I have smoked backstrap for Canadian bacon, grilled big backstrap roasts off large boars. We usually make pan sausage, flavor it for breakfast sausage or Italian sausage. We use it in enchiladas, spaghetti meat sauce, on pizzas, etc. For the very best sausage, use the boned out shoulders. I cure hams in a brine solution and slow smoke them - best ham I've ever had. Backstraps (loin) usually get chicken fried. Neck goes into sausage, also. Very good, very healthy meat. My cholesterol dropped so much from eating mostly venison and feral hog I was taken off Lipitor.

We smoke backstrap and ham too, use neck and other parts to make sausages. Loin is also fried. If we can control liver and it's ok, we cook it fresh in olive oil with onions and a bit of garlic. Very good!
Kidneys on a young pig can also be eaten after a complete cleaning in very fresh water added with vinegar.We cook them in a Madere sauce with fresh onions.
As in your country, ribs can be BBQed.

Shoulders after spending one day in what i call "soft marinade" (no wine inside) are often grilled or roasted in owen. (not the big old male for sure). We make also "pat� and terrine", then wild boar meat is often mixed with a bit of pork meat.

Veterinarian studies made in France and Germany proofed that wild pig (wild boar) meat is really a low fat meat, one of the least fat in fact and is very rich in minerals, oligo-elements and all the thing we need. Good for people who suffer from cholesterol high rates.
Speaking of such thing makes me hungry, it's 1.20PM time to slice some wild boar prociuto and grilled one wild boar "escalope".

Have a good end of year.

Dom

Guys from Texas, are there huntable populations of hogs around Tyler? Are there meat processors there as well?

Bob, there are huntable populations of hogs inside the Tyler City limits! Hogs everywhere. Lots of meat processors but why not do it yourself. Very simple. White paper and tape.

doc I can no doubt process a hog......but I'm in a hotel when I go to Tyler or Dallas. Mostly there on business. It's hard to juggle both things but I would like to bring a rifle next time down and give the hogs a try.

I have never shot one,and I'd like to bring home some meat.

Can a big boar hog be made into sausage.
Thanks,
W:)

Dennis,

Thanks for that! That 338RCM sure has earned it's keep in your house! I simply cannot wait to pull the trigger on a hog with mine. I just installed a new reciever and front sight from NECG on it and it points in an instant!

I'm going to try 210gr partitions on the oinkers.

I will add this. Plain ground pork, except in hamburger patties is better than deer hamburger. I use it in spagetti, Hamburger Helper, stuffed cabage and bell peppers, any place you wopuld use ground beef or venison. capt david