Do you eat hogs or not?

I just finished grinding up 35lbs of sausage from a pig that I killed last Saturday. It was actually 28lbs of wild pork but it was so lean that I had to add fat trimmings from commercial pork to get the fat content up enough to make breakfast sausage.
 
i would if giving the chance to :D.

the deer zone i hunt has a section that has feral hogs running around. i've been keeping 2 eyes out for them and hog sign the last 2 deer seasons. no luck,we don't have a an actual hog season here. but if i did see one and had a good shot at it. i would take it.
 
I live in a northern state, but I have talked to the Graham brothers and seen a cable show on the population explosion of feral hogs.

There is no doubt in my mind that some people love to eat them. I would also surmise that many people don't care for feral hogs, or any pork product, for that matter.

My position is that these hogs appear to be a bottonless asset, we could feed folks cheaply.

In addition, there are numerous professional and semi-professional barbeque champions that must have a process or sauce recipe designed for just such meat.

The hunters seem to love the sport, the Graham Brothers seem to have the butchering knife down pat, the farmers would love them gone, and barbequers revel in their prowess.

A little financial backing and we could have another food franchise...
 
The couple I have eaten were not gamey at all. I have had some tough cuts though. Pressuer canning/cooking really helps in that department. I was surprized at how mild the meat tasted. I am thawing another cut to cook later on tonight. I will post my results.
 
Ever heard the story about the best way to cook a wild hog? You put the hams on a pine board and marinade it in Dales marinade for 20 minutes. Wrap it in foil and let it stay on the board while it marinates. Put your smoker on 350 and cook it for an hour. Then, throw the hog away and eat the board. Really it's not quite that bad, but get a pig under 75 pounds. I wouldn't donate a big boar to charity.
 
The Tourist! Post #43...awesome!!! That actually sounds like an absolutely PERFECT avenue for HogDogs!!! He harvists many hogs, himself, and I'm almost certain He knows quite a few others that would gladly help to supply HogDogs' Grill or maybe The HogDog Grill...HOGDOGS!!! Where Ya'at, Bro!?!?!
 
The obvious caveat is the government oversight won't allow "un-inspected" meat to be sold...

I can sell live hogs but not meat...:mad:
Brent
 
I eat everyone i shoot. and if i am full at the freezer i process it myself and give it to friends and family. Hell i shoot the things out of my back yard. they are every were here in North texas
 
hog dinner

I saw this on the cooking channel---it really works

boil the shoulder or ham or ribs ( in a big pan or cut it into smaller pieces) until the meat is tender and almost falling off the bone. I put 1/2 cup of peanut oil in the water along with some meat seasoning or creole seasoning--
then pull the meat off the bone and place in a pan with bar b que sauce (pulled pork) and bake for about 1 hour at 250 degrees. or, put the ribs or roast in the smoker and smoke at least 2 hours or to taste. It is delicious, and i've had a lot of tree-huggers tell me it was the best pork roast they ever had. after clean-up I'd let it slip that it was wild---
 
There is a place I hunt that is an abandoned citrus orchard. Grapefruit and different kinds of orange tree growing all over it loaded with fruit. If you look on the ground you can't find one piece of fruit. Which is amazing since fruit must fall every day and hogs must scoop it up that fast. I would think that these pigs must taste different then a pig raised somewhere else. Just because of diet.
 
There is a place I hunt that is an abandoned citrus orchard. Grapefruit and different kinds of orange tree growing all over it loaded with fruit. If you look on the ground you can't find one piece of fruit. Which is amazing since fruit must fall every day and hogs must scoop it up that fast. I would think that these pigs must taste different then a pig raised somewhere else. Just because of diet

I don't know about taste but a hog that has been eating citrus will have orange colored fat.
 
Doyle, are you being serious? I see you're in FL are you speaking from experience? If so now I have to go shoot one there. :D
 
Orange and pork go together like peas and carrots. When I make carnitas using store bought pork shoulder or pork butt, I season the meat with salt, black pepper and garlic powder. I place it in a roasting pan and place a whole orange on top of the meat. Roast it covered at 250 degrees for 4 hours. Uncover and remove the orange. Turn the oven up to 400 degrees and roast until there is a crust on the outside, 15-30 minutes. To die for...

You have to be careful with wild pork because it is so lean and will dry out.
 
Exactly, that's the main problem people have when they say that wild pork isn't good. You really need to be smoking it or cooking it with enough juice to keep it from drying out. Cooking it in a pan in a smoker is about the best way to go. Hard to overdo it, and it shouldn't dry out.
 
I have posted this a dozen times i am sure...

To cook wild pork, a meat thermometer is a must! For larger cuts, cook until 5 degrees F below welldone as it will continue to heat up for a while.

For large cuts, I like to stab 2-3 inches deep with a one inch wide blade... pack each slot with a bit of garlic, lemon or orange, bit of onion and a chunk of "fat back" for a front ham I will have 15-25 slits and for a rear ham it will number upwards of 30-50...
Brent
 
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+1 on the thermometer.

I don't go over 155 degrees (sometimes I stop at 145 or 150). As Hogdogs said, the carry over heat will add at least another five degrees after you pull it off the heat.
 
Cooking wild hogs:

Ditto on what hogdogs says: A thermometer is definitely a must when cooking hogs.
Have taken many while bowhunting our leases in GA and FL. I try and shoot feral hogs in the less than 100 lb weight class (if possible). They are really tasty when cooked right (and long enough). Also much easier to drag out the woods too.... Good idea about packing the "fat back" in the pork while cooking. Got to try that one out.
 
robhof

Did you guys know that in west central Fl. there is a variety of wild pig with fused hooves, the print looks like miniature horse prints. One of the comercial hog hunting groups out of Ocala offer limited hunts for these unique pigs. They have been placing a population on an island in the St.Johns river for years after clearing it of the cloven variety. These are supposed to be pure descendants of one variety of Spanish pig, that is extinct in Europe. I wonder if they can be classified Kosher, as they don't have the cloven hooves. Oh, and when I lived in east central Fl., I actually got paid to hunt hogs in newly developing projects, as the pigs would come in after the landscapers and totally remove all of the landscaping overnight. Unfortunately here in central Ky we have no hogs yet.
 
this is a third world african answer: first i didnt read all the replies to the OP.
second if you eat hogs enjoy it. does wart-hogs count to the OP? if so we slaughter the sows and keep their skin on the carcass and it let it hang in a cooler for at least 5 days. best meat a king can eat.

BUT, if these hogs you guys hunt come into contact with humans before their timely death there is a problem. if they eat human waste , big problems.

ok, back to the wild ones: the boars(males) is a no go. the male stench is unbearable, but such is nature, as bad as the males taste the females are heaven.
 
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