Killed a Boar!!! Now What?

S

SgtMeatballs

New member
So there it is in my freezer, all chopped up into tenderloin, back strap, ribs, shoulder and back end...

How the heck do I cook the back ends? Thats ham correct? I'm really nervous to undercook or screw any of this up, since my wife is VERY icked out right now and I need this all to be delicious so I can hunt more and invest more money into something besides beer, video games and workout supplements.

My friend (the guy who teaches me everything) tells me to cook it the way he cooks EVERYTHING....cover it in flower and fry it. But this is a lot of meat...so what do you all do with the pig's you harvest?

Also, is aluminum foil a good container for freezer storage?
 
vacum packer#@@#%$#%#

tin foil is not freezer safe zip lok bags arnt even freezer safe
vacum packer very worth the investment it,s good for meat ,
fish,birds,veggies,bulk stuff even for buying bulk chicken breasts or what
ever.

as for the pig no idea i live in oregon no hogs
 
I can't speak to wild pork recipes, but I can tell you that AL foil is not good for food storage. Please save the foil for cooking and head coverings.

My favorite wrapping is to use the foodsaver vacuum sealer.

Next favorite is to wrap tightly in plastic wrap, then wrap tightly in freezer paper (that is a plastic coated paper).

Label your packages, after you get into this, you'll be glad you know what year the pig got into your freezer.
 
So do I have to throw the meat away now? Its been in the freezer wrapped in aluminum foil about a week now....also should I even bother vaccum packing the meat now or is the damage done?
 
Hogs eat very well,cook them the same, well done only no pink anywhere.roast,bake,fry,BBQ,crock pot ect.Find your favorite recipe for pork and use it.
Tin foil is good in the freezer for about 1 hour.Get yourself a vaccum sealer nothing better.
No you do not have to throw it away but it does need to be rewrapped in something other than tin foil. Plastic wrap then butcher paper is only good for 6 mos.
 
Say this over and over to yourself: This is PORK. This is PORK. This is PORK.

Only difference between it and the ones that were killed and wraped at the grocery store so that people don't have to confront the fact that they were once living things is that the meat will have a BETTER flavor, less fat and not be pumped up on antibiotics and hormones.

Might point that last part about the antibiotics and hormones out to the wife, especially if she is of child bearing age.

So now that I've been sarcastic( Hope nobody is mad about that!) let me give some of what little I know.

Those hams: If you've got a grill or smoker, a over, some spice, a good sauce and a roll of foil you're almost there.

Rub it down with spice and let it sit on the smoker/grill for a couple of hours with a low smokey fire. Once you've done that pull it off and double wrap it in foil. Set it in the regular oven for a few hours at about 225 or so.

The grill will have done it's job by adding a smoke flavor. The foil will trap that flavor and also keep it from drying out. A few hours in the oven will bring the internal temp up to 160 so that you can be sure all the potential bad stuff is dead. The extended heat time will also make it more tender.

As for the rest of it....... If you've got ways of cooking pork that you like simply refer back to the begining "this is pork" and cook away.
 
Take a pan of COLD water over to the freezer. Pull the pieces of pork out (one at a time) and quickly unwrap them. Next set them in the COLD< VERY COLD > water for 30 or 45 seconds. Then return, unwraped, to the freezer. Once all the pieces are done wait a few minutes, or even longer, and then repeat.

After the second dipping immediately wrap in a proper wrap or better yet seal it up.

What will happen is that the frozen meat will form a ice layer on itself from the COLD water. This will keep it from freezer burning for quite some time.
 
Vaccuum Seal, definitely. I've been told that Freezer Paper is also great for protecting against freezer burn, but that's hear-say from Cattlemen. :D

As far as cooking it, cook it as You'd cook almost any other meat.

Chunk of Pork: Sliced into chops/steaks, season, a little oil in a skillet, sautee until cooked. Slice into strips. Fajita's or taco's, anyone???

Pork Roast: Just like any other roast. "Stuff" with chunks/slices of onion, garlic and celery, season the outside, and cook in a crockpot, oven, or on the pitt. Cooked in the oven or crockpot, throw in some potatoes, carrots, and anything else that You like. Again, from the oven or crockpot, either prepare, Flour and Water, and add it to the roast drippings (while it's hot) to thicken into gravy, or add some "Gravy Mix" to the roast drippings, while hot, and turn thin drippings into gravy, and serve over rice and/or the potatoes. Pitt Pork Roast is incredible once You get it right.

Anything else You can come up with that You can already cook, that You already like, try it. But take into consideration that alot of wild hogs are lean, not fatty like some. Treat the lean pork as You would with any lean meat.
 
I'm just a little confused because the "ham" really doesn't look like my idea of a ham...theres a leg sticking out of it (sawed the foot off) and possibly some skin I didn't get off when I skinned it...I'm learning but still frustrated at my ignorance.

How the heck do the honey baked people do it!? :D
 
The first thing I'd do is cook the backstrap as it's probably gonna be the tastiest part. What I'd do is make a marinade by mixing two cups of water with two cups of apple cider vinegar, 1/4 cup of salt, 1/4 cup of brown sugar and some ground pepper. Put the loin in plastic baggies and fill with the marinade getting as much air out of the baggies as possible. Place this in a pot to avoid leakage and put in the the fridge for several days, longer if the meat is already frozen. On the stove top, preheat a cast iron Dutch oven and brown all the sides of the loin. After all the sides are browned, add some chicken stock or more of the water/apple cider vinegar mix so there is a half inch of liquid in the Dutch oven and finish in an oven preheated to 350 degrees. It helps to have a meat thermometer with a remote monitor so you can watch the temperature of the interior of the meat. If you want it done to medium, pull the meat out of the heat when it gets to 155 degrees in the interior, cover it with foil and let it rest for twenty or thirty minutes. The temperature should rise to 160 degrees inside. It will still be a little pink in the middle but that is cooked to medium.

If you overcook it, or don't let it rest before you cut it, it won't be as good as if you treat it right. Also, don't pull out your thermometer until it's finished resting as juices will leak out of the hole.

enjoy
 
Buy one of those cheapo smokers and smoke that ham!
We just smoked them for about 8 hours, nothing better.
It is a metal can about 3 feet high, Cabelas sells them.
Use mesquite chips.
There is a water pan to keep it moist, you can use water, sometimes we would put beer or wine in the water pan.
It is electric, very easy to use, hard to screw up.


Well, it isn't a cheapo, it is $149. This is a lot nicer smoker than the ones we used to use, but this is a real nice smoker, it would be worth the money.http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_


If you got one pig, you can get more.
When you figure out the right way to butcher a pig, you will have 2 shoulders, and 2 hams.
The ham will look just like a Smithfield Ham at the grocery store.
The shoulders look like, well, like a shoulder.
I wish I could help you butcher one hog, I would get you all squared away.

We used to shoot 10 or 15 hogs a year, every weekend we would get some girls over and smoke a shoulder or a ham, sit around and drink beer and watch a football game.
I was also getting 8 or 10 deer a year, by myself.

The best meat I have ever eaten is smoked wild hog ham or shoulder.

Here's one from Bass Pro Shop for $90. This is the same one that we used to use.
Even though it is not listed, it does come with the water pan.
http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_16264____SearchResults

Be sure to get the electric smoker, the charcoal is too much trouble, you have to run it for 6 to 8 hours.
 
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Try the below posted link, I haven't really had much time to look at it. I have a smoker and I'd be smoking,Barbecuing or Braising everythig. There are tons of white chili recipes you can find as well. Food network will have some good usable recipes as well.






http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/newr
 
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Go buy some "fat back" or better a red and white box from windixie called "ends and pieces" a long kitchen filet knife. Stab straight in... in the slit place a hunk of bacon, a part of a garlic clove. With this add your choice of citrus or apple. I am talkin' 50-80 slits fr a big ham. wrap with foil and put on grill. after close to an hour stick with thermometer. Do not try to cook wild hog with out one. Once within 20 degrees of well done, peel the foil off and let the grill flavor it. Ask away! Love to share...
Brent
 
Bone and butterfly the ham, from the knee joint to the hip joint.

Place it in a very large deep roasting pan, skin side up.
Surround it with quarter cut onions, carrots and potatoes.
Pour white wine up to about two inches from the bottom of the pan.
drizzle about 1/2 cup of molasses over the top of the pork.
Powder generously with Cayenne pepper and powdered cardamom.
Cook in a medium oven till the internal temperature reads 160.

When done strain the pan drippings and thicken with corn starch or roux.

Making a sauce with roux. each pound of roux thicken about one gallon of liquid.
Melt 1/4 cup butter in sauce pan. mix in 1/4 cup white flour. Roux is made with a 1 to 1 ratio of flour and butter. stir butter and flour over medium heat till it is a light brown/blonde color. set aside till your roast is done.
Once you got your drippings strained reheat the roux and gradually add the liquid till you've reached the desired consistency.

3 oz of corn starch thickens about 1 quart of liquid.
Make a slurry of corn starch and any cool liquid. Set aside till you have your pork is done and the dripping strained.
Put the pan juices in a sauce pan and bring almost to a boil. gradually add the slurry, stirring constantly, till you've reached the desired thickness.

That's a basic recipe that's worked for me with all sorts of meats.
 
The "back ends" are generally called hams, and they have shank and butt sections. Many call them pork butt, but you can call them hams if you like. "Ham" usually refers to cured ham, but is the correct term for the back legs.

Unless you cure the meat, you are generally looking at smoking, baking, grilling, barbecue, frying, or otherwise heating steaks/slices of meat, or you can have fresh sausage made up. You can bake the larger cuts, but cook it slow to develop flavor in it and ensure it is fully cooked.
 
Aluminum foil, has been used to wrap meat in my freezer ever since it was invented, back in about 1913.... Or rather since I was invented....

It's not killed me yet :)
 
If you can get a vacuum packer to pack those pieces then great; one week will not have caused an freezer burn yet. It takes time for the thawing and refrezing to dehydrate the meat and make it taste gross. You don't even have to unwrap the foil. I have three year old meat that still tastes 100 percent fresh. A good trick is to freeze the meat first, and THEN vaccum pack it, so that the vaccum seal formed around it is tighter. Otherwise the squishiness of it will prevent a good seal, and the wetness can be a hassle.

If you can't get a vacuum packer then the second best thing to do is to put water in tupperware or zip lock bags and drop and freeze the meat in there.

Basically, you want to create a barrier between the meat and the empty freezer space.

Non self defrosting freezers are better for keeping the nasty taste away, but the periodic manual defrosting is waaaaaaaay too much of a hassle for me...

When worried about gamey taste, repeat after me: "onions are my best friend, onions are my best friend, onions are my best friend."
 
Wow, Thank you all for your input! With so many variations I'm not about to run out of ideas...Heres my new grocery list:

Smoker (found one about 2 hours away for $100 new, home-made looks nice)

Vaccum packer (lowes)

Also found a meat grinder at lowes, so maybe I can make sausage or something.

Thanks again.
 
hams

Do what hogdog says, Brent hooked me up with some GREAT ways to cook our boar! When it comes to hogs he knows his stuff.
 
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