Wild Pork = Excellent Eating

[PsalmSinger]

Wild pork = excellent eating

When asked if the wild hogs I hunt are good to eat, I often reply with something like this, “Well, if you were going to buy a hog to butcher, would you choose an old tough boar or a younger, fat hog?” My reply pretty much sums it up. I do make sausage from older boars that I harvest but I try to target younger hogs that are much better eating.

I remind the naysayers that pork is pork. Wild pork often differs from domestic pork in that it is much leaner and therefore, more healthy.

Listed below are some of my favorite recipes for cooking wild pork. Of course, if you are not a hunter and don’t have access to free-ranging pork, lean cuts from domestic pork will also work, just make sure and use the loins or lean pork steaks.

Wild boar skillet meals

We have an abundance of free, wild pork roaming the hills and creek bottoms across most of the Lone Star State. Wild pork is very tasty. Just this past winter, I turned two wild boars that weighed about 170 pounds each into many tasty meals for my family and friends.

Yes, larger boars, if they are in good condition and not actively breeding, make excellent table fare but the meat does need to be tenderized before cooking. Younger animals obviously are tenderer and require less time to prepare.

Just keep in mind that with tougher cuts from larger boars slow cooking with low heat over several hours with moisture is key. I prefer marinating the tenderized cuts overnight in a 50-50 mixture of Louisiana Hot Sauce and milk.

Wild pork can be cooked much the same as domestic pork, but keep in mind free-ranging hogs are usually much leaner and require slow cooking with moisture to make tender. photo by Luke Clayton

I’m all about one skillet meals whether at camp or home. Here are four methods I’ve used to transform wild pork into some very tasty meals. Ham steaks cut from the top of the ham or backstraps work best.

Smothered boar steak with rice and gravy

Dust the marinated steaks with flour and brown in a cast iron skillet with olive oil.
After steaks brown, place lid on the skillet, add about half a chopped yellow onion and allow to cook on low temperature for about 40 minutes, turning a couple of times to avoid sticking.

Drain the excess oil and add a large can of cream of mushroom soup along with a can of water. Stir well to insure the soup dissolves. Dust with black pepper and salt to taste. Place lid back on the skillet and continue to cook on low temperature for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid sticking.

At this stage, the steaks will be fork tender. Add a cup of rice and a couple more cups of water; stir to blend well into the steak/gravy mixture. Continue cooking on very low heat for 20 minutes. Turn the heat off and leave the lid on. This allows the rice to absorb more water and become even tenderer. Open a can of Margaret Holmes seasoned collard greens and serve with hot biscuits.

Boar steak with vegetables

Sear steaks on both sides in butter in a cast iron skillet. Place lid on skillet, add a cup of water to avoid sticking, turn heat to low and simmer for 40 minutes. Next, add quartered medium-sized potatoes, onion, bell pepper (or jalapeno), carrots and a couple pieces of celery cut about 5 inches long.

Add enough water to cover the steaks and veggies, and place a few bay leaves on top. Simmer for an additional 30 minutes. Remove lid and reduce most of the moisture. This dish goes well with hot, buttered cornbread.

Hunting camp Mexican guisado

Cubed lean cuts of wild boar work well with this dish. One pound of cubed meat is about right for six people. Begin by seasoning cubed pork with salt and pepper. Dust pork with flour and brown in cast iron skillet with about 4 tablespoons of olive oil.

When meat is browned, drain most of the oil and add two small cans of chopped tomatoes, one small can of tomato paste, one medium-sized onion, cut into small pieces, three large Anaheim peppers (chopped), half a cup of celery, one carrot cut into small cubes, four fresh garlic pods, finely diced, 2 teaspoons ground cumin, 1 tablespoon salt and 2 teaspoons marjoram.

Place lid on skillet and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking. Serve with Spanish rice and hot buttered corn or flour tortillas.

Skillet boar backstrap

Trim and cut the backstrap so that it fits into the skillet. A 14-inch skillet will usually hold an entire backstrap that is cut into two or three pieces. Make a cut down the length of each piece of backstrap and open it up so that it resembles a hot dog bun.

Dust liberally with your favorite dry seasoning and place a couple strips of bacon into each of the backstrap pieces. Finely chop several pods of fresh garlic, a couple bunches of fresh cilantro, two seeded, cored jalapeno peppers and several Serrano peppers.

Spoon the ingredient into the top of each cut of backstrap and bake at 325 degrees for approximately one hour until the pork is well done. Slice into thick pieces and spoon on the stuffing mixture. Garlic mashed new potatoes go well with this dish.

Skillet boar fajitas

Don’t think for a minute that beef skirt steak is the only meat suitable for making fajitas. Wild pork backstrap or top round from the hog makes some of the best tasting fajitas imaginable. Begin by slicing the strap into pencil-sized fajita strips.

Marinate overnight in Fiesta fajita seasoning and the juice from a couple of fresh lemons. Put a little olive oil in the skillet and dice a couple strips of bacon; fry until it’s crispy and add some finely chopped fresh garlic.

Now, incorporate the fajita strips and on high heat and cook until meat is done. Add sliced onion, red and yellow bell peppers and a couple of diced jalapenos. Continue cooking until the veggies are tender. The day before I make fajitas, I cook a pound of pinto beans until very well done, mash them and add garlic salt, a little red pepper and crisp fried bacon strips.

Wild boar fajitas served with homemade refried beans and Spanish rice makes will be reason enough to plan that next hog hunt.
Luke’s book, Kill to Grill, the Ultimate guide to hunting and cooking wild hogs is available on Amazon or www.catfishradio.com

www.ntxe-news.com

[Buster]

I like to shoot the smaller ones 75-100 lbs is my ideal size

I usually smoke the hind quarters
brine them over night in a mixture of water-apple juice-salt-brown sugar-and some spices
then smoke it over apple wood to 165 then eat
good eating right there

[Sherree]

Wild boar are so prevalent here in Mississippi that we can shoot them on site any time of the year. Lots of good BBQ is common. It makes for great community and family fun when everyone gets together to see who can make the best BBQ pork.

[CaryC]

Yeah, and they are starting to get out of hand. You've seen the stuff about TX. It's getting that way here.

Part of the reason for that is, no one wants to get out in the woods from like March to Oct. The reason for that is trying to mend fences with spouses for be gone hunting from Oct. to Feb. Then it's fishing season on open water and lakes, as compared to oppressive heat, giant mosquitoes, and snakes, down in the river bottoms. So all they do all summer is eat and have babies.

They are mostly nocturnal, so to hunt in the day time means dogs for the most part. And those suckers are smart. You can't get them in a routine like deer. They are here, and there. Accidently walked into a herd one morning while going to my honey hole to make a green patch for the deer. Had my 9mm with me for snakes, which I got one right in my honey hole. Started shooting at them, rolled a young one, probably bounced off the big sow I shot at. They haven't been back, it's been 2 years. And the area is plentiful with acorns, ol' rotten logs laying everywhere, full of grubs, everything is damp. No hogs.

So my meaning is, it's not going into the woods and shooting one because they are everywhere. It's a bona fide hunt/ambush. It you do happen on one, shoot it. It you want to take it up, go for it, but it will be some work involved.

We have a couple of standing orders, that if we take one, some people want the meat.

They are taking them on Fear the Walking Dead, so they must be pretty good.

Be aware to really be sure you cook it done, through and through. Hogs will eat anything, and wild hogs will eat even more stuff. O, and BTW the snake I killed that day, I left it for the hogs. It was gone the next week, when I went to check on my grass. I don't know who got it.

[Off-Grid Organics]

Has anyone tried dog meat?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinas-do...072525599.html

[Jared]

We eat a lot of wild hog here probably 8-10 a year. I have found that if the hog has no OFF odor than they taste just fine. If they smell OFF dont waste your time cleaning them. We make everything out of them from smoked hams, sausage, tamales, carna de sada, stir fry, chicken fried steaks to pulled pork BBQ. We also have a large smokehouse and often leave them hanging all winter in there just doing a light smoke every time we cut off a piece. Word to the wise. Eat the little ones first out of the smokehouse. To many layers of smoke will over smoke thin cuts of meat. Also always remove front legs and hang separately when using a smokehouse to overwinter meat. Fly's love the spot between leg and chest cavity were smoke dose not get a good coating.

[PsalmSinger]

Man shoots mammoth 820 pound wild hog in his front yard

Samson resident Wade Seago knew something was up outside of his home last week when the family's pet schnauzer, Cruiser, started barking constantly. The Seagos live on 100 acres in the rural south Alabama town. The property and surrounding area is teeming with wildlife so it's not unusual for their dog to bark at deer, raccoons or other wild visitors.

But this was different. As he was about to get up and check on his dog, his daughter began screaming. "I jumped up to see what was going on," Wade explained. "I looked out the back window and saw nothing, so I ran to the front of the house where my daughter was looking out the window. I couldn't believe what I was seeing."

The dog had a huge wild hog bayed in his front yard, about 5 yards off of the front porch. "Cruiser had this huge hog confused with all of the barking and movement," Wade continued. "It was not a good situation."

Seago is an avid deer hunter and runs a taxidermy business in Samson. He was also a prison guard for several years. He told me that hogs are abundant in the area and he has seen them on his property before, but none the size of this one.

Wade was afraid the huge hog would injure or kill the family pet so he grabbed a .38 caliber revolver that he keeps for home defense and went out on the front porch.

"By the time I got in a position to shoot, the hog was about 12 yards away," Wade said. "Cruiser was out of the my line to the hog so I fired."

It took three shots to take him down. The giant hog hit the ground near the carport. The next day, Wade took the wild hog to Brooks Peanut Company and weighed it on the drive-thru scales. The hog tipped the scales at 820 pounds and had six inch tushes.

According to the Alabama Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources, feral hogs in Alabama pose a serious threat to native wildlife. High reproductive rates, a lack of natural predators, voracious omnivorous feeding habits, destructive rooting behavior and habitat destruction are just a few reasons why Alabama sportsmen and land managers are encouraged to help control this non-native species. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that feral hogs cause more than $800 million of agricultural damage in the United States annually.

Feral hogs are considered a game animal in Alabama and have no closed season and no bag limits. This means that on private land, hunters can legally hunt hogs every day of the year with no harvest restrictions.

"I didn't think twice about taking down this hog," Wade concluded. "I'd do it again tomorrow."

http://www.al.com/outdoors/index.ssf..._wild_hog.html

[Jared]

Now that is a lot of chili and tamales hanging there.