Good Or Bad meat?
02-13-2007, 04:01 AM
#11
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: palm bay fl
Posts: 4,504
RE: Good Or Bad meat?
i've killed hogs with dogs and guns, even my bow.never had one taste rank..well the first one but thats becuase i kept the fat on the meat when i cooked it, OMG it was like sticking your head in a boar hogs butt, lol......it's all in the way you prepare the meat.
02-13-2007, 01:41 PM
#12
Dominant Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: land of the Lilliputians, In the state of insanity
Posts: 26,274
RE: Good Or Bad meat?
Yea, its true. Ive also got some ocean front property I hunt in Arizona.
Meat is relative to what the animal has been eating and the condition of the animal. As already mentioned, clean fat and simue before cooking to keep the meat from tasteing gamey. I like to age my meat in a cooler with ice. That way it helps bleed the meat out better.
Meat is relative to what the animal has been eating and the condition of the animal. As already mentioned, clean fat and simue before cooking to keep the meat from tasteing gamey. I like to age my meat in a cooler with ice. That way it helps bleed the meat out better.
02-13-2007, 02:26 PM
#13
Fork Horn
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Hamiltucky, OH
Posts: 485
RE: Good Or Bad meat?
I still have yet to take my 1st wild hog, but I did spend a few years in the meat business selling pork. (And I also stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night...).
The hog buyers at our company looked for barrows & gilts (neutered males & sexually immature females) from 230 lbs. to 260 lbs. Beyond that weight range, the animals picked up far more fat than meat. Note that these hogs have been genetically refined for meat production over many generations, so wild hogs arelikely tobe at theirpeak for consumption at a lower weight.
At the plants, the animals wereled into progressively smaller pens until they were in a chute that was being lightly showered with water. All efforts were made to avoid using slapsticks or electronic prods to move the animals along. The hogswere thenstunned with 750V to the base of the head & laid on their sides, where both jugulars were opened with a double-edged knife to begin bleeding them out.
From here, the hogs werehung by one hind foot to facilitate bleed-out, & taken by conveyor to a long trough of boiling water where they were dunked for about 60 seconds to loosen the hair. The hair wasscraped, & the carcasses were taken to the "cut floor", where they were split with hydraulically run circular saws along the brisket bone, and all the entrails were removed by workers with knives. The carcasses were then electronically measured for fat:bone:lean ratios, & sent to the coolers for 24 hours before being broken down further. From stunning to the coolertook under 30 minutes.
Some lessons to be learned from the meat industry:
1) Don't eat anything that still has its nuts, or has given birth. Webutcher steers & barrows, notbulls & boars. Ifyou want to eat a wild boar, go for a younger one. Go ahead & shoot the bigger ones, but don't expect the best meat quality.
2) Try to keep the animals calm before you process them. Even butchers in the grocery store can see the result of poor treatment prior to butchering at the plants, because there will be "spotting" in the meat from broken blood vessels. (This can also come from overzealous stunning). So chasing a bighorn sheep over 3 mountains before you shoot him isn't doing any favors for the meat quality.
3) Get them bled out & cooled ASAP. This has more to do with the bacteria count than anything else. The meat companies get extra shelf life from this practice, but it also translates into better flavor.
I bid you good eating!
FC
The hog buyers at our company looked for barrows & gilts (neutered males & sexually immature females) from 230 lbs. to 260 lbs. Beyond that weight range, the animals picked up far more fat than meat. Note that these hogs have been genetically refined for meat production over many generations, so wild hogs arelikely tobe at theirpeak for consumption at a lower weight.
At the plants, the animals wereled into progressively smaller pens until they were in a chute that was being lightly showered with water. All efforts were made to avoid using slapsticks or electronic prods to move the animals along. The hogswere thenstunned with 750V to the base of the head & laid on their sides, where both jugulars were opened with a double-edged knife to begin bleeding them out.
From here, the hogs werehung by one hind foot to facilitate bleed-out, & taken by conveyor to a long trough of boiling water where they were dunked for about 60 seconds to loosen the hair. The hair wasscraped, & the carcasses were taken to the "cut floor", where they were split with hydraulically run circular saws along the brisket bone, and all the entrails were removed by workers with knives. The carcasses were then electronically measured for fat:bone:lean ratios, & sent to the coolers for 24 hours before being broken down further. From stunning to the coolertook under 30 minutes.
Some lessons to be learned from the meat industry:
1) Don't eat anything that still has its nuts, or has given birth. Webutcher steers & barrows, notbulls & boars. Ifyou want to eat a wild boar, go for a younger one. Go ahead & shoot the bigger ones, but don't expect the best meat quality.
2) Try to keep the animals calm before you process them. Even butchers in the grocery store can see the result of poor treatment prior to butchering at the plants, because there will be "spotting" in the meat from broken blood vessels. (This can also come from overzealous stunning). So chasing a bighorn sheep over 3 mountains before you shoot him isn't doing any favors for the meat quality.
3) Get them bled out & cooled ASAP. This has more to do with the bacteria count than anything else. The meat companies get extra shelf life from this practice, but it also translates into better flavor.
I bid you good eating!
FC
