Hog Help
 

Hello everyone I'm new here and really wanting your advice. I just shot my first hog last weekend. That was flippin fantastic. I got the thing dressed out w/in two hours and had it on ice. It weighed in at 185lbs before it was dressed. Absolutely no smell to it at all. Good looking Florida Boar. Packed it in ice and when home. Took it to a game processor the next day. They hung it for three days and processed the animal for me. I got the frozen meat home and broke open some of the sausage that they had ground up and wow did id have a smell. Same smell/flavor when I cooked it and ate it. OK, now I don't want to waist this but did the processor screw this up and give me the wrong animal, does the flavor only come out 1 week later or what? I rubbed one of the back straps down with a rub and fried it and finished it in the oven same under flavor and smell as the sausage. I'm trying to soak one of the roasts in butter milk to see if that helps. Any suggestions on how to save the meat and what to do different next time? Thanks in advance.

Hog meat spoils much faster than deer or beef. "Hanging" hog meat is the wrong answer unless its hung in a cooler at 39-42 degrees F. The vast majority of "strong tasting" or "bad tasting" hog meat is rotten hog meat.

IMO: Assuming the meat was not contaminanted during field dressing or skinning; the processor messed up the meat or gave you the wrong meat. We used to have a game processor near Marlow, OK who was famous for allowing hog, deer and elk to spoil. He's out of business.

Thanks Falcon.
I don't see what I could have done wrong, but that may be my problem. I had the thing gutted and on ice w/in two hours of killing it. I tried to make sure not to get urine or other matter on the carcass. Even my wife commented on the lack of smell when I got it home. I rinsed it off as best I could at the farm and again when I got home. The thing just got fished wallowing in the mud. I have now read to skin and quarter it. Then Ice/water it till the water is clear, about three days. Even adding vinegar to it.
The processor did have a cooler that we hung it in when I got there. I wanted to make sure that this pig was done right, that is why I took it to a processor. I guess if you want something done right......Do it yourself.

Anyway thanks for the input. Anything else would be helpful...Thanks.

You got it on ice quickly and it was hung in the cooler: Can't figure out what went wrong unless the processor gave you the wrong meat.

One should cut the hogs throat soon after killing and allow it to bleed out. This is important if the hog was shot in head.
If the bladder or intestines get ruptured while field dressing wash the carcass out with a lots of water. One should do that anyway.

i hose hogs down well before field dressing whenever possible. If you want to skin the hog, do it before field dressing, if possible. A warm hog skins out easily: A cold hog not so much. While skinning be careful not to get hair or dirt on the meat.

Hang the hog. i prefer to hang them head down. Others hang them head up. Cut around the rear legs above the knee and skin them out. Cut around the front legs. Skin out the rear of the hog. Cut the skin all the way down the animals belly. Then use the knife as needed and pull the skin off the hog. A big pair of pliers or channell locks makes it easy to pull the skin off. Skin out the hogs neck and front legs and cut the head off.

Field dress the hog. Wash out the cavity well with water. After field dressing a skinned hog i like to put a big plastic garbage bag around the carcass before cutting it down. Have someone support the hog while the rear legs are cut loose.

One must be careful with hogs in hot weather. When the temperature is 80 degrees F one has about four hours to get the hog on ice or in a cooler, otherwise it will start to go bad.

This tool makes skinning easier.

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/c....aspx?a=588020

Hog skinning video. This guy makes it look easy. Fat hogs are easy to skin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRsYk2D82cY

Good luck with your hog hunting. Get them hogs.

Summer time I don't even field dress it; I take out the backstrap, hams and shoulders and I have a cooler with ice on hand. I keep it in ice and water changing it for at least five days.

I don't take many things to a processor, I've taken two deer in 40 plus years of hunting. I didn't even like taking livestock to the local processor, for some reason I want all of my freaking beef!!! I never get the tongue, liver, brains, heart I even want the tripe. I know they make sausage out of a lot of what they keep!

This is about the only size pig that I will field dress becuase they fit in the smoker just fine. The bigger ones regardless of how cold or hot it is, I just take the goodies.



I shot this little buy while deer hunting with my S&W 40 cal, dropped dead in his tracks. I like to pig hunt with a pistol. I passed up a hunt this week end as much as I hated to because I had so much work to do in my knife shop.