Florida Shooters Network

Hey!

I had to put my first post SOMEWHERE!

This guy had a good run through a hip deep cat tail swamp, but once you get 3 Catahoula puppies on your ass, you're pretty much already in the freezer!

Making me hungry

Wild hog stuffed roast and meatloaf.

I gotta try meatloaf!

The freezer is a little bare, I need to go get wet!

Meatloaf is easy and really tasty (I like to add some bacon to the hog when grinding it up). I cook it on the grill together with roast on indirect heat. Thing about wild hog is that you have to eat it right after it's cooked while still hot or warm. If you let it get cold it gets hard and chewey. If you reheat it next day it taste like cardboard. I also make hamburgers and chili with ground hog.
I'm down to the last 2 lb. pack of ground hog in the freezer. I'll have to get another one soon.

Nice!

There's just something about eating one of your enemies!

Do you guys do any special prep before cooking hog?
I think the key to good tasting hog meat is to kill it quickly with CNS shot so it doesn't build up hormones, adreline, etc. and get it cleaned and on ice ASAP. I try to kill it, clean it and get it on ice within 2 hours and I usually get it done within 1 hr. I bring mine home whole (less skin, guts and head/feet) and soak it in ice chest with ice, water, vinegar and salt for 2-3 days before I butcher it down. Vinegar and salt soak leeches out a lot of the blood from muscles. I also remove the little lymph node glands on hind legs as they can leave funky smell after cooking. I don't have any of that gamey taste or smell people talk about on my hog.

rug357 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 27, 2018 11:27 am soak it in ice chest with ice, water, vinegar and salt for 2-3 days before I butcher it down.

I've had real good luck with lemon juice.

Put in pig, cover with ice, pour in 2 quarts of Real Lemon, wrap cooler in moving blanket and come back in two days.

rug357 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 27, 2018 11:27 am Do you guys do any special prep before cooking hog?
I think the key to good tasting hog meat is to kill it quickly with CNS shot so it doesn't build up hormones, adreline, etc. and get it cleaned and on ice ASAP. I try to kill it, clean it and get it on ice within 2 hours and I usually get it done within 1 hr. I bring mine home whole (less skin, guts and head/feet) and soak it in ice chest with ice, water, vinegar and salt for 2-3 days before I butcher it down. Vinegar and salt soak leeches out a lot of the blood from muscles. I also remove the little lymph node glands on hind legs as they can leave funky smell after cooking. I don't have any of that gamey taste or smell people talk about on my hog.

How much salt and vinegar?????
I tried it once, changing out the water and ice daily, for 4 days, and it came out horribly salty and putrid smelling when I cooked it. My frying pan still stinks of it.

JBubba57 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 06, 2018 11:12 am How much salt and vinegar?????
I tried it once, changing out the water and ice daily, for 4 days, and it came out horribly salty and putrid smelling when I cooked it. My frying pan still stinks of it.

My typical hogs are about 80 lb with skin, head and internals removed.

In a 150qt ice chest I add 1 lb. cheap Walmart salt, 1 gallon of cheap vinegar and 3 gallon of tap water. I mix it all real good then put in the hog. Finally I add 60-80lb. of ice...enough to cover the entire hog. I leave it in my garage for 2-3 days and check it every 24 hours to add more ice as need to keep the water temp at freezing and flip the hog. I had a very large hog once and I kept it in the icy mix for 4 days. You gotta make sure you always have some ice in the chest. When you take it out the water will be very red from all the blood that leached out and a lot of meat will be white.
I never had salty or sour hog meat from soaking.

How long did it take you to clean the hog and get it on ice after it was killed? Did you puncture the bladder, stomach or the intestine while cleaning it? Finally, I removed all 10 lymph nodes from the hog when cleaning it as they can leave unpleasant order if you puncture it and cook it.