The comment about them coming out of a dead cow got me to thinking, does what they have been eating go a lot to how they might taste? I know here, you get a black bear that has been in the berries and they are some of the best eating, but get one that has been in the salmon stream later in the year, and you can't even begin to try to eat it. Totally different taste. So if you had hogs feeding from a feeder on corn or on acorns, would that be different then some that are scavenging on whatever they can find?

-TJ

Absolutely. The biggest factor when it comes to taste, is their diet. Period.

God has created a creature that can eat anything and make it taste good. A pig's diet really doesn't have anything to do with it's taste, like other animals.

A Healthy Pig Is a Tasty Pig

https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/ingredients/article/pig-whiskey

Yes! - low and slow they're quite tasty - whole family gobble's 'em down even ones that don't like 'game'.

I have to disagree. There's not a mammal on the planet that their taste isn't affected by their diet.

I agree to disagree. I've never met a pig I didn't like.

Oh I can definitely taste the difference between the pigs I kill in the brush country vs the ones from the corn crop country. They’re all still good, but I can taste the difference in the fat. Same goes for the ones we trap and feed out on sweet feed before butchering. I agree a healthy pig is a tasty pig, as long as they’re healthy they’re all good to me though.

Will eat the smaller ones that are killed in the cooler months.

I take off the loin and hams get them iced down quickly, bleed them out in a cooler with ice changing every day for a week. I like to inject the hams with pineapple juice rub them down with my rub. I put them in the fridge wrapped up tight for two days. Put them in the smoker for 6 to 12 hours depending on how big they are I like to pull them at about 190 degrees. Best pork, it's free ranging and organic, better than that crap you buy in stores. The loins are cut into chops either grilled or breaded and fried. I'd rather harvest a pig (under 100 pounds) than a big buck, those antlers normally end up as knife handles of which I have boxes full.

Absolutely yes. We have always have a freezer full of wild pig. It's unfortunate to me that people still go hungry when we have unlimited grass-fed pork running around tearing up our fields. Yes, every once in a blue moon we get a gamey pig (just like any wild game), but the vast majority of them are great. I think the pregnant ones taste better. Slow cook or smoke the hams, slow-cook the shoulders, grill the backstraps and tenders. Make sure it's cooked through and you don't need to worry about trichinosis.

I can say I have hunted killed and eaten many hogs that were feeding on chicken guts, feathers, feet, and blood for months on end. They were great eating hogs with no bad taste or smell what so ever.

Also eaten a few that daily ate from chicken manure piles next to chicken houses... thats right, they ate chicken [censored], with no bad taste or smell.

I never eat them, their smell is real bad and they're dirty nasty up close and they have bugs and everything. I have no interest in cleaning them, eating them, and everything in between.

Ours end up in a creek, I’ve tried giving them away for many years and I always get the same question, have you cleaned it yet and when I say no their response is no thanks. I stopped asking, I rigged up a towing rope that I can drag 4 at a time straight to the creek.

I bet you’ve got BIG crawfish in the creek! Well fed at least!

Dang, lots of folks can’t give ‘em away.. am I the only one looking to send one to the freezer? Put me down as “Haven’t yet but sure wanna try”!

I will take edible quarters and backstraps during colder weather and I don't mess with gutting them.