We shoot a couple a year and Bernhards meat market in Kerrville makes it into ring sausage and its awesome. Great flavor and not gamey at all.

I think it has more to do with how well you take care of the meat, how fast you get it cooled down, how careful you are with making sure the hide doesn't touch the meat, etc. I've seen people ruin elk and deer meat with the way they process it. I've shot bucks and javelina that smell strong and make some good table fare. The aoudad I shot was good eating too. Like several of the posts, I made steaks and roasts out of the backstraps and hind quarters and sausage out of the rest.

Any pics of the different ways you've cooked a boot?

I bet it's pretty good if processed correctly and cooked appropriately. Just my assumption though; I've never tried it. I'm skeptical whenever people say that any species as whole tastes bad. I've heard the exact same thing for wild pigs, geese, and sandhill crane. Delicious, delicious, and delicious.

Deep fried boot was the best! Grilled was ok. Really depends on how you prep your boat from the field to the table.

they are eatable but my experience is i do not prefer them. i don't have extensive experience with them either though. similar to someone's story above we had a lease for a time where some escaped aoudad showed up and after a while the land owner wanted them gone. So we would shoot them when we saw them. I shot a young ewe and also a large ram, the smaller was better than the larger but i didn't care for either.

They are considered vermin where I hunt. They all go in to the pig dump. Young ones might be OK if you like mutton. I don't.

I have told clients for years that it is not that good. I feel sooooo bad about that. It is delicious if prepared right!! Had a really nice older ram pass and we decided to cook his backstrap. Smoked it for about four hours and then cut half and fried as usual backstrap. SOOOO good!! Also, let the other half sit in the fridge after that for about a week. Sliced it off thin and guys it is like roast beef or filet mignon sandwich meat. So, I will never tell anyone not to eat it again. Cheap meat and so good.

Wow. So many diametrically opposed opinions. I have read/heard similar diversity of opinion about javelina for the table.