Posted By: Sauerkraut
For those of you who eat wild pork... - 12/09/20 03:11 AM
Question.
While you're cleaning a pig, is there any you guys can tell whether the meat is going to be better or worse than usual? I've always heard people claim wildly different things about pigs....e.g. only shoot pigs under 100lbs, only pregnant sows, only nursing sows, never anything over 150lbs, never in the summer, etc.
In my 10 or so years of hunting, trapping and eating wild pig, I've never found any of those rules to be very reliable. For instance, I cooked up a small (about 60lb) sow last spring and it was really gamey, but just the other day I cooked up some pork from a 200lb boar and it was great. Multiple people told me to leave him in the field.
All this being said, is there anything specific you look at in the carcass/meat that would put you off or give you a hint that it will be quality pork? Maybe the color of the meat, smell, number of lymph nodes in the fat, etc.?
Just curious to know what y'all think
While you're cleaning a pig, is there any you guys can tell whether the meat is going to be better or worse than usual? I've always heard people claim wildly different things about pigs....e.g. only shoot pigs under 100lbs, only pregnant sows, only nursing sows, never anything over 150lbs, never in the summer, etc.
In my 10 or so years of hunting, trapping and eating wild pig, I've never found any of those rules to be very reliable. For instance, I cooked up a small (about 60lb) sow last spring and it was really gamey, but just the other day I cooked up some pork from a 200lb boar and it was great. Multiple people told me to leave him in the field.
All this being said, is there anything specific you look at in the carcass/meat that would put you off or give you a hint that it will be quality pork? Maybe the color of the meat, smell, number of lymph nodes in the fat, etc.?
Just curious to know what y'all think