Italian sausage made with Wild Pig

[poacherjoe]

I have access to wild pigs and I want to know if I should add pork fat from my butcher to the mix ? The wild pigs that I am shooting are scavengers and right now they are fattening up on a heavy acorn crop in the area. ^They generally don't have as much fat as a domestic hog. Or maybe mix in some pork butt ?? Any ideas appreciated .

 

[flatbroke]

I add pork fat obtained from Mexican market

 

[thirdeye]

Wild hogs are omnivores, so think of them as free range. Commercial hogs are finished on grain, and have a higher fat content. So, you might not like a traditional fat ratio in sausage from a wild hog, and opt to add fat to make it similar to meat market sausage.

 

[banpaeng]

If they are eating acorns and it is still hot, the meat will sometimes and I said sometime be a bit bitter. Not so with pecans. I would add market pork just to up the fat content.

 

[indaswamp]

Yes, you will have to add fat to the mix. Wild hogs generally have about 10% fat on them, and there is a very wide range of what it might taste like...from good (eating fresh grass and mast like acorns) to bad (grubs and carrion or swamp floor slime moss).
I highly suggest you take a slice of the wild hog fat and fry it in a pan BEFORE you grind and mix it together with the meat! This will let you know if it is good or you should trim it. Most times, the hogs we get, the fat is good....but every now and then, we have to trim it and toss it.
Also-make damn sure you remove ALL the glands.

Lastly, I shoot for around 25% fat when making wild hog sausages. But anywhere between 20-50% is acceptable. More domestic pork fat will tame the wild pork down a bit....so it's your call...

 

[indaswamp]

Oh- Also, deep freezing the meat for 1 month will kill the trichinae parasites in wild hog. And if you smoke wild hog sausages, it is advisable to smoke to 154*F Internal Temp. and hold that for 12 minutes per the USDA...

*Edit...Had to look it up, they changed some of the regulations since I last looked this stuff up...
trichinae regulations:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2014-title9-vol2/xml/CFR-2014-title9-vol2-sec318-10.xml

 

[mike243]

You have to be very careful handling wild pork, they carry several diseases that can be transmitted to us. there is a advisory in our hunting guide for Tn about it. that said the smaller the hog the better the meat, the large older boars can be pretty rank I am told

 

[poacherjoe]

You have to be very careful handling wild pork, they carry several diseases that can be transmitted to us. there is a advisory in our hunting guide for Tn about it. that said the smaller the hog the better the meat, the large older boars can be pretty rank I am told

I have been shooting them for several years and I haven't had a bad one yet. What they eat is a big determining factor on the taste. I have made hams with them and they turned out great. When you see a dead bloated cow one day and the next day it has popped but you see movement and a pig comes out of the body cavity then I don't think about eating it but who's to say where and what the pig has been eating when it's not in the field of view? The Asians here eat everything but the tail on them.