Membrane on wild boar hams and shoulders

[lutznutz]

I'm processing my first cuts from our recent hog hunt, and all the hams and shoulders have a spongy, clear and extremely tough membrane on part of the meat. It almost has a bubbly appearance to it. This is on the outside of the cuts, i.e., the parts not facing the body cavity. I've been trimming it off, but it's slow going and hard as heck to get all of it, it's that tough to cut and it stick to muscle so it's slow going to not remove too much meat with it.

Anyway, what is this part called, and is there an easier way to remove it? None of my commercial pork has had it, so I'm guessing it trimmed off in processing in the packing plant.

 

[wildcat706]

If it weird looking I would definitely remove it it could be a limp node pocket.

 

[pops6927]

You skinned the hogs, correct?  Is it between the fat (if any) and the meat?

This, most likely, is the fascia, separating the fat and the meat, like a sheath holding the different muscle groups together.

As most wild boar hogs are raised on garbage, forage endlessly for food and don't have much fat on them, there membranes and muscles are quite different and can display such properties that you don't find on commercially-raised pigs and hogs, who are penned tightly together, not allowed to move that much, and fed grain and corn.