Wild hog hind quarters..How to smoke?

[cripplecreek]

A buddy of mine just caught a couple of 100 lb. wild hogs and has offered me 2 hind quarters.  I told him to bring them on.  Now what?  Would love some step-by-step smoking ideas.  Thanks,  Mike

P.S. I might talk him out of the back straps too.  Need help here too!

 

[alblancher]

Never done it but I got talking to a bunch of people that have when I developed a hog problem this summer.  A lot of people recommend letting the field dressed piggy sit on ice for up to a week with the ice chest plug pulled.  This will allow the meat to bleed well.  They also suggest letting it marinate in cider vinegar, water and natural vanilla to take some of the game taste out.

Most important thing is proper field dressing.  If it was a boy hog your friend needed to make him a eunuch as soon as he was shot.  May I suggest that you make sure the pig is dead before doing this because they don't take to kindly to the procedure.  The other thing like most wild animals is if he was running and real active when shot he will have a stronger game taste then if he had not been alerted and on the run .  A lot of people that eat a lot of feral hog like to trap them, feed them corn for a couple of days to a week before killing it.  Giving the animal a couple of days of good feed in a clean pen really improves the quality of the meat.

If you think the pork will be a bit wild you may want to grind it up and mix with domesticated pork and pork fat.  The feral hog is going to be very lean.

Al

 

[joshs]

THE wild hogs we cook don't have a strong taste. We just put them in the cooker with nothing on them and cook sometimes we inject with apple jusice and sprits while we cook. But they have been skinned not scraped. They where males but not big hogs. Biggest was about 150. No strong taste. they are very lean though.   

 

[pineywoods]

If they were only around 100 lbs they shouldn't be that tough or have that strong game taste. Just cook the hind quarters like you would a butt. If they look lean then drape some bacon over them but usually those small ones have enough fat in them. I agree if they run hard after being shot they can become "strong" tasting but the smaller ones usually still aren't bad. Big hogs and big boar hogs are a whole different thing than what you have a 100 lb pig isn't that old so it hasn't had time to get nasty. We used to let ours stay on ice to get any blood out then freeze them for awhile before cooking them.

 

[otter]

Pineywoods has it ... and vinegar can be very bad if used as a soak over nite I learned this from past use and never again . Ice water soak is great !!!