buttonbuck wrote:On ice for 7 days
Cleaned and vacuum sealed
Defrosted
Slow cooked in seasoning
Braised
Tacos.
It was phenomenal, absolutely worth the field butchering.
All the good ol boys out here said it ain’t worth nothing, to much testosterone, to tough, yada yada yada. Just leave the meat they said.
Wrong
Dude, I have killed hundres of hogs and been a part of over 1,000. Sometimes these things are inedible, boars and sows. When a boar is bad there is nothing you can do about it. If a boars smells skunky,musky,pissy at all, I leave it in the woods. It is not worth the gamble. If a sow has been nursing babies I leave it in the woods. They are usually thin when doing that and their fat is gamey in a very bad way.
Boar Taint is a real thing and is highly studied. People don't disregard all boars for no reason. When a boar is tainted it can be fairly light. Depending on your personal genetics you may not be able to tell. Some are extremely sensitive to it and can detect it even a pack of ham at the grocery store. I am in the middle and my father and one of my uncle's is dang near blind to it. Just goolle "boar Taint" and read. I am not explaining the chemistry here. Boars slated for slaughter are castrated to prevent tainted meat.
When the meat is really bad you can smell it cooking from a long ways off. It tastes freezer burnt and metallic with an off odor. It is horrible. We always cook a piece to be sure it is good before fully butchering. If they smell musky/slinky/pissy at all they stay in the woods.
All that said some of the best eating pigs I have ever killed were big loaner boars, ones that don't hang out with the sounder. Boars taint themselves when they have been fighting and breeding. If you catch one that hasn't been doing either then you will pile of some of the best wild game on the planet. I shoot em, smell em, then bring em out if they're odorless. Then I skin just enough to take a chunk of to pan fry. If it passes the pan test then I put em in the freezer.
This loaner boar was 198# field dressed. The deer stunk more than him. It was one of the best eating I have ever killed.