re: How'd the "cut the nuts off of a dead boar" myth get started?

quote:

---

I knew a feller who would feed his pig an oreo every morning for 20 or 30 days before capping it. On slaughter day he would give it and oreo and then bang.

---

And waste a box of oreos?? Sheeeit.

quote:

---

Oh lawd. So many myths

---

I've eaten the meat off a boar hog many times taken this way. The meat wasn't rank at all, and was as edible as any sow. Once any boar hog is mad, riled, running, etc. you can forget eating that meat. All I can say is experience it for yourself.

Would vanilla Oreos be ok? How about great value brand?

quote:

---

"you shoulda cut the nuts off as soon as you killed it, it's worthless now."

---

Our hunting club president believes this hole heartedly.
Him saying it was the first time i've heard it and I just blow it off as some old timer shite.

After hunting, trapping, killing, processing, cooking, serving, and eating literally HUNDREDS of wild hogs both sows and boars ranging in size from unborn still in the uterus, to 305 lb full Russian boars I would like to share my knowledge.

In addition to my experience with hogs, I will also say I am a physician and know a little about anatomy, biology, and physiology.


1. Tainted, dirty, infected, spoiled, meat can taste bad. Though aging meat and the enzymatic breakdown of the tissue is a commonly employed process at the best steak houses.

2. Removing the testicles post mortem does nothing to the quality or taste of the meat

3. Castration can improve the quality of the meat later in life but does not really change the flavor. This is a result of the low testosterone induced drop in aggression, loss of urge to mate, resulting increased urge to eat, decreased drive to roam, and hormonal changes in body fat composition. IME BAR hogs (previously castrated males) have meat that tastes absolutely no different but the meat is more tender, with less gristle, and there is a much thicker fat layer.

4. Washing a hog off with water and or soap makes keeping the meat clean when you process the hog easier. It does nothing to the taste of the meat. The exterior of the skin should never touch the meat anyway if you are skinning correctly.

5. Contaminating the surface of meat with intestinal waste or urine will definitely make the meat taste funny, unless the meat can be immediately cleaned off or the surface layer cut off and discarded.

6. All hogs, especially big boars have very thick skulls between the eyes and above the forehead. The brain cavity does sit behind the eyes but if the bullet is placed at the lower border of the eyes it can easily pass through the posterior sinuses only. The bone at the ear is very thin and represents center mass of the brain. I single 22 LR (not FMJ) placed here will drop them.

7. The number 1 reason people think boars, pigs over 100 lbs, pigs that smell like swampy mud or hog piss, have poor quality meat is ignorance and folk lore. The 2nd reason is that hog hunting has no selected season, a big boar is difficult to move, makes for good photos, and has a thick coat of skin and fat that insulate it from heat loss. All of that results in excessive delays in getting the meat out of the hog often in hot humid conditions. I have seen wild hogs spoil the meat in as little as 90 minutes from death during summer. If the meat you are trying to remove is soft, mushy, yellow, and no longer smells like iron or blood, it is bad, leave it behind. The 3rd reason is that hogs have a relatively small chest cavity positioned far anterior with minimal extension beyond the posterior of the shoulder. This combined with poor shot placement, over powered rounds, and a thick bodied animal result a high percentage of non head shot hogs having intestinal rupture. I do not field dress or gut hogs normally so even a gut shot hog if recovered quickly can have good meat, but if you want to process the whole hog and not just the quarters and back straps I HIGHLY suggest doing so with a head shot hog.

8. IMO the perfect eater is a boar or sow of a minimum of 60 lbs and not over 200 only because it is harder for me to move alone. Anything under that has too little fat.

9. The perfect sausage hog is a 120lb plus sow that pregnant or lactating. The fat will be thick and white and the ratio of fat to meat will be perfect. These take me longer to skin because I try my best to shave the skin off the fat leaving as much behind as possible. Where as a normal meat harvest hog I pull skin quickly back removing fat and skin and try to get all meat out in under 20 min from death.





Take it for what it's worth but many here can vouch for my experience and my dinner fare.

I have killed and processed many wild hogs and have never found a difference in taste between small sow and large boar. Texture/tenderness may be different but taste is the same. Every once in a while we run across one that has some kind of infection and you will know immediately. When you start cleaning and run into pockets of puss throw it away. That is the only time I ever get bad meat. Larger boars may stink while cleaning but meat is fine.

quote:

---

It doesn't work. The only way to take a boar hog and have the meat taste okay is to not have him hot and bothered. Early morning, cool weather, and he moseys into a pile of corn take him. If he's caught in a trap and riled up the meat won't be any good. I had an Uncle that raised hogs for a living. he mostly killed young shoats, sows, and pigs, but on occasion he took out some larger boar hogs. He would ease up to the pen early in the morning, wait til he turned to face him, and shot him between the eyes with a 22. Then as he hit the ground, a large knife was used to slice open the neck cutting the jugular vein, to bleed him out. The meat was just as good as any sow.

---

This is the way we always did it. But really, cutting the nuts is not the problem. When gutting them and if you cut the piss bag, you have dog meat.