re: Question on wild pig meat....update pg 2

I’ve seen it both ways. Soaking whole quarters in ice water for multiple days is one of those things that just got passed down over the years, and it does nothing but ruin the outside 1/4” or so.

BUT the flip side to that is something that drives me nuts. I see people all the time quartering or deboning, throwing the whole steaming deer in an ice chest that’s barely big enough to hold it all, then just covering the top with ice. It will take hours for that meat to cool.

Where I think the soaking thing got started, and what I do if I can help it, is dunk the deboned and/or quartered pieces into ice water to quench them until they’re cold, then they go on regular ice. If that’s not practical I make sure to put a layer of ice on the bottom and between each piece as it goes in. The sooner you get that meat down from body temp, and nothing can do that faster than ice water, the less bacterial growth you’re gonna have and the longer it’s going to keep and the better it’s going to taste.

There’s a difference between leaving it on ice and leaving it in ice water.

Since this got bumped I'll give a little update. We smoked the 4 shoulders whole for BBQ, cut the hams into steaks and sliced the loin as well. Rest was ground and mixed with venison for sausages. Thus far we have made 25 lbs of breakfast sausage, 25 lbs of summer sausage, and 15lbs of 100% venison snack sticks. Still have about 50 lbs of venison and Boston Butts previously purchased that will be made into smoked sausage once we get the smoke house/smoker built. Everything so far has turned out excellent.

I hunt them in the swamps, so they get pretty tough, but here's what I do. Before I start skinning the whole damn thing, I cut a chunk off the front shoulder and throw it on the grill or in a skillet. If it's musty, you'll know.

Even on a boar, I'll slow roast the tenderloin, pull pork the rear leg quarters and sausage the shoulders.

On piglets and small females I cushon de lait.

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As great and knowledgeable as our grandparents are/were, they were terrible game cooks for the most part. I assume it's due to the ability to get the meat cooled and into a freezer in time for it not to spoil.

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This. I used to be religious about soaking my deer meat because my dad had always done it. He hates the taste of wild game. I stopped soaking it and the meat doesn't taste as strong. I can tell when I pull deer meat from him out of the freezer because it smells like a goat. Doesn't matter if it's a buck or a doe....soaking it ruins it.

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I always allow my wild game meat to sit on ice for 24 hours before I process it. I don't add salt and keep any water drained off. Never had a problem with meat tasting bad.

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24 hours isn't bad. I'm talking about the people who soak for a week or two. I normally put the meat in plastic bags and then have on top of a bit of ice and ice on top with the ice chest plug open.

Milk kills bacteria? What kind of milk are we talking about?

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There is a lot of people in this thread who seem to be ruining game meat way before they ever begin to cook it

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My dad would kill deer and give all the meat away because he hated the taste.

The reason he hated the taste is because he would kill the poor deer twice by cooking the meat to death.

Once I started killing, cleaning, and handling on my own, I figured out that he was the problem with the cooking and not the product itself.

The best wild game I ever had was when I had access to a meat cooler and was able to hang a doe for a week.

Keeping the meat cold and DRY and letting some enzymatic breakdown occur makes all the difference in the world.

Yep, aging meat makes all the difference in the world. Have you ever ate beef from a cow that was killed the same day? It's horrible and very gamey. It needs to be aged first, like what you buy at the store.