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Going on a hog hunt in Texas after Christmas, need meat advice

Pharmseller

Gunny Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Nov 14, 2021
896
1,874
Oregon
We’re flying to Texas from Oregon after Christmas. Going to shoot a hog or 5. I’ll have to ship the meat so I’m not bringing back everything I kill. So the question, what’s the best parts to bring home?

Not going to make bacon or anything, just chops and roasts I imagine. I’m open to advice.



P
 
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As i have been told, but have no experience, its the under 40# pigs that are best eating. Not sure why some many people just leave em lay, i eat everything i kill except coyotes (so far). I understand if you’ve killed 50 in a night, might be a bit much to process! At least get the backstraps!
 
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As i have been told, but have no experience, its the under 40# pigs that are best eating. Not sure why some many people just leave em lay, i eat everything i kill except coyotes (so far). I understand if you’ve killed 50 in a night, might be a bit much to process! At least get the backstraps!
Good advice, I think they taste better than deer if you kill them small
 
Good luck Pharmseller!

+1 on the smaller are tastier / more tender.
Do us Texans a favor and kill everyone you see, particularly the big ones. The big ones can destroy 1-5 acres per night each.
Feel free to leave the big ones (land owner permitting) where they fall.
Have fun, and send pics.
 
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How do those hogs taste anything like a standard pig ?
 
Hogs under 100-150 pounds are ok to eat, but the smaller the better. Loins, back straps and hams, especially if you have a processor at home that can cure and smoke the hams. Other than that dont bother with the other meat. I shoot a lot of hogs and eat more than those cuts in the smaller pigs but to be honest its not worth the transport expense for large quantities of meat. Far cheaper to buy some heritage berkshire pork cuts than ship the meat back. The flavor is very different than store bough and I like it better. Stronger and more flavorful. Stay away from boars, they can be very musky and gamey, the bigger ones are downright nasty.

All that said they are awesome bullet sponges...
 
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As i have been told, but have no experience, its the under 40# pigs that are best eating. Not sure why some many people just leave em lay, i eat everything i kill except coyotes (so far). I understand if you’ve killed 50 in a night, might be a bit much to process! At least get the backstraps!
There is always Hunters for the Hungry, etc to ensure meat goes to good use if you kill more than you want/need, right?

Of corse in many areas they are just destructive vermin and farmers need them dead, ate or not.
 
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What part of Texas are you hunting? I shot three hogs around Centerville in 2018. They weighed between 109 and 210 pounds. I put the bone in quarters and backstraps on ice unwrapped for 5 days. Every day I drained the water off, added ice, and threw a cup of white vinegar over the new ice. I butterflyed, beat with a meat hammer, stuffed, and smoked the backstraps and they were outstanding. I smoked the ribs, again, outstanding. The quarters were smoked bone in and taken to parties; I never came home with any meat, they were devoured. People would ask what it taste like and I would say it taste like what it taste like, nothing you’ve ever had, but not objectionable. They all agreed, no one could describe the flavor other than it was good. Might depend on what they are eating though and they have a varied diet across that state.
 

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Take a lot of vinegar and pickle the ears, snout, feet and testicles. Sell that to the Koreans. Let the rest lay.
 
Here’s some more eye candy.
 

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We’re flying to Texas from Oregon after Christmas. Going to shoot a hog or 5. I’ll have to ship the meat so I’m not bringing back everything I kill. So the question, what’s the best parts to bring home?

Not going to make bacon or anything, just chops and roasts I imagine. I’m open to advice.



P
Details on who you went with, etc? I also live in OR and killing a bunch of pigs is on my bucket list
 
I have been going down there pretty seriously the last few years, and off and on about the last 15. After you shoot a bunch of them, you can kinda just "tell" what ones are gonna be good to eat. If they look fat and shiny, aren't real big (think under about a hundred pounds) and just look overall healthy, I will take some cuts off of them. I don't mind the back straps cooked schnitzel style, and I brine and smoke the hinds just like a regular pig. I have also done a braised or slow cooked style and shredded into a pulled pork for sammies or barbacoa tacos. They are really easy to take apart in the field as well.
 
B5E290E9-F0C1-49C7-9048-169834CF0B70.jpeg

This is my pet pig. His name is Barbecue.
34D1EAA9-25D7-437B-B524-6C9A3B4BDF70.jpeg

that’s him again on the right.

Good luck with your hunt!
 
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How do those hogs taste anything like a standard pig ?
Smell them when you first shoot them. Touch it and smell your hand. It will have a wild whang to it. To me it smells like juniper and piss.

Others, and they don't have to be that big, may stink like a pig farm when standing a few feet away. Those are the ones I leave to the buzzards.

When you make chops out of the eaters and go to wipe the grease off your mouth after eating you may smell that wild whang again.
 
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I have been going down there pretty seriously the last few years, and off and on about the last 15. After you shoot a bunch of them, you can kinda just "tell" what ones are gonna be good to eat. If they look fat and shiny, aren't real big (think under about a hundred pounds) and just look overall healthy, I will take some cuts off of them. I don't mind the back straps cooked schnitzel style, and I brine and smoke the hinds just like a regular pig. I have also done a braised or slow cooked style and shredded into a pulled pork for sammies or barbacoa tacos. They are really easy to take apart in the field as well.
Barbacoa is beef cheek meat.
 
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A little reading says it can be made with pork too. Who new. I guess like a lot of dishes it has many different preparations. So there are probably huge groups all arguing the other groups are doing it wrong. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: I always ask if the barbacoa is cheek meat before I get it anywhere. I could see lamb doing it well. I have never ate a goat, that I know of. I bet ox tail would work well too, but we always use it for soup.
 
How do those hogs taste anything like a standard pig ?
No.
There is no fat on them, with the exception of the "armor", which is a very hard fat that doesn't render.
Depending on what they eat, of course the backstraps are best, you'll find yourself marinating the any of the other meat, as it is dry.
 
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Also, I take a can of dog flea spray and before I start dressing a hog I spray it and stand back for a few minutes before I mess with it.

I've finished dressing a hog before and found myself covered with big black fleas while driving home.
 
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Tips from a former hunting guide on a few thousand acres in Texas:

1) dont touch the tusks with your bare hands. ever. They are like razor blades. Wild pigs carry all sorts of diseases, one is Bangs Disease and you dont want that. Bring alcohol, peroxide, gauze bandages, black electical tape. Address any cuts you get while cleaning the hog immediately by disinfecting, then bandage, then seal with black electrical tape, then back to work. From an acquaintance who got Bangs from guiding hunts at Camp Bullis, he wished he had dunked his hands in the bleach water buckets they had sitting there.

- related note: sliced my finger damn near to the bone trying to hacksaw out a jaw for a guy. luckily my partner helped handle the wound like detailed above. No Brucilosis from that.

2) gutting them is for suckers. unless you just enjoy getting lice, fleas and ticks. IFF you must have some meat off of them (i buy FFA hogs from the high school kids, much tastier, larger, cheap and all around better), peel the loins out by just cutting an oval out of their hide, skin it back, then run your knife along the back bone and along the outside of the ribs. i never cut up deer or anything without having a 2"-3" meat hook. this helps for these loins also.

3) since this is a paid for hunt, shoot them where ever you want to so you can take pictures, etc. For me, I shoot them in the guts and they dont stop running until they are dead. no mess, no dragging them off somewhere. They self-remove.

Enjoy! Take night vision and thermal and have a blast. Kill as many as you can see.
 
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I think you e gotten pretty good advice already. I’ll just add that the ‘loin’ that everyone is talking about is under the spine, mostly between the rear legs and running almost to the last rib (One on each side). If you shoot one worth eating, don’t leave these two cuts behind.

I shot a big sow (200+) a few years ago. She smelled like pecans- and had bore-like cutters. Not all of the big ones are rancid.
 
Agreed with @Charger442 I'll get my hands dirty with anything except wild pig.

For the amount of work you put in, there's no upside to butchering them. Especially if you would be paying someone! Give us an update on how it goes though 👍
 
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A little reading says it can be made with pork too. Who new. I guess like a lot of dishes it has many different preparations. So there are probably huge groups all arguing the other groups are doing it wrong. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: I always ask if the barbacoa is cheek meat before I get it anywhere. I could see lamb doing it well. I have never ate a goat, that I know of. I bet ox tail would work well too, but we always use it for soup.
I’ve never in my life seen pork barbacoa, or even heard of it. Sounds like some white people shit, and as a white I don’t trust a Cracker with Mexican food.people put beans in “chili” too, but that’s beef and bean bullshit stew not real traditional chili.

I don’t even eat at taco places other white people go to, if I don’t get treated like an interloper when I first go it’s not going to be good lol.
 




The biggest issue with a pig is to get all the glands out. That will make them rank if you don’t. Otherwise they are just like a grocery store pig. The trappers run these pigs through a USDA inspection station and then to a feedlot.

 
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I’ve never in my life seen pork barbacoa, or even heard of it. Sounds like some white people shit, and as a white I don’t trust a Cracker with Mexican food.people put beans in “chili” too, but that’s beef and bean bullshit stew not real traditional chili.

I don’t even eat at taco places other white people go to, if I don’t get treated like an interloper when I first go it’s not going to be good lol.
Fuckin racist.
;) :ROFLMAO:
 
I’ve never in my life seen pork barbacoa, or even heard of it. Sounds like some white people shit, and as a white I don’t trust a Cracker with Mexican food.people put beans in “chili” too, but that’s beef and bean bullshit stew not real traditional chili.

I don’t even eat at taco places other white people go to, if I don’t get treated like an interloper when I first go it’s not going to be good lol.
I imagine it just depends on what part of Mexico they are from. Seems to me like my wife told me once Barbacoa just meant it is steamed.

What a lot of people call Chilli, is pretty much Italian Three bean soup. And its great with crackers or chips and cheese in it.

Nothing is really that hard to cook, if one call follow the recipe and preparation instructions. I am about to eat a big bowl of Ox tail Pozole the wife made. Nobody I am aware of makes it better. Turns out her ethnic background doesn't negatively effect the flavor. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: We mix Chilli powder from Mexico with Chilli powder from India to make it. The mixture of two makes great Enchilada sauce also, but its pretty spicy.
 
You guys are way too picky. I have killed and eaten hogs from piglet on up to 250 lbs. I turn none of the down, they will all eat. However, I wash them thoroughly before I ever open it up and after I skin it. I then throw the parts into salted ice water overnight. As long as there is no fat on the cooked meat it’s all good. I keep it all for stews and sausage but if I could only keep the choice cuts I would go with the back legs, blackstrap and tenderloins.

This 120 lb gilt was shot this weekend and almost immediately after unzipping her the back strap was in a pan with rosemary, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and a drizzle of honey. The rest went in the freezer as roasts or stew meat.

This time of year they are eating wheat, acorns and corn from feeders. They don’t get healthier or cleaner. Still a nasty beast. But tasty.
 

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I imagine it just depends on what part of Mexico they are from. Seems to me like my wife told me once Barbacoa just meant it is steamed.

What a lot of people call Chilli, is pretty much Italian Three bean soup. And its great with crackers or chips and cheese in it.

Nothing is really that hard to cook, if one call follow the recipe and preparation instructions. I am about to eat a big bowl of Ox tail Pozole the wife made. Nobody I am aware of makes it better. Turns out her ethnic background doesn't negatively effect the flavor. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: We mix Chilli powder from Mexico with Chilli powder from India to make it. The mixture of two makes great Enchilada sauce also, but its pretty spicy.
It’s “Chili” that’s like saying bannana it comes from “Chili Con Carne”. It originated in San Antonio(TX). People say northern Mexico, but it was the 1700s so technically it was new Spain then I believe. The recipe didn’t include beans according to written recipes and historians. Also the name is a bit of a hint, chili’s and meat.

Barbacoa was always goat or lamb way back, but beef became popular over the years. Still never seen pork. Mexicans love pork, but seem to stay traditional with most of the food.
 
It’s “Chili” that’s like saying bannana it comes from “Chili Con Carne”. It originated in San Antonio(TX). People say northern Mexico, but it was the 1700s so technically it was new Spain then I believe. The recipe didn’t include beans according to written recipes and historians. Also the name is a bit of a hint, chili’s and meat.

Barbacoa was always goat or lamb way back, but beef became popular over the years. Still never seen pork. Mexicans love pork, but seem to stay traditional with most of the food.
Texas Red originated during the cattle drives, the cooks on the chuck wagons would use massive amounts of chili peppers to cover the taste of rancid meat. So, in most of Texas, beans don't go in chili.
Other parts of the country put beans in their Chili.
I don't put too much stock in Texans thinking they are the arbiters of what chili should or shouldn't be.
The two most popular beers in Texas are Bud Light and Coors Light.
That's all you need to know about their taste.
Parts of Mexico use pork in Barbacoa and I have seen it here in South Texas.
 
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Texas Red originated during the cattle drives, the cooks on the chuck wagons would use massive amounts of chili peppers to cover the taste of rancid meat. So, in most of Texas, beans don't go in chili.
Other parts of the country put beans in their Chili.
I don't put too much stock in Texans thinking they are the arbiters of what chili should or shouldn't be.
The two most popular beers in Texas are Bud Light and Coors Light.
That's all you need to know about their taste.
Parts of Mexico use pork in Barbacoa and I have seen it here in South Texas.
It spread through cattle drives, it originated in San Antonio with the Spanish and canary islanders. Beans were a side dish.
 
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It spread through cattle drives, it originated in San Antonio with the Spanish and canary islanders.
There are other arguments as to the origin, but yours has a significant amount of historical provenance.
The history I had read previously, is the origin I alluded to, while the origin may have been misleading, the rancid meat has SOME validity.
As you can see in this story, which jives with your origin, the cattle drives introduced the beans.
 
There are other arguments as to the origin, but yours has a significant amount of historical provenance.
The history I had read previously, is the origin I alluded to, while the origin may have been misleading, the rancid meat has SOME validity.
As you can see in this story, which jives with your origin, the cattle drives introduced the beans.
I’ve done a shit ton of research on it, the history of things interests me quite a bit. I’m also way more into the history of the state than your average person.
 
I’ve done a shit ton of research on it, the history of things interests me quite a bit. I’m also way more into the history of the state than your average person.

i suspect the beans in chili thing happened because us poor people were trying to stretch meals out. nothing adds cheap filler like red beans and its more nutritional than sawdust. its kinda like red beans and rice or jambalaya.

People get really worked up about beans in chili but it probably wasnt done as a "lets make this chili better my adding beans" it was probably "we can stretch this relatively expensive beef dish an extra few meals if we put in these beans we grew in the garden".
 
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i suspect the beans in chili thing happened because us poor people were trying to stretch meals out. nothing adds cheap filler like red beans and its more nutritional than sawdust. its kinda like red beans and rice or jambalaya.

People get really worked up about beans in chili but it probably wasnt done as a "lets make this chili better my adding beans" it was probably "we can stretch this relatively expensive beef dish an extra few meals if we put in these beans we grew in the garden".
Still doesn’t change what actual chili is.
 
Mexicans call all chillies, chili. I think you need to broaden your definition of what "chill" is.
 
no one said it did. as a history guy, id assume you were interested in some history. The history of poor people stretching chili with beans.
I’m aware, pretty sure an earlier comment I said beans were a side dish(to chili).
 
Cant believe we have a swinging purse fight on SH over bean vs no bean chili...
Hey man, fuck you! Next thing you will think isn't important is whether the cornbread has sugar in it or not.

But we all seem to have forgotten about the pigs...