Pork

[WhoCares]

With so many hogs being killed on the forum how come there is no talk about home processing, brining or not, prep before freezing, sausage making recipes for breakfast or links, favorite seasonings, so on and so fourth?

Seems like we are missing out on a lot of experience!

 

[RattlesnakeDan]

Kill It. Grill It. Eat It.

 

[Ratdog68]

I gather that most are simply feeding buzzards and scavengers.

 

[pruhdlr]

Yeah . . . even if I were "blessed" with the hogs that you Ta-Has boys have I believe that I would have my cooler in the back of my truck with some ice in it. Then flip 'em onto their stomach,and take the backstraps.
NOW . . . . I say that because I have never taken 6-8+ sets of backstraps in one night. If so,I reserve the right to change my mind. --- pruhdlr

 

[RattlesnakeDan]

There is a point where it just loses it's appeal. I take meat once in a while now, not much in the summer but more often in the cooler months. My wife is more apt to want me to bring it home than I am.

 

[der Teufel]

About half of what we shoot just goes to a local processor who turns it into link sausage for a little over $1/Lb.
Occasionally we make sausage ourselves just to have a different variety, or to make breakfast/pan sausage.

About 1/3 of what we take goes onto the smoker with whatever rub happened to be cheap at the grocery store, or just some various spices thrown together based on whatever internet recipe we found recently.

The rest goes two places:
1) Smaller hogs end up as stew or sometimes cooked in a mustard sauce or similar.
2) Larger hogs go through the meat grinder but are not seasoned as sausage. We just use the ground meat like we would beef. We use it for chili, lasagna, tacos, meat loaf, shepard's pie, spaghetti sauce, etc. Basically the ground meat, when used in a dish that's somewhat highly seasoned, replaces ground beef quite well.

 

[Bakester]

I'll give one to the neighbors now and then but Id rather be shooting than cleaning. Most of the time I have stalked them way out in fields that you can't be driving on and not gonna drag it a 1/4 mile.

 

[WhoCares]

Well I guess I’m fixin to jump in feet first. I purchased my first meat grinder, 5 or 6 different packs of seasonings, 100 feet of hog intestines for link sausage, 1 giant (and heavy ) Artic cooler to hold the meat, so on and so fourth. I plan on leaving the meat in the ice chest for 3 or 4 days soaking in salt water, and then make breakfast sausage, plain ground pork and smoked link sausages.

LOL, I sure hope I end up liking wild pork otherwise I will be having a fire sale on all this equipment. I’m tired of leaving all this meat for the buzzards. At first I plan on being really selective on hog sizes to process so I don’t scare myself right off the bat. The adventure continues

 

[RattlesnakeDan]

My favorite hog to eat is a 200# boar and under contrary to local thinking. They tend to live a good life, have first pickings when it comes to food, tend to have plenty of fat and a good amount of meat. If they are stanky, I leave them. I don't really care for the small hogs, a bit too soft for my likings. The sows are usually the least favorite on my list unless they haven't had piglets yet. Most sows around here have little fat and the fat tends to be yellowish, they give much of their nutrition into keeping the kiddos alive I don't keep them anymore. I sell trapped hogs for the pit and everyone wants the small ones 25# and under are the fastest sellers. Can't give away 150# hog hardly.

 

[WhoCares]

Thanks that’s good to know. I have plenty of 200 lbs boars which I usually leave lay since I’ve heard they taste nasty although I’ve never run across a stinky one so far.