Quote History Quoted:
Nope your not wrong. A veterinarian friend butchered a older bull once and tried the steaks and they were rank smelling but surprisingly tender if you could get past the funk taste and smell. Billy Goat is even worse. That's the most awful smell I have ever smelled cooking. I have tried the vinegar soak and it somewhat works but makes the meat taste strange unless you marinade it to the point all you taste is spices. Now I have friend that killed a boar that was old enough his balls shriveled and he was quite tasty but he no longer had the rank boar smell. But I have never seen one like that in the wild.
View Quote
Taste of the meat on large boars depends on the care taken during cleaning. All the nastyness that’s on the outside must not touch the meat. If you touch the outside with your knife or hands, you gotta wash them before you touch the meat. Also on boars is a pocket around and in front of the penile sheath that holds the most foul smelling secretions on the hog. You must take care to not get any of that on the meat, your hands, or knife. Wash your knife often, if you’re using only one knife.
I use at least two knives. One is a box cutter. I use it to skin the hog. I’ll wear rubber gloves, and change them several times throughout the process. Key thing with hogs, or any wild game for that matter, is to keep the meat clean and keep it cold.
Once the meat is on ice, drain the water each day and put fresh ice on it. I’ll do this for several days until I process the meat.
Never killed a big boar I didn’t like. When properly taken care of they are excellent eating. The absolute worst hog meat I ever had was off a sow which had been run hard by dogs before I killed her. Her meat was nasty due to her being run hard for several miles prior to killing her. The adrenaline and chemical build up in the meat couldn’t be overcome by clean processing. Any hog killed under that same circumstances would likely have the same issue.
So, my experience is that if you take care during processing to keep the meat clean, keep it cold, and avoid contamination by touching it with dirty hands or knife, you’ll likely enjoy some good eating.