Rank hog boar taint

[Doug B.]

Just curious,how would you know he’s rank if you’ve never seen one yet? I can see where if someone only killed one or two a year it would be worth the time to wash one down real good before skinning then save the meat to eat but when I can kill multiple hogs a week I don’t see why anyone else would even try to find one that was worth eating.

I get that. And I agree that if you killed multiple hogs a week that you could pick and choose what you wanted to keep. I guess it depends on where you are and the hog density where you are. But here every boar hog over 100 lbs is usually great eating in my experience.

 

[frankwright]

I have never walked up on a pig and had it smell like anything but dead pig. No really bad odor.
I always try to shoot pigs under 100 because I have found the meat to be so good.
I usually put the cleaned,quartered pig in a color above ice for several days. I often pick up a piece and just smell it.
It has always smelled fine. If I ever got any bad odor, I would not eat it.
Mal\king sausage is too much work to have it ruined.

 

[sghoghunter]

I get that. And I agree that if you killed multiple hogs a week that you could pick and choose what you wanted to keep. I guess it depends on where you are and the hog density where you are. But here every boar hog over 100 lbs is usually great eating in my experience.

Here’s ya a big boar that actually don’t stink haha

 

[bany]

So, what have we learned? A stinking hog can eat great, but a hog being cooked that stinks needs to be discarded?

Pretty much! Or in studies of domestic farm raised and cross bred pigs there is a different occurrence of taint. And apparently some humans can’t smell it either.
Also that in feral hog populations it is very rare or very prominent and or maybe only in big boars!

 

[bfriendly]

Rank and taint may be 2 different things. Never knew about tainted, but have always heard about rank hogs. Ive killed one hog that was rank and it was a shot. Covered in ticks and just looked terrible too. From the Same group of shotes I got a plump lil sow that didn’t stink at all and ate great! I’ve eaten some big hogs with no problem. I’ve cooked purchased pork that stunk!

 

[Thetrooper]

Pretty much! Or in studies of domestic farm raised and cross bred pigs there is a different occurrence of taint. And apparently some humans can’t smell it either.
Also that in feral hog populations it is very rare or very prominent and or maybe only in big boars!

I think the big takeaway is that there is a biological reason most people can't stomach the smell or taste of a boar with taint. So when someone tries to lecture another hunter that they didn't butcher the hog right or it wasn't cooled down properly they're absolutely incorrect. And at the same time when someone lectures another hunter that they should just throw away every old boar they could be wrong as well. Both sides of this argument are right and wrong so its no longer a mystery

 

[johnpoulan83]

In my opinion if you smell a nasty rank musky boar hog and still clean him just to see if he’s edible it’s gonna have to taste good cause ya smeller sure ain’t no good. I’ve killed some hundred pound boars that stank to high heaven then some 250 pounders and no smell at all. It’s like rolling the dice ya never know what it’ll be like. I treat em all the same way by dragging them to the gut hole and rolling them over the hill.

Me and my son went on a deer hunt this year in north Texas as well. One evening hunt I shot a big bore hog from 650 yards away just before dark that was at a feeder we could see a long ways down. My buddy and his son were hunting not to far from there and had to drive by the spot I shot. When they picked me up they said they could smell the rank hog so bad when they drove by that I just shot, on the way back it was dark and we drove up and sure enough could smell the worst smell I have ever smelt from a animal, turns out we turned the spot light on and it was a pack of javelina hogs of about 20 or so. I have never smelt anything worse. Afterwards I did some research and they said they’re called “skunk pigs” for that reason and there eyesight is terrible and use there smell to find each other . We ended up killing a couple and left them lay. They had some big nasty teeth in them too. We grabbed them with gloves to take some pictures because we don’t have javelinas down here and ended up having to throw the gloves out they stunk so bad.

 

[sghoghunter]

Me and my son went on a deer hunt this year in north Texas as well. One evening hunt I shot a big bore hog from 650 yards away just before dark that was at a feeder we could see a long ways down. My buddy and his son were hunting not to far from there and had to drive by the spot I shot. When they picked me up they said they could smell the rank hog so bad when they drove by that I just shot, on the way back it was dark and we drove up and sure enough could smell the worst smell I have ever smelt from a animal, turns out we turned the spot light on and it was a pack of javelina hogs of about 20 or so. I have never smelt anything worse. Afterwards I did some research and they said they’re called “skunk pigs” for that reason and there eyesight is terrible and use there smell to find each other . We ended up killing a couple and left them lay. They had some big nasty teeth in them too. We grabbed them with gloves to take some pictures because we don’t have javelinas down here and ended up having to throw the gloves out they stunk so bad.

I ve heard they smell real bad but I’ve also heard they was good eating too

 

[NMH5050]

My folks and other Elders around home back then wouldn`t kill a gilt if she came into heat at hog killing time. Said the meat wouldn`t be fit to eat.

I also remember a young boar The Redhead killed while setting a deer stand one Saturday evening. It weighed maybe 90 pounds on the hoof and was fat as a butterball. It was below freezing and I had it gutted and hanging within 30 minutes.. Next morning that little hog was nearly frozen and I went ahead and butchered it, saving the loins to cook Monday evening. Fine looking meat with no bad smell at all. When I pulled up into the yard that evening and got out of the truck, it was obvious what was cooking. The whole place stunk. We threw that mess away. None of it was fit to eat.

I had raised, killed, and butchered hogs all my life and never had a young one like that, ever. As for old boars, ya`ll can have them. I won`t waste my time with them.

The fist hog I ever killed I was so excited and looking forward to eating it. I was taking my time breaking it down at the deer camp when an older gentleman came up to me and asked "what are you going to do with that hog?" I said slow cook most of it on my smoker.. He replied " Does you neighbor have a smoker"? I said yes... He said "use his" with a long laugh and I understood what he meant when I started cooking it. The smell was terrible!

 

[bfriendly]

I swear I think I’m gonna build a big fire and cook the next shoulder outdoors! Store bought pork stunk my house up so I’ll stick with wild pork when I can get it! My wife loved the chops the other night. But they looked better than store bought too.

 

[Okie Hog]

Boar taint is different from plain old stinky boar hog that pees all over himself and wallows in poop. Since 2000 i've trapped and shot at least 100 wild boars over 200 pounds. Some smelled really bad. Have eaten the meat of many of those hogs, including the one at my avatar. None of the meat was tainted.

Yes, all uncut boars have those hormones but there is another component to boar taint: Layers and layers of fat from lying around. Domestic breeding boars are often afflicted with boar taint. BTW: Domestic boars are used in pepperoni.

Wild boars have a hardscrabble life and are seldom very fat compared to domestic boars.

Several years ago i gave a nice sow that field dressed 212 pounds to a friend. He claimed the meat was tainted. We fried some sausage and it stunk. The processer had kept the carcass in his cooler for 19 days and processed a rotten hog. Same processor allowed several elk to rot. One elk hunter beat hm up.

Most hog hunters here never learn anything. They get dirt and hair on the meat while skinning/field dressing, burst the bladder, cut the stomach and guts. They haul intsct hogs around on their pickups all day in the 100 degree heat. then complain of tainted meat. IME: 'Tainted" meat is dirty and/or rotten meat.

i've never tasted tainted wild hog meat. This evening i will have sauerkraut and the chops from a wild uncut boar that weighed 250 pounds.

i've been known to take wild hogs by the car wash before skinning/gutting.

 

[sghoghunter]

If boat taint is different than the smell of a boar hog when you walk up to one explain what the taint smell is. IMO as many hogs as there is I would never take a chance on cleaning any size boar hog. Every boar hogs we kill is no questions asked drug to the woods and left but then to think about it every sow is too

 

[Hillbilly stalker]

I don't know if anyone can accurately describe or explain the smell on a wild hog. They are nasty, wallow in old black mud and swamp water...but they have a funk all to their own. Some don't smell at all, some smell like an old wet soured dog and then some smell like someone put a jockstrap in the microwave. I hunt them on WMA and have killed more than my fair share of them. I have gotten on a few, real early in the season, that would be pushing 300 lbs. I could smell them from 60 plus yards away, just a nasty sharp smell that reminds you of a boys high school locker room. I always kill a smaller one, 150lbs. or less. I have killed several that didn't have a strong smell to them at all, but stunk to high heaven while cooking. I do the whole process myself, I use the gutless method in the field and they are always on ice within the hour. Still cant stand the smell of some, and I'm not squeamish by no means, I eat coons and squirrels right regular. A hog is a hog, when I debone one at the house...my curs wont even chew the raw bones. You can tell they don't want it.

Most I have killed have little fat on them, could that little bit of fat be making the meat smell and taste bad while cooking? I remove the glands in the rear hams. Its not on all of them tho.

 

[Thetrooper]

Boar taint is different from plain old stinky boar hog that pees all over himself and wallows in poop. Since 2000 i've trapped and shot at least 100 wild boars over 200 pounds. Some smelled really bad. Have eaten the meat of many of those hogs, including the one at my avatar. None of the meat was tainted.

Yes, all uncut boars have those hormones but there is another component to boar taint: Layers and layers of fat from lying around. Domestic breeding boars are often afflicted with boar taint. BTW: Domestic boars are used in pepperoni.

Wild boars have a hardscrabble life and are seldom very fat compared to domestic boars.

Several years ago i gave a nice sow that field dressed 212 pounds to a friend. He claimed the meat was tainted. We fried some sausage and it stunk. The processer had kept the carcass in his cooler for 19 days and processed a rotten hog. Same processor allowed several elk to rot. One elk hunter beat hm up.

Most hog hunters here never learn anything. They get dirt and hair on the meat while skinning/field dressing, burst the bladder, cut the stomach and guts. They haul intsct hogs around on their pickups all day in the 100 degree heat. then complain of tainted meat. IME: 'Tainted" meat is dirty and/or rotten meat.

i've never tasted tainted wild hog meat. This evening i will have sauerkraut and the chops from a wild uncut boar that weighed 250 pounds.

i've been known to take wild hogs by the car wash before skinning/gutting.

I dont think the exterior smell has anything to do with the taint. Like you said the urine and all that give them that barnyard smell.

The big mountain hog I killed was shot at roughly 430pm. He was skinned and quartered within minutes. Packed out on a brisk October evening and burried in a bed of fresh ice in a clean cooler within two hours. Water kept drained then frozen solid the next day. Meat was cut partially frozen stripped of all fat and mixed in a 70/30 ratio with regular pork fat and ground. Completely inedible. The smell cooking was enough to make you gag. By contrast I've had old stank boars that were ungutted for 2-3hrs rolling around in a truck bed in 70° weather before processing that were delicious.

You clearly have killed enough hogs that you've eaten some rank ones man you must be immune to the taint. Im sure a fatter hog would have more androstenedione and skatole than if he was lean but once they get to a certain threshold I don't think it matters. Like if you go to use a bathroom someone else just blew up it's not gonna be that worse than if 2-3 people blew it up lol

 

[Okie Hog]

i don't doubt for one minute that the hog you killed had boar taint. But i've never seen boar taint in wild hogs here.

i know what boar taint smells like, my Dad ran the WV prison system hog farm.

Off Topic;

In WV there is a wild leek that folks call ramps. Ramps are the first plant to peek through the snow in the spring. Now ramps are delicious but they make ones body and breath stink something awful. Dentists there hate ramps.

Any animal eating ramps will be unfit to eat. Two spring gobbler seasons in a row i killed gobblers that had been eating ramps. Got to throw the meat away.

 

[Thetrooper]

i don't doubt for one minute that the hog you killed had boar taint. But i've never seen boar taint in wild hogs here.

i know what boar taint smells like, my Dad ran the WV prison system hog farm.

Off Topic;

In WV there is a wild leek that folks call ramps. Ramps are the first plant to peek through the snow in the spring. Now ramps are delicious but they make ones body and breath stink something awful. Dentists there hate ramps.

Any animal eating ramps will be unfit to eat. Two spring gobbler seasons in a row i killed gobblers that had been eating ramps. Got to throw the meat away.

Yeah but the point of the original thread post is that all the superstition around hog meat is probably 90% of the time strictly related to eating an older male hog with boar taint and has nothing to do with how the animal was handled. It's an old argument between hog hunters about what is fit to eat I'm not telling anyone what to do with their pigs if you've never eaten one with taint or can't taste it then I'm sure you're opinion is different than mine. All I know is a lot of money and research goes into controlling it in domestic populations for the meat market.

There are always two sides to this classic hog argument and you fall square into the camp that there is "nothing wrong with the pig it's how you handled it" I mean you said in your post you've probably eaten 100 wild boar hog all delicious eating some tonight..your meat no good because butcher let hog rot ..hogs being in the truck bed in 100° heat all day is the reason it taste bad.

I gotta give other hunters a bit more credit and not think that everyone else out there hunting is just gut shooting and mishandling their pork in every way possible. I'm sure that a small amount of hog meat spoils due to that but no other game meat has this type of reputation....was really just trying to bring this topic to light since 99% of hunters I talk to didn't know anything about boar taint or ever even heard about it. But here we are still having the same argument If you've seriously eaten 100 wild boar hogs and haven't tasted it I find it much more likely that you are in the minority of people who cannot physically taste it rather than you live or hunt in an area where boar taint doesn't exist at all

 

[Okie Hog]

I find it much more likely that you are in the minority of people who cannot physically taste it rather than you live or hunt in an area where boar taint doesn't exist at all

i can smell and taste boar tint. My Dad ran a hog farm.: Stuff smells awful when cooking and tastes awful.

The domestic hog raisers say about 20 percent uncut boar hogs have boar taint. We don't know what percentage of wild boars have boar taint, but it ain't 20 percent in southwestern OK.

i will say again: i've never eaten meat from a wild boar that had boar taint.

 

[dwhee87]

Guess I've just been lucky. Haven't killed that many wild ones, but have eaten every one, and never had a bad one. Heading to TX this weekend for a hog hunt. Maybe I'll get me a stinky one and break the streak.

 

[NCHillbilly]

In my opinion if you smell a nasty rank musky boar hog and still clean him just to see if he’s edible it’s gonna have to taste good cause ya smeller sure ain’t no good. I’ve killed some hundred pound boars that stank to high heaven then some 250 pounders and no smell at all. It’s like rolling the dice ya never know what it’ll be like. I treat em all the same way by dragging them to the gut hole and rolling them over the hill.

I've never killed a hog that didn't stink on the outside. Bad. Hog poop, hog urine, soured mud, they all smell nasty to me. If the meat itself stinks, that's different.

 

[sghoghunter]

I've never killed a hog that didn't stink on the outside. Bad. Hog poop, hog urine, soured mud, they all smell nasty to me. If the meat itself stinks, that's different.

I agree they do all stink but there’s a difference between stinking and stanking. What I mean by stanking is when you smell that boar way before you even get to him. I have shot some that didn’t smell at all then I’ve shot some that I had to throw the rope away that I used to drag him off with. IMO someone is either hard up or a complete idiot to even try one that stinks on the outside