Rank hog boar taint

[Thetrooper]

I have never researched this and I'm probably not ever going to. But I will take your word for it that these percentages are true honestly because I have no reason to believe otherwise. I do have one question though.

I have killed some of what I consider large boars in the wild. To me 200 lbs and bigger would be a large boar. All that I have killed tasted great! I don't think I'm immune to this taste because I have seen domestic hogs that I just couldn't eat because of the taste and smell.

So my question is this, would you be able to smell this rankness as you were skinning a large boar hog?

The reason I ask this is because hog meat is really good. And one out of five seems like a low percentage to throw every boar away just because it "might" taste bad. If there is no difference in smell at skinning then it does make more sense to not waste your time with it. The big ones I have killed smelled fine so I haven't smelled one that wasn't fit to eat.

I don't know man I've killed some really stinky ones on the carcass that ate good. A lot of the smell when you get up on one is the urine and semen they splash up on their bellies which is nasty but not indicative of having taint. It's really rolling the dice. You might be immune or just killed some who didn't have it. I don't know.

the 20% of male hogs that have boar taint is just an average... certain heritage breeds have a much higher prevalence for taint and others do not. Depending on the local genetic makeup of your hogs from way back could be a less taint prone population or more prone. I just can't justify spending the time butchering and in the case of mountain hunting slinging 100lbs of rank meat on my back for 3 miles. This year especially because I chose to leave the cape and take the meat and he would have been a real cool mounter

 

[Thetrooper]

Sorry to disappoint you guys that this wasn't a post about the anatomical "taint" region of the hog lolol.

But seriously I don't know if you can smell it in the carcass. Some bad smelling ones I've shot have tasted great. This is not so much an exterior smell although the skinned meat does have an odor.

Taint is only stored in the fat tissue and according to what I've read it really becomes way more pronounced when the androstenone and skatole laced meat is heated up and cooked. It's a bad man I mean you won't want to eat it.

Im really not into the "research" crap especially in today's world but like I said this stuff is just common knowledge in the farmer world and has been probably since the beginning of time. It's just time we hunters get these facts together to clear up old myths.

 

[Thetrooper]

Domestic hogs get a smell during their breeding cycle. Sows start to smell kinda like maple syrup, and boars get a musky hard for me to describe scent. Not super rank foul just you know its there. I killed a big wild boar had the same scent. The meat tasted fine. I think the rank smell might be from "rutty" hogs but maybe food related when talkin feral pigs. Fyi most other countries dont cut their feeder pig stock.

This is not an exterior smell although some pigs do smell worse than others especially when breeding. This is strictly a meat taste/smell from stored fat. Although I imagine an old boar with taint probably smells worse than others.

A lot of commercial pigs are slaughtered well before maturity here and overseas. This is also before and the taint has time to set in. Other countries people also do not eat as much pork as US. Our US commercial producers have completely eliminated taint from the industry because people would not eat it if the tasted that flavor.

Other cultures like in the middle east eat goat, in UK they eat a lot of mutton which are flavors that most in the US find objectionable. I would imagine in other countries they have gotten used to it but it makes you wonder that taint is probably why pork is not very popular lol. Also with certain religions around the world objecting to eating pigs I wonder if it is because of the taint haha

 

[livinoutdoors]

This is not an exterior smell although some pigs do smell worse than others especially when breeding. This is strictly a meat taste/smell from stored fat. Although I imagine an old boar with taint probably smells worse than others.

A lot of commercial pigs are slaughtered well before maturity here and overseas. This is also before and the taint has time to set in. Other countries people also do not eat as much pork as US. Our US commercial producers have completely eliminated taint from the industry because people would not eat it if the tasted that flavor.

Other cultures like in the middle east eat goat, in UK they eat a lot of mutton which are flavors that most in the US find objectionable. I would imagine in other countries they have gotten used to it but it makes you wonder that taint is probably why pork is not very popular lol. Also with certain religions around the world objecting to eating pigs I wonder if it is because of the taint haha

I will have to say that while in the U.S. many many many pigs are slaughtered young they do send old boars and sows to the sausage factory. They "say" they have eliminated taint but who knows. Mostly they use pink pigs so its pretty standardized nowadays. More like the chicken industry. As far as how much pork i think china eats the most but i could be wrong.

 

[NCHillbilly]

I will have to say that while in the U.S. many many many pigs are slaughtered young they do send old boars and sows to the sausage factory. They "say" they have eliminated taint but who knows. Mostly they use pink pigs so its pretty standardized nowadays. More like the chicken industry. As far as how much pork i think china eats the most but i could be wrong.

Yeah, I think China is the #1 consumer of pork in the world.

 

[Nicodemus]

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.

 

[Railroader]

In another thread somewhere, I mentioned my old uncle who raised pigs. He always had a few and wild, tame, or hybrid didn't matter to him.

Once in a while, he'd kill one off because "it was gonna be rank".

Must have been something to it, because he never wasted anything...

 

[mizzippi jb]

My folks live on the Oconee River and catch em. They have phone numbers for a couple of Asian (of some sort) of folks who want all the big boars they can get for em. Rank or not. Just kill em and call em.... They'll be there shortly to load em up and do whatever they do with em.

 

[Thetrooper]

My folks live on the Oconee River and catch em. They have phone numbers for a couple of Asian (of some sort) of folks who want all the big boars they can get for em. Rank or not. Just kill em and call em.... They'll be there shortly to load em up and do whatever they do with em.

Yeah with all the stuff the Chinese eat a lil boar taint ain't a big deal lol

 

[mizzippi jb]

They make bars out of a good many of em they catch.

 

[piedmont1971]

I agree, wash'm down and try not to get any on ya. Clean piggy is a good piggy

 

[bany]

Sorry to disappoint you guys that this wasn't a post about the anatomical "taint" region of the hog lolol.

But seriously I don't know if you can smell it in the carcass. Some bad smelling ones I've shot have tasted great. This is not so much an exterior smell although the skinned meat does have an odor.

Taint is only stored in the fat tissue and according to what I've read it really becomes way more pronounced when the androstenone and skatole laced meat is heated up and cooked. It's a bad man I mean you won't want to eat it.

Im really not into the "research" crap especially in today's world but like I said this stuff is just common knowledge in the farmer world and has been probably since the beginning of time. It's just time we hunters get these facts together to clear up old myths.

If I ever run across one I’ll try to let you know. I always smell the raw meat through the process.
Side note;
My brother n law took as many pigs as he could home once. I felt like he didn’t have enough ice but I don’t know. I know he didn’t have any bad pig ie; gut shot etc. He made sausage with all of it and said it was soo bad they pitched it all! Could well have been one tainted pig

 

[catheadred]

I don't know man I've killed some really stinky ones on the carcass that ate good. A lot of the smell when you get up on one is the urine and semen they splash up on their bellies which is nasty but not indicative of having taint. It's really rolling the dice. You might be immune or just killed some who didn't have it. I don't know.

the 20% of male hogs that have boar taint is just an average... certain heritage breeds have a much higher prevalence for taint and others do not. Depending on the local genetic makeup of your hogs from way back could be a less taint prone population or more prone. I just can't justify spending the time butchering and in the case of mountain hunting slinging 100lbs of rank meat on my back for 3 miles. This year especially because I chose to leave the cape and take the meat and he would have been a real cool mounter

I've been hunting hogs over 40 years and every single one I've ever killed that was off a salt water marsh or had access to one smelled like a septic tank even after cooking. Not to say that's your issue just throwing it out there.

 

[buckmanmike]

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

 

[sghoghunter]

No sir. We have learned that all boar hogs over the 100 lb need to be drug off and left for the buzzards and yotes cause there’s to many young guilts in the woods. Or you can be like me and drag every one of them off to the edge of the field like I did to a big boar a few minutes ago

 

[Thetrooper]

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

Well aside from the original post. I think it's just an obvious answer to the question than guys bickering about how "you didn't prepare it right", or ranting about how " you need to keep the meat clean I always gut it and ice it then soak it in vinegar blah blah".. etc ...or my favorite "it's just what they've been eating". I hear that sort of talk all the time and if everyone has the actual reason it might make sense of why their hog meat taste like **** **** of you didn't know any better and cooked some up you might think the meat was spoiled and did something wrong

Or maybe if your immune to boar taint but the family isn't you would now know why your family won't eat the meat but you think it taste fine. People have been castrating male pigs since the beginning of time because for this very reason and it's funny how us hunters myself included apparently aren't aware of it

 

[Doug B.]

No sir. We have learned that all boar hogs over the 100 lb need to be drug off and left for the buzzards and yotes cause there’s to many young guilts in the woods. Or you can be like me and drag every one of them off to the edge of the field like I did to a big boar a few minutes ago

This is just not true!!! I have killed several boar hogs over 200 lbs and some even 300 lbs and I have never had one that was rank! I'm sure it happens, but, one out of five is actually a pretty low percentage to say that all of them are tainted. You can do with them what you want, but good hog meat is too precious to waste. But to be clear, if it were rank, I would leave it somewhere for buzzards and worms.

 

[Thetrooper]

This is just not true!!! I have killed several boar hogs over 200 lbs and some even 300 lbs and I have never had one that was rank! I'm sure it happens, but, one out of five is actually a pretty low percentage to say that all of them are tainted. You can do with them what you want, but good hog meat is too precious to waste. But to be clear, if it were rank, I would leave it somewhere for buzzards and worms.

Check out pic below...or just Google "boar taint". The pork industry spends a ton of $$$ and time researching this problem.

The 1 to 5 ratio is just an average if you get into the lengthy research on the topic you can see that certain breeds or crossbreeds of pigs can have way higher or lower levels of either of the two compounds in taint. The genetic makeup of your local will hog could be extremely taint free or taint ridden I would imagine based on the variety. Whatever a hunter chose to do with a hog is their business but if you're pulling high numbers of boars with taint there's no reason to keep them as they're inedible. At the same time if a majority of your hogs aren't rank with taint then I wouldn't want to throw them out either

 

[sghoghunter]

This is just not true!!! I have killed several boar hogs over 200 lbs and some even 300 lbs and I have never had one that was rank! I'm sure it happens, but, one out of five is actually a pretty low percentage to say that all of them are tainted. You can do with them what you want, but good hog meat is too precious to waste. But to be clear, if it were rank, I would leave it somewhere for buzzards and worms.

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.

 

[Thetrooper]

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.

Worse case scenario you throw a rank boar in the mix with a few in the sausage pile and the whole batch is toast.