wild hog

roylee · 12-08-2011, 06:31 PM

Looking for a good recipe or two for wild hog. Have a young one, female, maybe 140 lbs live, field dressed immediately and iced down. I've made sausage with them, but roasts or smoked they turn out tasty but tough... Want to do a loin or ham for a group.... suggestions??

**Yooper** · 12-08-2011, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roylee

Looking for a good recipe or two for wild hog. Have a young one, female, maybe 140 lbs live, field dressed immediately and iced down. I've made sausage with them, but roasts or smoked they turn out tasty but tough... Want to do a loin or ham for a group.... suggestions??

I have no idea! But I have a friend with a ranch in Hondo, and he tells me that a young small hog is really good. I'll email him and ask him. And I'll wish I was there with you to sample, that's for sure!

**Yooper** · 12-09-2011, 01:35 AM

My friend sent be back an email (after checking with his sister who is the hunter and food preparer!):

My sister said to bake the pig in the oven
low heat (300-325) for an hour then put on BBQ pit and
make a sauce with onion, little bit of vinegar, mustard, sugar, stick of butter
and salt/pepper and baste it while BBQ---the baking slow cooks it throughout and
the bbq gives it the smokey taste and crisps the outside...
u can also do the baking then BBQ and use a sauce of ready made BBQ sauce and honey
and apply at the end of the BBQ process

coast...friends BBQ shrimp and it was delicious..
marinate the shrimp in Italian dressing, then wrap with bacon, cream cheese and jalepeno
sear on med-high heat on bbq each side then move to top rack and cook on med
turning periodically cooking time not more than 30 minutes.....really good

I personally think the shrimp sounds better than the hog, but who am I to say?!?!

roylee · 12-09-2011, 01:32 PM

Thanks, I'll try it. Got a freezer full so will experiment as well. (No oysters, but fortunately the red tide doesn't seem to have hurt th shrimp)

**Yooper** · 12-09-2011, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roylee

Thanks, I'll try it. Got a freezer full so will experiment as well. (No oysters, but fortunately the red tide doesn't seem to have hurt th shrimp)

We're hoping that the oysters recover quickly, and we're looking forward to our share of the gulf shrimp! (About 7 weeks till we get there!)

Apparently they did the pig/shrimp party in the neighborhood north of Rockport.

**JeepDiver** · 12-09-2011, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yooper

My friend sent be back an email (after checking with his sister who is the hunter and food preparer!):

My sister said to bake the pig in the oven
low heat (300-325) for an hour then put on BBQ pit and
make a sauce with onion, little bit of vinegar, mustard, sugar, stick of butter
and salt/pepper and baste it while BBQ---the baking slow cooks it throughout and
the bbq gives it the smokey taste and crisps the outside...
u can also do the baking then BBQ and use a sauce of ready made BBQ sauce and honey
and apply at the end of the BBQ process

I would throw it on a smoker first, then finish up in the oven or hot grill if you want. Meat only takes in smoke to a certain temp, so if you want it to have a smoky flavor you need to put the wood on the fire at the begining of the process. Otherwise you may get a little flavor on the skin/outside of the meat but nothing inside.

You could also inject it for moisture and do it on the smoker the whole time low and slow at 225 and baste it while cooking.

**ChuckO** · 12-09-2011, 02:29 PM

I've been trying sous vide cooking and domestic pork seems to work out well. I wonder if this method might make wild hog more tender? Slow cooking sous vide and finishing on a grill might work, or smoking at low temperature and then cooking sous vide to finish.

HokieBrewer · 12-09-2011, 02:34 PM

I would also advise brining the hog to add some moisture and keep it from drying out.

roylee · 12-13-2011, 08:03 PM

Souse vide is an interesting suggestion and I'll try that next time. Using previously suggested methods I brined and injected, smoked for 5 hours and then put in an electric roaster. the plan was to leave it at 225 for 8-10 hours. Taste was good, but I wanted juicy yet falling off the bone tender, which this was not. Refrigerated and tried again, injecting and putting it back in the roaster the following morning. By mid-afternoon it was excellent. (I like to do brisket at 225 for 18 hours.... wild hog haunch--at least this one--takes a little longer.)