Feral, or wild, hogs are becoming an increasing large part of  America’s hunters big-game hunting activities. Not only does taking on a big boar with a knife, spear, muzzleloading pistol or single-shot rifle become an interesting hunting challenge; consuming the animal raises its own questions.

The fist question is usually, “Is it good to eat?”

The author's first attempt at roasting a boar's head.

  The answer is, “It depends.” A characteristics of wild pork fat is that it takes on the flavor of  whatever is the major part of the animal’s diet. There is a French dish that is the heated, and not too much cooked, fat from a wild hog that has been eating on acorns. I am willing to concede that it has an interesting taste, but I had rather have my wild hog meat be at least 70- percent lean.

I commonly hunt Georgia’s coastal island. If a hog has been feeding in the uplands, primarially on acorns, its meat is fine. But, if it has been feeding on crabs in the salt marsh,  nothing I can do to the meat has thus far made it eatable. It stinks to bad to eat.

However, hogs from the interior of the same island are fine to eat, and do not have the marsh taste that their brothers possess.

I cook wild hog tenderloins, backstraps, hams, ribs, liver and  heart.  On  animals that have been feeding on vegetation, these are all fine eating.

Beware of  whom you choose as a life partner, like some of  these hogs, they can look good, but have a bad aftertaste.