SWMBO made a ruling that I was not to bring any meat from a hog back to the house. I shot a nice 130+ pound sow last weekend and brought the ham's, shoulders and backstrap home. She let me bring it into the house and keep it. I found this receipt on-line. She cooked it and it was great! She even thought so. Sorry, no picture, its all gone.

Wild Hog Backstrap Recipe (or store bought pork tenderloin): The below ingredients were sufficient for one backstrap (one side). Make sure you remove the silver membrane to keep the meat tender. Found on TexasBowhunting.com

Flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
3 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 medium shallot, finely diced (or sweet onion substitute)
12 oz. sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup dry Marsala wine.*
1 cup homemade or low-salt chicken broth
3 Tbs. heavy cream
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Cut the pork into 1-inch-thick medallions. Press down with the palm of your hand or hammer to flatten slightly. Season the meat with salt and black pepper. Dredge in flour – shake off as much as you can, leaving a very light coating

Heat the olive oil and 1 Tbs. of the butter in a large sauté pan over high heat. When the butter is melted and foaming, add half of the meat and just sear until nicely browned, 2 to 3 min. Flip and cook the other side until the meat is well browned and slightly firm to the touch, about another 2 min. Transfer to a covered plate and repeat with the remaining pork.

Melt the remaining 2 Tbs. butter in the pan. Add the shallots and sauté for about 30 seconds, using a wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the mushrooms and sauté until all of the mushroom liquid has evaporated and the mushrooms are golden, about 3 min. Add add the Marsala - once the Marsala has almost completely evaporated, add the chicken broth and reduce by half, about 3 min. Stir in the cream and parsley, return the pork and any accumulated juices to the pan, and cook, flipping the pork once, until it’s firm to the touch and still a little pink in the middle (cut into a piece to check), 2 to 4 min.

Taste for salt and pepper and serve.

Serve over pasta or with mashed potatoes

• Note – you can use the cheap Marsala cooking wine from the grocery store but I like to use “Florio” – available at liquor stores.

I used the Hog Zombie method of taking the meat off the hog. I will only use this method going forward. Very clean and straight forward. There is a gland in the fat in-front of the joint in the rear ham that needs to be removed but everything else was a simple as he shows it ... and it took me less than 10 minutes. I still need practice at removing the knee joint on the front shoulder.

www.youtube.com/watch?...3Qqa4&t=2s

WOW...he makes it look real easy, although there was a lot of wasted meat...but he did say they get heaps of pigs...but I wouldn’t like leaving the tenderloins behind.

Interesting that he doesn’t care about taking the skin...that means no crackling where you cook a roast.

I would imagine you could use a similar process for deer if saving the hide wasn’t an issue. Although, I’m sure you could still skin the deer as you go, just saving the four quarters and finishing the skinning once you have the meat. Most importantly, you don’t have to gut the critter using this method, which is a real bonus.

Slimjim....wild pork is primo eating...a sow up to 100lb or a boar up to 80 lb are about as good of table fare as you can get.....next time you drop a youngish pig take the hams off skin left on...take em home hang on washing line like I do or out back somewhere and get out your LPG blow torch...mine is an old paint stripper...then start burning off all the hair.when its gone blister a small pacth about 2"across and scrape the thin outer skin membrane off,blister next patch and repeat till all the black membrane is gone...then roast your ham as it is...serve with heaps of apple sauce on the side...apples skinned n quartered in pot with enough water to just about cover...couple of tablespoons sugar..cokk then mash with the potato masher let cool and use as your dressing with pork...similar to your cranberry with turkey.....if you "murawai" /singe your pork like this you get rid of all the hair and any lice/ticks and it is very clean and has lovely taste to it,when cooked the skin can be cut off...some of us love eating it..the pink fat underneath it is simply devine..cooking this way also helps to stop meat drying out. as for gland....begiggered if Ive ever heard of that one Mate....and us KIWIS eat a heap of wid pork each year.

Vince wrote:

I wouldn’t like leaving the tenderloins behind. ... I would imagine you could use a similar process for deer if saving the hide wasn’t an issue.

Vince, I will get the tenderloins next hunt if I have time. I use a similar process on pronghorn because I have to back the game out on public land. Hogs also carry Brucellosis so I'm happy not to have to go into the intestine area.

Thanks, Elvis. I will look into preparing the hams like that. A good youtube might help.

SJ, when you don't have your wild porc sampled and tested, store its meat at least 2 weeks below -18° C (check °F this is).

When I think about wild porc, I prefer sows instead of boars, super-like them in the weight-range of 30-70 kg and always take my precautions for trichine (therefor the storage for at least 14 days lower than -18 °C)

Just remember: most pleasant things have a rather bad smell and pleasure often comes with risks...

slimjim wrote:

Thanks, Elvis. I will look into preparing the hams like that. A good youtube might help.

Mate.....there is a thread on here with about a gozillion photos of myself and a fellow from your part of the world doing two complete pigs over an open fire... there are plenty of utube clips of singeing /murawai a pig. as said 1st step hang verticle 2nd step burn off hair 3rd step blister small patch then scrape off with old knfe 4th step repete 3rd over and over again till its done.

mmmm!!!!

looks great...hope it tasted just as fine.

Oh bugger...now I have to go buy a couple of pork backstraps...that looks outstanding.

just watched the zombie method video...hmmmm some of us have been doing that since we learnt to shoot....thats pretty much what gets done to dog tucker goats to get the quarters off.... back steaks arent usually taken from goats. we just got ham back from local butcher $25 to cure n cook...taste is primo. highly recomend you try it Slim....the wife and anyone else will hoover it up and tell you to get back out hunting and get more...the pork mince we made from front quarters goes pretty darn good in a rissoto too....
if you are a long way from vechile and dont have big enough pack,leave the skin attached between the quarters eg the bit across the spine so they are in sets of two...easy to hangem over a branch/fence to cool that way too,sling them over you shoulder to pack out.
mmmmm pork.

your suggestion to make the hams with skin across the back like a saddle bag I s good one. Except this hog had enough fat on it, I think it would have slipped off anything you hung it on.

slimjim wrote:

your suggestion to make the hams with skin across the back like a saddle bag I s good one. Except this hog had enough fat on it, I think it would have slipped off anything you hung it on.

Not with a strategically placed piece of paracord mate. Tie it to one end of the pole, drape it over the pieces and tie it off on the other end. If needs be, tie each piece on as well.

slim...next time you see a porker of about 60-80lb head shoot it..... thems the best eating of ANY beasty the good lord created,I will see if I can find a link to LPG singeing for you.
www.huntingnut.com/ind...ic&t=10647