Expert: Keith Patton - 5/8/2008

Question
I've been told that you can't cook and eat a wild hog the same day you kill it and clean it and that it needs to be on ice or frozen for a few days before-hand.  Is this true or can we cook and eat a hog the same day it's butchered?

Thanks for your help in clarifying this confusing issue in our home.

Answer
Myth.

I think that comes from the belief that aging otherwise tough meat will help tenderize it by letting the natural enzymes in the meat break it down.  A day or two won't do it.  Neither will marinades which are nothing more than flavorings.  If the meat is tough tenderize it mechanically using a meat mallet.  That is fool proof.

Pork can be eaten right away after killing.

In fact, the unsaturated fat on pork goes rancid and can cause a lot of the off flavors and odors people experience, even when frozen.  So trim you boar and venison of fat before freezing.  In fact the boar taint that accompanies some wild boar carcass meat is just that, a high concentration of unsaturated fat that turns rancid quickly and gives that particular carcass the off odor and flavor.

Keith