Expert: Keith Patton - 4/1/2009

Question
My husband shot a 100lb. wild boar hog on a Texas ranch today.  He kept one ham and one loin.  He intends to put it in brine in a large plastic bag, cover it with ice in a cooler overnight.   Also how long would you advise us to smoke the ham?  Do you recommend wrapping the ham after smoking, and finishing it in the house in the oven? We have done some reading, but prefer an answer from a hunter who has had success in "cooking" wild boar hams.  Thanks

Answer
Dixie:

If you are soaking or brining the ham, are you doing it to lessen potential boar taint or to increase the moistness?  If the latter you could flavor the brine too.  It will also help mask and dilute any taint.

Is there any particular reason you are smoking it?

You can cold smoke the ham by rigging up a hotplate or burner over which you are smoldering shavings of the particular wood you want to use.  They have to be shavings, blocks will not smoke enough over the low heat necessary to cold smoke.  A wooden box or even a cardboard box could be used.  Be sure to use a drip pan under the meat, rods to support a grill can be run through the sides and a pan or pans put underneath.  The burner or hotplate (they sell small electric burners for $10-20 at Walmart or HEB) can be set at one end of the enclosure, but not under the meat. Then a makeshift flue cut at the opposite corner, the amount of smoke venting can be controlled by covering or opening the flue.

Final cooking can as you said, be done in the oven.  

Another recipe I like is searing the skinned ham or leg over an open flame or coals, then covering with onions and BBQ sauce, then wrapping it with a double layer of foil and baking either on a covered grill or in an oven till it is tender.

If cooking on a grill over coals using a drip pan in a necessity to avoid the dripping fat from flaring and giving the meat a burnt fat taste.