I assume wild/feral hogs are as good to eat as farm pigs, right?
When I was a kid in the early 60s we had some neighbors who caught wild hogs to eat. They used dogs and would literally catch them by hand.
They would then pen them up for a couple of months before slaughtering them.
I have eaten bacon from a wild boar. It was beautiful looking but had a strong taste that I did not like.
At the risk of sparking one hell of an argument...I have to say...that has not been my experience.
A young shoat or a young gilt...delicious if processed quickly and cleanly.
But an older bred sow or a older rapacious boar...pee-yew!
The boar most especially if it has been allowed to exert a lot of physical energy prior to the kill.
For sheer fun of the hunt, the boars are the best, but for both objectives, the fun of the hunt and the acquisition of meat, I go for the sow.
I've not ever had a "good" tasting boar.
And I freely admit that the processing may have a huge impact on that, but it is kinda hard to snatch one up, bleed them, scald them, gut them and quarter them in the field, particularly at 4 o'clock or so in the morning or 10 or 11 at night.
The taste of a rapacious boar is not like the "wild" game taste you may have heard of, of say...venison.
It carries it's own unique mix of olfactory assaults...crotch rot, toe jam, 5-day unwashed underarm...you name it...the rapacious boar is nasty.
Again, that's MY opinion, others may vary.
But the young shoat or gilt...if done right...Swift and Oscar Mayer ain't never produced a piece of bacon or a ham that can compete.
“I assume wild/feral hogs are as good to eat as farm pigs, right?”
I’ve heard they’re not. But that’s just what I’ve been told...don’t know from experience. If they were, I’m guessing people would be hunting them all the time in Kentucky—since it’s open season 24-7 on wild hogs.
Only after proper treatment: several soaks of the meat in a rock salt/ice bath...
other than half of them are boars, and stinks like hell when you cook it, so it has to be outside grilled pork.