Unless the heart is pumping, it use useless to cut anything on a hog (nuts, heart, throat, toenails). Old wise tail as far as I'm concerned. When we catch hogs with dogs or in a trap, I prefer to bleed them, and really from what I can tell it only makes the cleaning process neater. When we kill large boars of dominance such as this, we smell them. If they are not rank in odor, we clean them. This particular pig was not, and the meat smelt just like any other one. Of course, this is not peak breeding season for them. I have also hooked a rope to one about this size in the past to drag off with a 4 wheeler and had to throw away the leather glove I was wearing. My whole truck smelled like a bad gym bag for a week after I left it in there over night.
As long as you take your time and clean it well, and no rank/rancid smell is present - it should be a good eater pig. I always look for those little brown glands in the quaters and make sure I cut those out.
|