Javelina

Bates7 · Mar 10, 2010

I have shot several pigs in the past and I've always either roasted the meat in the oven and made pulled bbq "pork" or sausage & chorrizo out of it. It's good those ways but I wanted to expand my culinary horizons a bit this year. I shot my pig but I'm making 50% breakfast sausage and the other 50% chorrizo again. My uncle wants to give me one of his pig's quarters and try smoking it. My questions are, has any of you out there ever smoked javelina meat? If you have what wood did you use? If you have no experience in the area of smoking one of these stinking critters what would you recommend?

"Vegetarians are cool. All I eat are vegetarians - except for the occasional mountain lion steak."
-Ted Nugent-

Jingow · Mar 10, 2010

Take it to a butcher that can make ham. In Cali here smoked feral pig ham is great. You can also brine it yourself but you need the right cures. "The Sausage Maker" has all you need and can be found online. Problem about making your own ham is it is time consuming.

Bates7 · Mar 11, 2010

Thanks for that Jingow. I did take mine to a processor to make the sausage, simply because I don't have the room to have a butcher shop and he's a good butcher whom I've done business with before and quite frankly he's damn good and fair priced. The problem with a collard pecary (javelina) is that it is not a pig or rodent like some people think as a matter fact they aren't directly related to anything. So the meat has to be cooked a little differently than others. The oven roasting trick works really well with copious ammounts of BBQ sauce. Basically the meat needs to be spiced up alot to make it palatable I guess. To be honest I've never tried it unspiced, maybe I should give it a taste test first and then that should tell me how I will need to smoke that quarter. I pick up my sausage next week from the butcher. Hey Bucksnort aka "The Smoke Master" feel free to chime in at any time.

"Vegetarians are cool. All I eat are vegetarians - except for the occasional mountain lion steak."
-Ted Nugent-

BuckSnort · Mar 16, 2010

Man I dont know...If it were me and I actually wanted to/had to eat the damn thing

I would rub it good and smoke it with some oak added to the coal ...Smoke at about 250-275 until you get an internal temp of about 190 or until you can either wiggle the bone (if its still in) or the thermometer slides into the meat easily.. Then pull it off and wrap it good and tight in some foil and place it into an empty ice chest for an hour...Then open it up and make some pulled javelina sammies...

How big is a jav quarter? A 11-13 lb pork shoulder takes about 10-12 hrs at 225-25o for it to be done enough to pull easily...

Disclaimer:
The poster does not take any responsibility for any hurt or bad feelings. Reading threads poses inherent risks. The poster would like to remind readers to make sure they have a functional sense of humor before they visit any discussion board.

Bates7 · Mar 17, 2010

LAST EDITED ON Mar-17-10 AT 06:42AM (MST)[p]Thanx Buck. That sounds like the best idea yet. As far as the weight goes, the quarters off of my uncle are about 9-11 #'s. I'm gonna smoke her up this weekend. I'll let ya know how it turned out.

"Vegetarians are cool. All I eat are vegetarians - except for the occasional mountain lion steak."
-Ted Nugent-

Bates7 · Mar 18, 2010

I meant to say "my Uncle's javelina" above. No I'm not smoking my Uncle.

"Vegetarians are cool. All I eat are vegetarians - except for the occasional mountain lion steak."
-Ted Nugent-

Jingow · Mar 20, 2010

Master Bates, we never knew you were a canibal.

muleybull · Apr 2, 2010

I've always listened to the horror stories on how they taste, so I would make breakfast sausage or chorizzo it.

I finally tried cooking it on the BBQ like regular meat, and it was surprisingly good.

www.muleybulloutfitters.com

BuckSnort · Apr 5, 2010

Bates, How was it?

Disclaimer:
The poster does not take any responsibility for any hurt or bad feelings. Reading threads poses inherent risks. The poster would like to remind readers to make sure they have a functional sense of humor before they visit any discussion board.

Bates7 · Apr 7, 2010

Damn good Bucksnort. I doctored up your idea a bit with some injectable cajun marinade & real butter.

"Vegetarians are cool. All I eat are vegetarians - except for the occasional mountain lion steak."
-Ted Nugent-

Bates7 · May 2, 2010

Hey Bucksnort and muleybull I have some good news. I was over at one of my buddies yesterday helping him build one of Buck's smokers for a big party that he and his wife are throwing in June. Anyways his wife was cooking up some pecary for dinner in a pressure cooker. No funky spices at all, just pepper and garlic salt. She threw some red taters, carrots and some onion in the pot. I'll tell ya it was very good. So my point is that there is no need to be affraid of the javelina's meat any longer.

The main thing that I was taught from the moment I killed my first javelina is to immediatly cut a large patch of hide around the musk gland, being very careful not to touch it with your knife and throw it as far away as you can. I think that is probably the utmost important thing about feild care of a dead javelina.

"Vegetarians are cool. All I eat are vegetarians - except for the occasional mountain lion steak."
-Ted Nugent-