# Wild Hog Smoked Pulled Pork - (rare First Time success : )



## petpetrick (Jul 1, 2012)

I just joined this site to thank this community for the advice on how to handle smoking a wild hog ham that a friend gave me last week.  He was apparently out frog gigging Wed nite and managed to air boat "thump-thump" a couple of wild hogs.  True story.  So, I end up with a big ham, boned, in a cooler with no clue how to handle it.  I am a veteran charcoaler and smoker type though, but I rarely resort to getting technical with thermometers and such, and had never handled wild game.   I wasn't too intimidated, but I wasn't confident with a new type of meat either.  I didn't want to mess with brining and such, I just wanted to drink beer next to the grill on Saturday and then eat some pulled pork. So, I scoured this site and the internet, absorbed it all, devised a plan on the most consistent advice that was out there, and executed the plan.  Long story short, here is where I ended up -

1.  Kept the ham on ice for 2 days in a big cooler, letting it bleed out in a garbage bag that I changed out a couple times.  Surprisingly, it didn't bleed that much, so I don't know if that was even necessary.  And the meat actually had a little marble to it which surprised me.  That hog must have been living the good life.

2. Fired up the weber first thing saturday morning.  Set up with the charcoal and oak on one side, and my water pan on the other.

3.Dried the meat and rubbed it with season salt, pepper, cayenne.  I was tempted to do a mustard rub that seems popular out there, but was afraid of an overly crusty or burnt bark.  Put it in a baking pan and put it on the weber over top of the water pan. 

3. Smoked it heavy with oak for about 4 hours. Had a lot of trouble keeping the smoker temp under 300 degrees for those 4 hours. Damn near had to choke off the charcoal completely.  I was just using a weber so temp control isn't the easiest.   Everything I read said 250 degrees is where you want to be for the smoking phase for the first 4 hours.

4.  Pulled it off after 4 hours.  Meat temp was around 170 degrees.   From what I read, that is the temp where the meat tends to get "stuck" due to the bark and moisture and etc etc.  Wrapped the meat in aluminum foil after basting it with apple cider NC style baste (that I made from a recipe I found on line) and put it in the oven at 225 degrees with the goal of getting the internal temperature up to a minimum of 190 degrees but not more than 205 degrees. Basted it every hour or so. From what I read, collagen breaks down in the pork and the meat becomes tender at 190 degrees.  But if you want to do pulled pork instead of sliced, then take it to 205 degrees to have it pull apart easily.

5.  At about 200 degrees (5 hours later in the oven, 9+ hours total), I pulled the meat out of the oven and let it rest in foil for an hour.   We used that hour to get all of the rest of the dinner fixings ready.   Opened it up after an hour and did the pulling.  It literally fell apart in my hands.  Dressed it up with the NC style baste/sauce and rang the dinner bell for the ~dozen folks who were waiting and hungry.  It was perfect.  The smoke ring was one of the best I've ever had. Probably because I've never worked so hard to keep the smoking temp down under 300, I guess. maybe.

I am now the neighborhood hero.  Absolutlely noone believed my story about the wild hog being harvested via airboat speed bump.  I guess it sounded too far fetched to believe, and after eating, everyone agreed I had bought the pork down the street at the grocery store.  I could tell the meat had a slight game taste, but if I didn't know where it came from, I probably wouldn't have noticed.  Noone else did.

Just wanted to again say thanks to those on this site that generously provide so much information.  I went from a wild hog novice on Tuesday, to the old pro on Saturday, solely based on the research here.  I need to get a better smoker though, as far as temp control goes.

I would be interested if any of the old pros on this site could critique anything I did above that maybe should have been done differently or could have been done better.

.


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## moikel (Jul 1, 2012)

Love the speed bump bit we get that Swamp people  show on cable.

Don't know that I  fit into old pro category but you look like a natural to me.
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





Wild pig can be really tricky you should be really happy with that effort. All depends what pigs have been eating & for how long. A lifetime eating road kill kangaroo & wombat at one end of scale caught live wormed grain fed sow the other end.


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## s2k9k (Jul 1, 2012)

That's some good looking pork!

I see this is your first post here, when you get a minute would you do us a favor and go to "Roll Call" and introduce yourself so we can get to know you and give you a proper welcome, also would you add your location to your profile, we like knowing where you are when we talk to you, Thanks!


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## petpetrick (Jul 1, 2012)

I count my blessings.  I live in FLORIDA.   The wildlife here pretty much eat liberally all year long.  You are spot on with your comment.


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## petpetrick (Jul 1, 2012)

btw - the Cayenne rub was dried and derived from my dehydrator from my hot pepper garden.  Livin' off the earth!!  ha!  At least you don't need to chase down your hot pepper plants in an air boat!!!  lol!


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## chef jimmyj (Jul 2, 2012)

Air Boat or .30-06, That Hog looks and sounds like Good Eats...JJ


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## johnnie walker (Jul 2, 2012)

to SMF. That PP sounds and looks great. 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





I don't have a charcoal smoker but I notice your chimney starter looks full to me. Maybe next time try starting with less charcoal to help hold down your temps. I'm sure one of the charcoal smokers will chime in and give you some more advice.

Again it sounds like it all came out great, and that's what really matters!


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## petpetrick (Jul 2, 2012)

I tried to do the intro thing.  Spent a considerable effort to intro per you request.  But kept getting errors re: "LESS THAN 100 CHARACTERS ABOUT YOU!!!"

I'm not a computer noob.  something wrong with that.

Will try again some other time.


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## s2k9k (Jul 2, 2012)

petpetrick said:


> I tried to do the intro thing.  Spent a considerable effort to intro per you request.  But kept getting errors re: "LESS THAN 100 CHARACTERS ABOUT YOU!!!"
> 
> I'm not a computer noob.  something wrong with that.
> 
> Will try again some other time.


Please do! I'm not sure what the errors were, I've seen Roll Call posts that were pretty short so I don't know why you were getting that. Sorry for the frustration! We do have an anti-spam software that acts pretty crazy sometimes, blocks things it shouldn't and lets other things through that shouldn't, but mostly works good!

Please try again and if it still gives you error messages maybe you could do a screenshot and send it to me so I can show one of the Admins what is going on so maybe we can get it fixed. Thanks!


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## tgil (Jul 3, 2012)

No critique from me. I can do wild game, but put store bought in front of me and I can mess it up in a heartbeat! Looks like you did a great job to me!


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