Is it possible to remove or drastically mitigate boar taint?
Is it possible to remove or drastically mitigate boar taint?
Pretty much the title. We bought a pig, not knowing about boar taint so didn't inquire about the state of the pig (gender, age) beforehand. First cook and it's heavily present.
Will trimming off all the fat and boning it help mitigate the taint (and crossing my fingers here so hard it hurts) or remove it altogether? Anyone have experience on this problem?
Defatting and deboning won't help much, the taste/smell impregnates into the meat. Instead I'd recommend marinading:
- add enough water to comfortably cover all the meat
- add 10g salt and the juice of half lime for each kilogram of meat plus water
- massage the meat a bit in the marinade
- leave it overnight, in the fridge for at least 12h
Feel free to add other stuff to the marinade, like herbs, garlic, onions, ginger, oil, etc. Just keep in mind that you'll need to discard that marinade water, you can't really reduce it into a sauce, so anything that you add there will go to waste. (If you must, marinade it twice)
Got this trick from helping out rural relatives butchering pigs. They often raised the pigs to adulthood, and sometimes they forgot to castrate a boar or two.
Oh, also! Would you recommend both trimming/boning AND the lime brine? I can add butter or oil to re-up the fats I'm removing for smoking at least. Maybe I'll try it and follow up if my gold fish dad brain remembers.
Thanks again, I very much appreciate this!
I will happily try this. It's enough to have filled my 7.1cuft chest freezer to the top so I really want to waste as little as possible. How will I know if I must marinate it twice?
Something I did notice, it's 90% roasts and chops evenly split. I've done a roast (left overnight in the fridge with a mustard binder and dry rub) and then smoke it for maybe 1.5-2 hrs and it was fine. The night before was the same prep but chops and in the air fryer (never again) and it was burning my sinuses. The next time (I may hate myself, I don't know) I did chops again but in the smoker with no binder, salt bathed for an hour leading up to and just a dry rub and it stank up my grease bucket. ETA: it also was still detectable around the fattier bits. It was a shorter smoke, which is why I was hoping removing the fat beforehand would be sufficient.
It's been wildly hit or miss. So thank you again for the info!
How will I know if I must marinate it twice?
By "marinading it twice" I mean one marinade to get rid of the smell, another to actually season it. The second one is optional, up to you; you can reuse the liquid of the second marinade for some gravy, or to brush over the meat (never raw, though), but do not reuse the liquid of the first one.
Oh, also! Would you recommend both trimming/boning AND the lime brine?
It is not necessary but since you said that you're noticing it around the fattier bits, I'd try it. (I never did it though - only the marinade.) Then, as you said, you can always readd some fat, in special lard would be good.
Apparently smoking the meat helps- the longer the better! https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29735071/
I'm not sure that smoking alone will do it sadly. The rendered fat just runs through the meat still. I have tried smoking it with varied success, but after responding to another comment I realized my lesser success may have been tied to a shorter smoke time. There is still hope and will combine both methods.
Thank you!
I’ve never eaten boar. What does this “taint” taste like?
I've never heard of this either, I had to check Wikipedia. Apparently it's caused by two chemicals from boar balls, one is "sweaty" tasting and one is "fecal".
It's like old piss. When I did the first cook in the air fryer was the worst experience cooking I've ever had. It started out great and then the fat started to render releasing the hormones and punted that out the vent with malicious intent.. I'm convinced boar taint is why pork is considered unclean in many cultures and religions around the world, because it's, uh, pretty damn bad.
Also, boar is just male big that made it to puberty/adulthood before the butcher.
I haven't tried the lime brine yet as I'm still recovering mentally, but hoping once I'm out of Thanksgiving leftovers I'll be ready.
Damn that sounds awful and that’s super interesting about what you said about pork being “unclean” probably really is something to that.
I’m convinced boar taint is why pork is considered unclean in many cultures and religions around the world, because it’s, uh, pretty damn bad.
Woah that's fucking interesting.
I never considered that. Also just hearing about boar taint.
Soak in milk.