Question from Email: Eating boars

Question from a reader about eating boars:

"...

your boar story caught my attention.. i was curious how old that boar was.. 700 pounds  I'd guess he was over 18 months.. My dad is in [town removed, but about 20 miles from  me] and buys those boars and cuts them then feeds them for a few months then  butchers them and still turns it into sausage.. i am in maryland now and farms  out here are nonexistent and i have access to a 400 pound hampshire for like 30  cents a pound and the boar is 9 months old and am trying to decide if i just  want to butcher him straight away or try to castrate him and then feed him  out for another couple months.. i've killed wild hogs (all sows) because of  the smell issue and i have noticed that even wild sows meat smell bad  but just like all other wild game i just discard all the fat.. unfortunately  i love pork chop fat but if it has to go it has to go.. another issue is  the anectdotal toughness which could be more related to age than  sex.. at any rate, i was trying to find otu what your results of the  smoked hams and stuff were and how old that boar was you  described to help me kind of make up my mind.. considering hogs  are still selling at a buck a pound live weight here im thinking this  boar turned into sausage is still a lot cheaper than taking more days  off from work to go deer hunting :) if you could let me know some of  that info i would really appreciate it. thanks in advance.. " I think that he's referring to this blog entry in this message, where i talk about eating a 700lb boar that we culled.  I was curious to see what the meat was like, as I'd read about other folks eating boars, and frankly, the market price  on big boars is Terrible, truly horrible.   And that's what he's talking about there.  400lb boar at $0.30/lb is $120.00  for the animal, which for meat is very, very cheap.  That's part of the  reason that I never sell boars at auction, and I don't sell many to customers.   I usually will cull and process them here on the farm.   My experience with that particular boar was that the meat was fine,  particularly in sausage form.   I really couldn't tell the difference between  old boar sausage and sausage made from a younger pig.  I'm going to  talk about why that is now.   The issue with boars, and this is reflected in the market price, is that  there is a risk that the boar will have an unpleasant taste present in  its fat.  It's commonly referred to as "boar taint", and concern about the potential for boar taint is the primary reason that male  pigs are castrated routinely in the US market.  Without testicles  the animal will not have boar taint.   Boar taint is only detectable to a small percentage of the population; I've found about 1 person in 20, or 5%, can detect it.  For someone  who can smell boar taint, the smell of cooking boar has an amonia/wet dog odor that is pretty strong.  The meat is edible, its just the smell that puts folks off.    In my immediate family my brother  Bryan cannot smell it, nor can my brother Ken, but I can.   I processed another boar that did have boar taint, and couldn't stand  the smell of the cooked meat.  I gave the bacon to my brothers, and  they both said that it was great.  No complaints.  So I ended up giving  the whole animal to them, and they, and their families ate it.  With older animals the meat is tougher, and is better suited to slower  cooking methods.  I wouldn't grill an older animals pork chops,  but I sure would stew them.  Sausage is the easiest thing to do, as  the grinding of the meat removes any toughness issues.  But the boar taint issue remains.    The hams were tough and chewy. Tasty, but probably better as sausage.   This may sound gross so far, but realize that a lot of the sausage you see in the store is culled sows from hog units.  The meat is fine, and sausage spicing is such that it really is the dominate flavor.  Even if  there were boar taint you wouldn't detect it in sausage.   Yes, you can buy boars at a relatively low cost, but there's a small  chance that you can't eat them.  The only way that I've been able to  reliably tell is to cook a bit of the fat with a propane torch at time of  slaughter.  Since I can smell it if has boar taint then I will usually  either turn the animal into spiced sausage -- pepperoni, andui, chorizo -- or I'll grind the animal and use it to feed my airedales.    Good quality dog food is north of $1/lb, and so I'm basically getting  at least that when I use it to feed my pack.   I do not reccomend castrating a big boar; the testicles are huge,  have a big blood supply, and unless you have a way to stop the  bleeding can cause the death of the animal.  Plus it is a 700lb  animal, and major surgery on that size pig is a big undertaking.   A big boar is a very, very powerful animal, and if he gets wind of what you're thinking...