“Wild game meat tastes ‘gamey’ ” is a frequent complaint with a simple cure: get the fat out.
Carefully trim away all fat as well as fascia, tendons, and other connective tissues.
Wild game animals eat things that would gag a buzzard, such as acorns. Ever tasted an acorn? I didn’t think so. Trust me, they are awful.
The things that make acorns, some types of browse, and some forbs taste like dirty socks contributes to the composition of stored fat.
Fats (oils, lipids) turn rancid very quickly. Sniff or taste old cooking oil and you will get the idea. That’s what game meat will smell and taste like if you leave on the fat.
Note that venison, hog, and bird meat is not “marbled” (veins and specks of fat in muscle tissue) like beef. All fat is stored around the muscles and internal organs, so getting rid of it is relatively easy.
When processing your kill–bird, buck, or boar–carefully trim away all fat as well as fascia, tendons, and other connective tissues. Your palate and dinner guests will thank you.
Somewhat true for venison, although I don’t think it’s a function of what they eat. To me, sheep (mutton) has the same characteristics if fat or sinew is present. Regarding wild hogs, I completely disagreee. Large hogs can be quite marbled and generally eat better than small hogs because of it. Leaving some fat on ribs and shoulder (butt) greatly enhances flavor particulary when smoking/bbq. Having butchered and processed hundreds of hogs (some very large and “stinky”), I’ve not found one that was bad, and again, usually the bigger the better for taste. People are stupidly wasting a lot of excellent meat when they dump large hogs for being “too big”.
Perhaps I should have been more explicit.
Yes, domesticated pork is marbled. And domesticated hogs get big–*real* big. But feral hogs several generations in the wild are literally a different animal. I, too, have butchered scores and all were lean and not marbled.
If you kill a first- or second-generation hog, it well could be fat, maybe marbled, and taste fine regardless of size or fat content. But I have never seen a truly wild (several generations in the wild) hog that had much fat, and never any marbling.