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Eating Javelina??

I guess I’m just wondering in general, how does it taste? Is it really good or just Soso? How do you prepare it or prefer it? Also about how much meat on a full-grown javelina?

Local butcher here does hundreds of javalina... they got it down. Chorizo or jalapeno cheddar sticks are my favorite. It doesn't take long for my kids to devour a javalina. Ed F

My Texas javelina have all tasted really good but my one AZ javelina tasted horrible BUT he was a very old boar so maybe that is why????

Keep the stink from the hide from touching the meat (i.e. very careful meat care in the field) and it's fine table fare. Without having to mask it with heavy spices.

Crockpot whole leg of javelina...yum

I fried up some javelina backstrap last week. It was great. I am having the rest made into sausage, but I have not doubt it would all taste good regardless of how I cooked it. I was very careful while cutting it up and changed blades when going from skinning to cutting out the meat/quarters.

some of the best meat i've ever eaten was inside tenderloins form two javelina sandwiched with bacon smoked in the Bradley. It was amazingly delicious.

I would call it so-so. I prefer to make sausage or BBQ. Carefully remove hide that has scent gland on back. I would guess I get about 10 to15 pounds of meat off a pig that might have a dressed out weight of around 35#- never have placed the meat on a scale.

I agree with the comments above and will add that a boned out javelina averages 10 pounds. The biggest I've checked in weighed 13 pounds boned out.

Had it as chorizo in AZ, yummie! Will bring some home from Texas in April!

These answers are a major surprise to me....I have always said the most difficult thing about hunting Geese and Javelina..is finding someone who will eat it for you !! I am glad to see that my opinion is on the minority side...

I love geese. You just have to cook them right. They can be horrible or wonderful, like all game meat.

Like said above, "They can be horrible or wonderful, like all game meat. "

I just had javelina for the first time last Saturday. It was a ground blend of the wild hog and javelina I killed in Texas last year. There was no offending odor with the raw meat or when cooked. We made chili. It was excellent. I would not be afraid to eat now. No matter how many faces my guide made that I wanted the meat. ;)

Javelina are 100% about who handles them from field to table. They are some of our best meat every year, but we take the time to do things right. You can do a search here or probably better yet AT western section and get pages of opinion. But the one thing that matters is a careful and timely removal of the skin, and then changing gloves and knife when handling/boning the meat so you don't get the outside cross contaminating the inside. Take 5 one gallon zip locks and you will fit all the boned meat in 3 and then double bag the skull for pointy teeth, place in pack and head for the cooler filled with ice in your truck. On ice asap, no cross contamination from hide to meat, and you will have some very fine, very lean wild pork... Crack a beer and enjoy

ELKMAN summed it up...except I don't like beer LOL. Can't stress enough the care by changing gloves. I hang them from a bush and peel skin downward so the hair stays off the meat if I can find a bush nearby.

To echo others: you don't get much meat from a javelina. Maybe a couple of meals.

Recently I've been making (4) meals from each leg slow cooked whole in a crock pot, and then some sort of stir fry etc. from the backstraps & tenderloins (tenderloins not much bigger than chicken nuggets LOL). So about 5 meals for small family. Yum yum!

I made charizo out of mine. Was really good.

What everybody else said, I love the meat! I actually think it is a little bland tasting. We always use it to make tacos, burritos, chili... you get the point. It's all in how you handle it and getting it cooled down quickly.

Eat Up!

Sounds good! I’m getting hungry just reading these responses. I love pork and have had some great wild hog sausage and even some of the pork roasts have been good but have never had javelina. Hoping to have a tag in AZ next Year.

Elkman nailed it. I've killed and eaten quite a few javelina and all of them have been great eating. I butterflied some tiny backstrap, seasoned it and cooked it on the grill and my 16 year old daughter said it was the best meat she had ever eaten in her life! No hide/meat cross-contamination, get it cooled quickly and its great.

We have even brined and smoked whole sections

Treat em just like a pronghorn! Get the hide off cleanly and quickly . Bone the meat and let it cool quickly as well. It's not pork!! Very lean meat ,very good meat!!

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