PIG!

So remember when we were in Spain and we felt the need not only to see but to eat a wild boar, or javali as they are called in Spain? With the help of Ramon and his connections our wish was granted.
Well, when we found out there are feral swine in Hawai'i, we had the same urge to eat one. So we put the in-laws on a mission and low and behold, we got pig! There's nothing as good a pork!

The difference between the wild boar and the feral swine is quite striking as far as the way they look, and from what I read they're probably different in the way they taste too. The boar we ate in Spain was the loin, roasted and with a sauce. It wasn't gamy but possibly could have been if it hadn't been killed and cooked properly; and honestly, it was just meat-nothing all that special.
The feral pig is basically a domesticated pig that's been loose and roaming about the forest; granted, it may have been loose for generations but it was still, at one time, a domesticated animal. We're told, the feral pig is not gamy because of this process of domestication, albeit from years ago.
Your pig lesson again this year...photo 1-wild boar (these are not in Hawai'i), photo 2-Hawai'ian feral pig.

The domesticated pig was originally brought to this island by Captain Cook in the 1770's and they were either turned loose (highly unlikely) or, at some point they broke loose and started populating the island.
Only two islands in the Hawai'ian chain are pig free and of the islands that are populated, the Island of Hawai'i has the largest number. They are an invasive species which some would like eradicated, yet native Polynesian groups argue that erasing the pig from the islands would negate an integral part of their culture.
There is a pig hunting season here, with limits on the number you can take but there are so many it seems no one really cares if you "harvest" out of season.
In all of our travels, we have yet to see one running about but we hear they're out there.

Last week, Barbara mentioned to a colleague at her school that we were on the lookout for some pig. This colleague didn't think getting it would be a problem and, the very next day told Barbara she'd sent her husband out the previous night and....a pig was had! Once again...Hawai'ian hospitality at work!




We had asked for a shoulder but we got this lovely ham (fresh, of course). Here it is all seasoned up with cumin and oregano and garlic, salt and pepper. I then marinated it overnight in onion, orange and lime juice (fresh squeezed of course..cuz that's what you have here in Hawai'i) and slow roasted it.
See that bowl of fat? Normally a "wild" animal is pretty lean but this pig fattened itself up on avocados!
Look what happened after 8 hours in the oven.......the meat just fell off the bone! Yum!


So you wanna know the sad part? The reason we didn't get a shoulder, as we were later told, was because "the dogs" had gotten to it. I was like...why were the dogs chowing on the carcass?. Seems the guy that got this pig, hunts with his dogs; he lets the dogs bring down the pig and then he finishes it off.
The poor thing was slow kill. Had I known the method of the kill, I would have passed but, it was already in our fridge and as the old proverb says....Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, right? Once I knew about the kill method, I thought for sure it would be gamy (even though it was not technically game) and it was completely NOT gamy.
We toasted the pig prior to eating, and had I known a Hawai'ian prayer, I would have said that too. It didn't die in vain.