Javelina hide?

[Bill in Oregon]

Hey fellers, there is a guy on my muzzleloading forum planning an Arizona javelina hunt, and he is asking if the hide can be tanned and if it is useful for anything. I don't recall ever hearing a word about javelina leather.

[JimT]

The was someone used to make gloves from the hides. If I remember correctly where the hairs were form a unique pattern of 3's on the hide. (3 small holes or dots that is.)

[blackhawk44]

A couple of older friends spoke of javelina gloves as being very thin and flexible while being quite tough. I would think that it would take one hide per hand. I would have loved to have a pair but always became so preoccupied with other tasks (such as getting them ready for the pit) that I would forgot to save the hides at the time.

[Bill in Oregon]

Blackhawk, I assume by "getting them ready for the pit" that you were barbecuing them? How did that go? How did they taste?
Seems in a lot of reading over the years that many just take the head for the skull and leave the carcass.

[JimT]

Blackhawk, I assume by "getting them ready for the pit" that you were barbecuing them? How did that go? How did they taste?
Seems in a lot of reading over the years that many just take the head for the skull and leave the carcass.

I am not Blackhawk but I can testify that we ate Javelina a lot! My wife usually fixed them and made many meals with them. A lot of the people that had problems with them tried to cut out the musk gland during skinning. Get it into the meat and it's pretty well ruined. If you don't mess with it and jut pull the hide off the gland comes with the hide and does not get on anything.

The meat is extra lean. My wife always added fat or oil to them when she cooked them in the crock pot. I have a recipe or two of hers as to how she fixed them.

One hunt we had another hunter who was an American Indian camp with us. I shot a Javelina the first day and gave the meat to him for his family. That night at the campfire he cut off the right rear leg where the bullet went in (I shot it as it was running away from me.. the bullet went in the right rear ham and exited front left chest). He browned it by holding it over the fire and turning it until the meat had cooked on the outside ... then he propped it on 3 sticks over the fire and slowly cooked it. It cooked in its own juices. When it was done it was amazing! A little salt was all it needed.

[Joe Reilly]

Football?

[blackhawk44]

A couple of buds usually liked to play cook and had the recipe already worked out.
First pull the hide off with the gland. Rinse out carcass with plenty of water. Split the carcass to lay flat on a bed of mesquite coals in the pit. Using a child's toy mop, thoroughly soak both sides with a "sop" made of 50/50 cooking oil and vinegar mixed with a small can of Rotel in a big saucepan. Using the large can of Rotel supplies a bit too much zip for most folks. Place meat on the chimney end opposite the coals. Every time anybody walked by, during breaks in the domino or spade games or while fixing breakfast, whatever, they were to sop it down and turn it over, all the way up until mealtime.
We would put it on after the hunt on Friday evening to be ready for midday next day. Along with warm tortillas and pinto beans, always on the fire for the weekend, it worked for us. I'm sure there are fancier recipes, but this one served us well over the years.

[Bill in Oregon]

Wow, I haven't played spades since college. Nixon was president ...

[blackhawk44]

It was LBJ when I learned. In the days before satellite tv, we occupied ourselves with hearts, spades, dominoes, moon and 42. Really doesn't seem so long ago, but...

[Griff]

Wow, I haven't played spades since college. Nixon was president ...

Not college, but in Uncle Sam's Canoe Club during the SEA War Games!

[Ray]

Deleted.

[Bill in Oregon]

Now Ray, there you go channeling my late grandmother again, calling me Bill + y ...