Eating bear meat

Elkoholic said:

^^^ this! The roast Gerald made was from my bear, about 2wks later I received the remainder of my bear meat from the processor in Mt., although this is the first black bear I have ever tasted I don't have any previous to compare. I now have had the chance to try the breakfast sausage, burger, brats & tenderloin chops and I must say it is all excellent. This was a spring bear and I am sure the processor had a part to play in the results as well. I have always heard bear meat sucks from others, but this sucker is yummy!!! Of course preparation/marinades, etc. is the key as well.

Click to expand...

DITTO! Gerald is my hero! That was damn good! Gotta say, Randy's biscuits n gravy... good stuff!
Before this spring bear hunt, I thought of Bear meat as spiced breakfast sausage meat... now? Randy and Gerald turned that 180* Roasts... Bear are no longer an opportunistic type hunt, Bear will be a focused hunt.

Great tastes, sausage, roasts or ... I am sold!

Randy11 said:

I've ate four fall bears that were berry fattened and three of them were among the best meat I've ever had in my life. All the spring bears I've had were dang good too.

Last fall we put an old boar black bear, two antelope, a whitetail, a mule deer and half an elk in the freezer, and the bear was gone before the rest. I used the last of it this spring making biscuits and gravy on the bear hunt.

Click to expand...

I forgot about the bear gravy...another tasty bear treat

All this talking about wild game is making me hungry.

Randy11, Gerald Martin, others, what are some good recipes for roast, grilling, sausage, etc? If you don't mind sharing. I still have a bear tag I want to fill during the general rifle season before they den up in Region 1.

The one bear I have killed, last September, is great eating. No need to spice it up or crock pot it. Great steaks off every roast with light seasoning.
Skinned quartered and hung quickly. Trimmed all trace of fat leaving clean meat in large roasts before freezing. Not sure if getting all fat off the meat helped but it did not hurt.

I too have a new interest in harvesting another bear for the freezer.

We eat primarily deer, elk, bear and salmon and generally we run out of bear first. Great stuff IMO.

Nameless Range said:

Cook it thoroughly. Steve Rinella recently became infected with Trichinosis.

Click to expand...

Where did you hear that? I've never heard of the guy but I cant seem to find anything on Google about it other than him talking a lot about how to safely cook bear meat. No mention of him getting trichinosis. Seems to me he is more advocating for how safe it is to eat???

http://www.petersenshunting.com/uncategorized/steven-rinella-the-bear-facts-on-trichinosis/

There is mention about him getting Lyme disease but that is a tick thing not a bear meat thing.

Joe Hulburt said:

We eat primarily deer, elk, bear and salmon and generally we run out of bear first. Great stuff IMO.



Where did you hear that? I've never heard of the guy but I cant seem to find anything on Google about it other than him talking a lot about how to safely cook bear meat. No mention of him getting trichinosis. Seems to me he is more advocating for how safe it is to eat???

http://www.petersenshunting.com/uncategorized/steven-rinella-the-bear-facts-on-trichinosis/

There is mention about him getting Lyme disease but that is a tick thing not a bear meat thing.

Click to expand...

He posted it on his facebook page a couple of days ago

Interesting thread.I am still not convinced about the quality of bear meat enough to whack another one.Although I would like to round ball one jet black bruin.

I have eaten bear meat my whole life, I like that some people dont like it, cause they give it to me. The best way to having prime table fare bear meat is to get the hide off quickly after harvesting and then remove all of the fat, as soon as you remove the hide the fat will start to firm up and be easier to remove from the meat, the meat will not cool properly if you dont remove the fat! Bear meat is one of my favorites, especially the ribs, slow cooked in a roasting pan

JohnCushman said:

He posted it on his facebook page a couple of days ago

Click to expand...

Man, he's been getting hammered by every angle!

Joe Hulburt said:

Man, he's been getting hammered by every angle!

Click to expand...

He was live on Cam and Company on the Outdoor Channel talking about it. He has been undergoing some pretty serious treatments and was real sick. COOK that stuff well! Bears are like what used to be said about hogs, when everyone fed them scraps and garbage. They eat trash and thus tend to have trichinosis. It is not worth chancing under-cooked meat.

before my first bear hunt I asked a buddy same question he said it good to go just take your time during meat prep and trim all silver meat. after we shot our 3 bears we cut them up taking our time and trimming them nicely and everyone loved it. made jerkey, backstrap was GREAT as steaks and tasted basically like deer just a little different oily taste. these are east coast bears that mainly eat acrons, chesnuts, corn and grasses so I see why they taste like deer

Mine was so good my WIFE even liked it!

Randy11, Gerald Martin, others, what are some good recipes for roast, grilling, sausage, etc? If you don't mind sharing

Click to expand...

From the bear roast consumed at the first annual Hunttalker Bear hunt....

First of all kill bear. I think I used about a five lb chunk of hindquarter for my roast. If the bear is fat trim off some of the excess fat. Don't worry about getting it all. It tastes fine, you just don't want your jus sauce to greasy in the end.

Salt and pepper heavily and brown the roast in hot skillet. Cut at least one large onion into slices or chunks and line the bottom of the roasting pan with them. Half and clean 2-4 jalepeno peppers and add them to the onions. Then lay the roast on top of the onions and peppers. I like garlic so I cleaned and added the cloves of about half a bulb of garlic to the mix. Pour half a bottle of red wine into the roasting pan. Add water or chicken stock untill the roast in nearly halfway covered with liquid. Then add 5 or six cubes of beef boullion to the stock. Sprinkle plenty of smoked paprika or chili powder over the roast.
Cover the pan with foil or a lid and bake at 260 for 8-12 hours. You can adjust your heat and cooking time according to your schedule. Higher heat for less time. (Say 300 for 5 hours.) The meat will be safely cooked within two hours HOWEVER the secret is cooking the roast long enough that the collegen that connects individual muscles fibers to each other breaks down and melts. Bear meat is notoriously "stringy" and cooking a long time makes it tender.
Don't let the roast dry completely out. I have a goal of having about 1/3 of the original stock in the pan when it's finished cooking. You can add more wine or water through the process if you need to.

When the roast is done,. separate it with a fork and mix all the leftover cooking jus through the meat.

Serve to ten hungry guys wore out from packing bears and late nights around the campfire. Enjoy more recognition than a simple recipe would normally deserve. Cheers.

I have a bear ham in the brine as we speak. Planning on smoking it Saturday.

In my expierence bear meat is as good as what has been expressed on this thread.

On a side note - cooking the meat past 160 degrees is the official method of killing trichinosis. Cold temps (ie freezing) does not kill it.

Pretty simple to me. I pull my pork at 200 from the smoker (for pulled or chopped pork).