Bear Meat?

[TheSurveyor]

I'll let you know... Shot my first bear this spring and haven't had a bite sadly. I got it home cut up and put in the freezer then life resumed. I saved the back hams for the rinella cured smoked ham. Looks and straps for steak and front shoulders for some kind of sauce like el unit showed.

 

[JohnCushman]

There are still some good things you can do even with having to cook the meat well done, and still keeping it moist. Green chili tacos that Randy H did one year at bear camp were amazing. He cooked the meat, then simmered it in chili verde for a long time to tenderize the meat and cook it to temp. Gerald cooked a roast overnight on low heat in wine and beef stock with veggies and that was amazing and tender. I've done BBQ pulled bear roasts in the slow cooker and it was amazing. I've smoked a roast after brining it in apple cider. I've done stew a couple of times and the meat was tender after a long cook. I ground some and added pork and made red chili. Bear meatloaf was good, as were bear meatballs and sauce.

There's all sorts of things you can do with bear meat...just be a little creative

 

[shootbrownelk]

The secret to good bear meat is this- As soon as you kill it get is gutted, skinned and as much of the fat off of it as you can as quickly as you can, then get it cooled down fast! if you leave the hide and fat on it and it cools slow the fat does something to taint the meat. If you do that you should have some good eating, for the guys saying yuck they will probably see this and say oh ya, we hung our bear like a deer, thus tainting the meat.... Try this you have nothing to loose, you might find out bear meat is actually pretty good!!!!

That's why I couldn't figure out why that bear meat wasn't much good. We skinned it for a rug. Gutted it, quartered it and had the meat in a cooler with ice within an hour/hour and a half. It wasn't unseasonably warm. I guess after reading the comments that this bear had a less than wholesome diet.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Bear meat has the tendency to be chewy compared to other wild games. I found out that when doing roasts, instead of cooking it for 2-3 hours to get it to a safe temperature it works best to cook 6-8 hours on lower heat. (@ 225-250 degrees) There is a lot of connective tissue that holds the muscle fibers together that melts and breaks down with longer cooking times and ensures that your roasts are tender instead of "bouncy" and chewy.
Most of the bears I have eaten have been spring bears and haven't had a lot of fat. The one fall bear I had was quite fat and it was delicious. IMO, if you take good care of the meat and cool it quickly that's all you can do to ensure it tastes good. If it's been eating trash and dead carcasses it probably isn't going to taste good. I don't know that I've ever heard of anyone complaining about the taste of a bear that was fat from huckleberries.

 

[HUNTNNW]

we make Italian sausage every year out of ours its great and you would have no idea its bear meat. Make sure to cut off all fat and add pork fat and or pork meat. We usually buy pork butts or shoulders and mix in with it, as the meat itself is very lean. Way to may people confuse bear meat as being greasy, the fat on the outside is very greasy and it should never make it to your table. The meat itself once trimmed is not fatty or greasy.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

All the bears I have killed have been outstanding table fair, make sure that you remove all the fat from the animal during butchering this is where the off tastes come from.

Sous vide is by far the best way to cook bear steaks as you really only need to get bear meat to an internal temp of 137 degrees for a hour or so to be 100 safe. If you aren't set up for sous vide/ don't want to drop $100 on a machine then definitely bring out the slow cooker.

Hank shaw has a great article on bear meat.

https://honest-food.net/on-trichinosis-in-wild-game/

 

[tim629]

i think there are certainly variables:

central PA most people don't seem wild about bear meat, northern PA in the mountains they love the stuff. It may be due to the economy of the 2 locations? where one any protein is good, but I think it actually comes more back to what the bear was feeding on, I like my beef finished on grain but I think my dad's bear that I"m sure raided fields but had a lot of wild berries in her she's pretty darn good.

marinated some of the meat and it was good flavor and tender but a lot of gristle: wrong cut or just bear meat texture? no clue as we cubed most everything

throw the cubes in stew and it's good stuff, my wife had no clue it was wild game when we were eating it the first time

 

[walking buffalo]

What's with all the advice to remove and toss the fat?

I suppose this comes those without experience of what bear fat really tastes like and what it is good for.
Listening to not so old wive's tales.

Until quite recently, bears were shot FOR THIER FAT!
That was the prize, the "Trophy"....

Bear fat is NOT at all like ungulate fat.
The lower melting temperature makes it VERY palatable, will not harden and stick in your mouth.
The flavour will be tell you what the meat will be like. Good eating bears will have fat that is more palatable than pork or beef fat.

As with pork or beef, bear should be trimmed of fat so the ratio is palatable to your tastes.
Trimmed fat should be saved for sausages, burgers or to be rendered into bear grease,
which is to be used for baking and frying....

Those who toss out bear fat are missing out on the real treat offered by these beasts.

 

[Lee Bear]

Bear is delicious!

Buy a tag and don't look back.

 

[esracerx]

I have a bear tag and for the first time, plan on hunting bear. I'll be in northern New Mexico in middle of September for archery elk. I would expect the bears to be feeding on juniper,acorns,and piñon. New Mexico doesn't have any meat requirements. But I refuse to harvest an animal and not take meat back.

After reading this and seeing all the opinions...I've got more questions than I started. In a perfect world, after the harvest how would you go about things? Get the hide off asap... then what? How much meat would you salvage? There's a butcher nearby, should I quarter it and let him deal with the rest? Or only keep good cuts

 

[JohnCushman]

I have a bear tag and for the first time, plan on hunting bear. I'll be in northern New Mexico in middle of September for archery elk. I would expect the bears to be feeding on juniper,acorns,and piñon. New Mexico doesn't have any meat requirements. But I refuse to harvest an animal and not take meat back.

After reading this and seeing all the opinions...I've got more questions than I started. In a perfect world, after the harvest how would you go about things? Get the hide off asap... then what? How much meat would you salvage? There's a butcher nearby, should I quarter it and let him deal with the rest? Or only keep good cuts

Get the hide off and quarter it, then drop it off at my house on your way home

 

[BigGameDIY]

Bear fat tastes very good and is used for medical purposes when people have bad caugh or lungs problems.

 

[esracerx]

Get the hide off and quarter it, then drop it off at my house on your way home

HA! Ill focus on getting one first.

 

[KJH]

We eat a ton of game meat at my house... We like it all... except bear. Bear meat is pretty much the worst thing I've ever eaten. Believe me I've tried to make it edible. I've only killed and tried eating early spring black bears, but they are all so terrible that the meat smells rancid immediately after the kill. It might have something to do with the diet, but you couldn't convince me to give it a try again regardless of the diet. Even dogs don't mess wit the raw bear meat in our camp... I cannot understand why someone would ever hunt bears for meat based on my experiences, but apparently I'm shooting the wrong bears based on this thread.

Before everyone gets upset, bears are the ONLY animal I kill (besides fur-bearers) that isn't consumed by people entirely. The animal still gets used. I usually shoot one bear every spring and keep the fat for the ladies in the first nation's villages. They really love the fat and are immensely appreciative. They can't get enough of the fat, but won't take the meat. The guys at camp use the bear meat cooked in a big pot for feeding dogs.

 

[JB101]

As mentioned above, sausage and other cured stuff are great, and they free up some my venison for other things. I've taken to bear hunting as a freezer filler for the last few years. Since Ontario killed the spring hunt 10 years ago, they have exploded in numbers and are a blast to hunt. Somebody gave me a 100lb sow last September that had been gorging herself on blueberries all summer. She was quite honesty the best game meat I've ever eaten, I bbq's the backstraps whole and they were phenomenal. Keep the fat for cooking if you get a good bear. Opinions vary on cook temp, I've read as low as 140 and as high as 180 to kill the trich, I aim for a solid medium and have never had an issue.

 

[JB101]

We eat a ton of game meat at my house... We like it all... except bear. Bear meat is pretty much the worst thing I've ever eaten. Believe me I've tried to make it edible. I've only killed and tried eating early spring black bears, but they are all so terrible that the meat smells rancid immediately after the kill. It might have something to do with the diet, but you couldn't convince me to give it a try again regardless of the diet. Even dogs don't mess wit the raw bear meat in our camp... I cannot understand why someone would ever hunt bears for meat based on my experiences, but apparently I'm shooting the wrong bears based on this thread.

Before everyone gets upset, bears are the ONLY animal I kill (besides fur-bearers) that isn't consumed by people entirely. The animal still gets used. I usually shoot one bear every spring and keep the fat for the ladies in the first nation's villages. They really love the fat and are immensely appreciative. They can't get enough of the fat, but won't take the meat. The guys at camp use the bear meat cooked in a big pot for feeding dogs.

Might be a spring bear thing, I usually get them in the fall. They eat a ton of oats and blueberries here all summer. My experience has been quite different.

 

[greatbasin]

Bear is my families favorite wild game, much more so than antelope, deer, or elk. It is mild and is more like beef than any of the others. We, make roasts, jerky, hamburger, meatloaf, sausage, and this year for the first time we smoked the racks of ribs with brisket attached and it was amazing! Just like any other type of meat it takes effort to make the best table fare out of wild game. Keep it clean, cool it, trim it correctly, and cook it wisely. Simply put in my opinion, bear is the best eating wild game animal around.

 

[elkhnter]

I'd be happy to take take bear meat off of your hands if there's someone who doesn't want it! PM me and we'll work out the shipping! Some of the best meat I've had was my bear, straight off the grill.

 

[esracerx]

I never said I didnt want it!!

 

[JohnCushman]

I never said I didnt want it!!

If you're able to stop by my house for a bit, I can give you the rundown on a few things to do to make some good bear meat dinners. Easy stuff that will impress people and might get you laid If you leave some I'll make sausages and a few things for when we meet up next year.