Bear meat ! It's a Treat !

[bear402]

I often read or hear the question on what to do with a bear if you get one ?

I believe that some People get turned off on bear because they most likely try to treat it like deer meat . If you throw a bear steak on the grill and try to eat it you'll find it can be mighty tough and chewy. You'd probably be better off to resole your boots with it !

Here's what I generally do with the bears I take !


I grind most of the bear meat from my bears into burger. I cut the cheap "30% fat ground beef" into it a ratio of 1 pound beef burger to to 4 pounds lean ground bear meat. The end result is aproximately a 10 to 12 % fat content grind.

My wife and I use the grind as grilled burgers, Bear tacos, Bearritos, Bearghetti, and as a quick meal Bear helper. It also makes great breakfast sausage patties with a little saugsage spice mixed in. The sausage patties can be pan fried but it is best off the grill !

Hunks of bear make good stews and chili and "Bear Verdi" with flour tortillas is hard to beat.

We did a nice orange glazed bear roast accompanied by some stuffed wild mushrooms for Thanksgiving many moons ago. It was a big hit with our guests !

Bear Jerky is very good out of the dehydrator ! Cut into lean 1/4" or less in thickess strips, Marinade in teriaki and and alittle liquid smoke. Lay on racks , season with garlic salt, coarse ground pepper and optional red pepper flakes if you want some heat. Dry in the oven or dehydrator until desired doneness. I like mine to break when bent but you can take it out when it's still slightly pliable. Since there is no cure added , left over jerky can be frozen or stored in thye refridgerator in tightly sealed freezer bags. This jerky will keep a week or so without refridgeration since the salt and drying acts ast a cure to some extent. I like to throw some in my pack on those backpack hunts. The only problem is that it disappears to quick cause I can't stop eating it !

With the exception of the grind and jerky, it has been my experience that bear meat is generally better if you cook it down until it's practically falling apart. Deep pitting or slow cooking in the oven, works good as well as crock potting or slow simmering in a covered pan on the stove.

Pulled bear with barbque sauce on a grilled french roll makes for a really tasty sandwhich !!

[bear402]

It was brought to my attention that there are some safety precautions that should be followed when cooking or drying bear meat due to the possible dangers of parasites that could exist within it.

I was aware that bear meat should be thoughly cooked just like pork to prevent the transfer of possible parasites. My bad for not mentioning it in my original post.

Here are some guidelines for handling and cooking the meat including internal temperatures and time periods required to be assured of safe results.
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Food preparationLarvae may be inactivated by the heating, freezing (caution), or irradiation of raw meat. Freezing may only be effective for T. spiralis, since some other species, such as T. nativa, are freeze resistant and can survive long-term freezing.[11]

Cooking meat products to an internal temperature of 165 °F (74 °C) for a minimum of 15 seconds.
Cooking pork to a minimum uniform internal temperature per USDA Title 9 section 318.10 Table below. It is prudent to use a margin of error to allow for variation in internal temperature and error in the thermometer.
°F °C Minimum Time
120 49 21 hours
122 50.0 9.5 hours
124 51.1 4.5hours
126 52.2 2 hours
128 53.4 1 hours
130 54.5 30 minutes
132 55.6 15 minutes
134 56.7 6 minutes
136 57.8 3 minutes
138 58.9 2 minutes
140 60.0 1 minute
142 61.1 1 minute
144 62.2 Instant

Freezing pork less than 6 inches thick for 20 days at 5 °F (−15 °C) or three days at −4 °F (−20 °C) kills larval worms.
Cooking wild game meat thoroughly. Freezing wild game meats, unlike freezing pork products, even for long periods of time, may not effectively kill all worms. This is because the species that typically infects wild game is more resistant to freezing than the species that infects pigs.
Unsafe and unreliable methods of cooking meat include the use of microwave ovens, curing, drying, and smoking, as these methods are difficult to standardize and control.[11]

[GregE]

Thanks Bear!! I've never taken a bear though I usually have a tag 'just in case' I run across one. Never eaten any either.

McCleary, WA a town just west of me has a Bear Festival where it is available- I need to take Bandaid as she feels we should eat what we shoot and she has reservations about bear meat.

[Magic]

I barely ate some bear once. It was shot late in the evening and not recovered until the next AM.

[Levergun]

This is good info...Thanks for the post!

[POPS]

Use rendered bear fat for the best tasting pie crust.

I prefer to eat spring bear as they have less fat.

[Levergun]

A friend of mine got a bear last season and I asked for the fat, but not for cooking to eat, cooking to get the grease to make bullet lube.

[bear402]

[Levergun]

Back in the day, bullet lube was made out of whale fat. Then when thye could not get whale fat they changed to bear grease. Now we use beeswax and olive oil.

So I am going to play around with the bear grease and see how that works. It is mostly for my M/L and black powder cartridges.

[falconred]

I have a book that is all about the bears that Lewis and Clark encountered on their journey. They killed many and almost always mentioned rendering the fat (lard) and storing it in barrels.

[huntem]

[Levergun]

This is all good info. We should think about putting some of our experiences with bear in the reloading room and the cooking forum! ;D