Eat bear?

What do you guys thank of it? Any good recipes for it? Do you have the butcher add fat to it when it gets processed? Thanks.


JBone

Cook it like you do beef, just cook it well, not rare, it's delicious! No need to add fat, they are plenty fatty as is, especially in the fall.

Yes, eat bear.

I have only ever killed spring bear but my buddy has killed several fall bear so I will tell you our experience with them.

I have found from butchering bear meat that it has the same texture as pork although a darker color. The meat takes seasoning very well and I usually turn all of mine into breakfast sausage. With my last bear I made some sausage using pig fat and another batch using the bear fat. The batch that used bear fat was excellent and several of my taste testers reported that it was better than the pork fat mix. In the future I will only use bear fat in my sausage unless there is not enough and then I will supplement with pork fat. Spring bears tend to not have much fat left on them.

With the bear I shot this last spring I will attempt to smoke a ham and the rest will be made into breakfast sausage and italian sausage.

My friend has made bratwurst sausages from his bears as well as breakfast and italian sausage. The bratwurst were great. He also rendered the fat of his bears and uses it for baking and frying in the place of shortening an lard. He has used the rendered fat in everything from cookies and cakes to frying french fries.

Thanks for the replies. I did a search on here about eating them. One person had a really bad experience from it (trichinosis - from undercooked bear meat), and the rest seemed equally divided between awful and great.

I eat all the animals I kill - deer, elk, buffalo, antelope, oryx, barbary sheep, squirrel, rabbit, and pheasants. I had never had bear and was pondering that thought. Sounds like I will be eating it and too pay attention that it is not undercooked in the least!!!

Again, thanks for the replies.


JBone

I've wondered the same thing. I've never tried it but have a tag this fall. So hopefully I'll get a chance to try it. It makes me a bit nervous with the negative you hear, but I've heard the same things with deer, elk, antelope, and anything else that doesn't come from the supermarket.

Years ago while on a trip to N Idaho, I stopped in Missoula to buy camp food at WalMart. The cashier asked if we were going camping, and we replied that we were going bear hunting! She began ooohing and aweing, and commenced to tell us how much she loved bear fat for making pie crusts!? Yes, a lot of people love bear meat and bear fat. When I flesh bear hides, by dog LOVES to sit under the fleshing machine and eat the fat as it falls down, and he has not died of trichinosis yet. I have not been able to convince my wife to make bear lard pie crusts just yet, but...

Lol...Ughunter. She'll come around, maybe. I make breakfast sausage with mine. This spring I harvested a bear and had jalape?o honey jerky made. It's damn good.

I like eating bear meat. I didn't take any meat from my bear last fall because it had spent a week in a dead elk carcass. It was all I could do to skin the thing. Otherwise I would have harvested all the meat. Stir fry bear strips and roast bear is excellent.

Love it!