I got both of the hindquarters and backstraps of a a bear my friend shot today. Need some suggestions on how to prepare them. I've got a smoker, but have never used it before. Can I prepare the whole hinquarter in the smoker, or do I need to cut them up on smaller pieces?. Any suggestions would be welcome.

What does bear meat taste like ?? I never new people ate it. What could you compare it to to give me an idea. Is it highly regarded as a food source??

Is it desirable only to eat young bears not the big huge brown bears??

PC,
My experience with bear meat goes only as far as the runt black bear I shot a couple years ago.I call it a runt,because it was 2 years old and weighted about 100 pounds guts,feathers and all.There was NOT ONE OUNCE OF FAT on that whole bear.

The meat of this bear,to say the least,was spectacular.I'd take it over venison or beed any day of the week.It must be cooked "done".I like to fry it in olive oil and peanut oil,with some fresh garlic.

Most people who tell you they've ate bear and it was horrible,tough and greasy,have most definetly ate a bear that was ran by hounds and shot out of a tree.In this case,YES they taste terrible.Shoot a bear that hasn't been running away from dogs all morning,and you've got some mighty fine eating.

Coastal brown bears and coastal black bears are usually inedible,due to the amount of fish they eat.Interior black bears and grizzlys,who've probibly never seen a salmon before,are splendid eating.Elmer Keith said he'd take mountain grizzly chops over pork chops any day of the week.

efryman,
Try frying it like I said above,in olive oil,peanut oil and garlic.Cook it done.If it doesn't take good that way,it probibly isn't going to taste good most ways.Then what you do is either make hamburger or sausage out of it.Can you smoke hamburger or sausage?That'd probibly be right tasty.

Bears often has trikines and must be cooked done.
I�ll suppose it will be allright if you warm smoke it.

Right off the top of my head two things come to mind, bearfat and country ham. I get from a local hunt club all the bearfat they end up with during the season. Render it off to get the "lard" it makes the best pastry by far when compared to any other kind of fat used. Also I always make a "country" style ham from bear hams. It is involved and I'll send you the procedure if you like. Cook bear like you would wild pig, you don't need to turn it into a cinder just be sure internal temp reaches 175F for 5 mins. Yum

Can I ask a further question, why does a diet of Fish make the bear meat taste awful??

Most meat get the taste of what the animal is eating. A pig that get's a lot of fish will taste fish and the fat will be more simulare to fishfat than normal.

Johan

The black bears that I have eaten have been the best game meat I have tasted and competative with Pheasant or grouse. But they have been from New England and eating nuts and apples. One shot in a dump or eating fish I don't know.

I don't like the taste of smoked food or charcoal for that matter so I have no comment on it.

Just cook it thru like pork.

Cut that hindquarter into smaller roast size pieces.
Marinate in your favorite marinade, add a pinch of red wine and olive oil to your marinade. Overnite is best.Pat dry with paper towels.
Now wrap each piece in foil and throw it on gas bar-b-cue on low, lid closed.The foil prevents the meat from drying out and singing from the flames. Flip em every 15min. Every grill is different but when you feel the meat is thoroughly cooked, unwrap the foil and brown it (light char)lightly.Use water in a squirt bottle to keep down the flare-ups. She will be dripping!
Enjoy!
Hint: Invite your friends, co-workers, in-laws and neighbors over. Tell em it's pork. After they tell you what a great chef you are, spill the beans! MtnHtr

[ 06-16-2002, 21:01: Message edited by: MtnHtr ]

My friend from Wisconsin brought us some black bear from there. We soaked it in soy sauce, worchestershire, honey, and garlic for a few minutes. Then grilled it over open flame. It was better than any venison I have ever tasted. About animals diet. When I bring Wisconsin whitetail back to Florida my friends will give me anything for it. The difference between a corn/alfalfa fed whitetail and a southern scrub eater is night and day. I believe diet and the amount of stress the animal is under prior to harvest are the two most important factors in meat quality. That said, grill em' up. Cut small steaks and start with no spice then prep and experiment your way into something legends are made from.

Having eaten a few bears I find that the younger bear meat should be cooked like good beef. I remove as much of the fat as possible. One of my favorite is to take a roast cut slits in it dump dry oinion soup mix into it roast it until well done. I wouldn't smoke it as with pork the smoking well not be hot enough. If it is a older bear Barbarcuing does wounders. For eating the best bears are under 250lbs. I wouldn't cook a whole hind unless you have lots of time to let it get well done.

Thanks for all the tips. I will cut the quarters into smaller pieces. That way I can experimnet with several different methods/recipies. The bear was around 180 lbs/6ft. It had quite a lot of fat around the "rump area", but that has all been trimmed off. The meat that I got left looks very lean, I'm hoping it won't be too tough.

I would not smoke bear meat. Like pork, turkey and others you have to cook it well and long enough to kill bacteria that may be harmful to you. Smoking it may not be sufficient to do that.

Some of the recipes above sound great, and I bet that if you search "bear recipes" in the Internet you will find some.

You can smoke it for awhile and then finish cooking it in the oven or grill- that'll kill the nasties and give you a smoke flavour.

I've made bear curries, bear steaks, bear stews etc. If the bear is old I'd pound the steaks a bit to tenderize, and marinate overnight with all the usual stuff, and maybe some chilies- it'll kill any gamey taste.

Crawfish
Can you email me your ham procedure? I've made sausages and some other stuff, but never ham. Is this a cured ham like a proscuitto or a cooked ham like a picnic ham? Thanks in advance

gatehouse68@hotmail.com

If a bear has been eating carion there are certain steps to preparing it...

One must freeze it after a few days hanging at about 32 degrees...then thaw it out in hot water and let the blood drain completely out of it until the meat is greyish in color...then put it on a one inch thickness or wild rice on a fresh pine board covered with salsa, potatoes, and well doused in your favorite bar-B-Que sauce and bake at 450 degress for 2 hours...

toss the bear meat in the garbage and eat the pine board. Bon Apetite....

Young Bear: soak in vineger and onions all day and chicken fry, its great...render the bear fat and that makes the best pie crust, biscuits that you will ever eat....good for coating muzzle loader patches also...

I don't know why fish flavor transfers into bear meat, but it does, and it does for other animals, too. Commercial chicken feed can only have about 7% fish meal in it, or the eggs and chickens start tasting like it.

Back when I was still working in the trout processing end of things, a hog farmer would come by the plant and pick up the fish guts to feed to his wild boars. They loved the stuff, but he had to take them off it for at least two months before he could put them out for shooting, or no-one would eat them.......

As far as bear meat, all I will say is: Sloppy Joes! Oh, yeah......

Well, and pies. And short bread cookies. And a good looking blond to cook them for me..... LOL! Dutch.

A friend gave me a ~20# block of frozen black bear meat last spring. The majority of it was ground up, rolled in corn tortillas, and fried as toquitos, very good eating with salsa.

I also sliced some thin, marinated in soy sauce and brown sugar over night, then grilled with onions and put it in a roll like a Philly cheese steak, also good eating.

I had a little bit of the ground bear left in the freezer, and my wife used it for pasta sauce, comenting that it smelled like the meat was bad when she was cooking it, until I told her, no it smells like bear, nothign wrong with it.

Bear is excellent. Consider it like very large pig and any pork recipe including bacon,smoked ham and sausage work well using bear.

[ 06-20-2002, 05:05: Message edited by: rockhead ]

In Alaska's interior, black bears taste good, specially those that during the summer are eating berries. Here we have no choice but to take all eatable meat from any black bear we hunt. For different recipes all you have to do is search "bear meat recipes" in the Internet. I already did that for you with Google (the link below):

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=bear+meat+recipes&spell=1