Do you eat your Brown Bear, and if so what parts and how do you prepare them?

Brown bear is the only, or one of the few, animals that the state of Alaska does not require hunters to salvage the meat after shooting one.

I have read that their meat is pretty "unappetizing".

But there seems to a common aversion regarding eating predators, so it might be edible.

As a wise man once said: "sewer rat might taste like pumpkin pie, but I won't know because I'll never eat the filthy mutha ____ers."

I can only speak from my experience at Cold Bay Alaska. I was in on the skinning of three Bears. Imagine rotten fish in a barrel for three weeks fermenting then you get the picture. I have a pair of Gore Tex pants that until this day, many years later, still smells like the Bear. I Elk hunt in Colorado and if I wear those pants and they get wet, every dog on the ranch we pay an access fee to cross, will turn wrong side out when they get wind. ----- Where I hunted the native Aleuts also beleaved that the Brown Bear were reincarnated and if you ate the flesh, you would kill the soul of the reincarnated one, possibly your grandfather, and they were very serious about it. Good shooting.

Is there any issues with trychenosis (sp?), as there is with black bears?

I thought the Heart Was Very Tasty..

I've eaten off a couple different brown bears and 1 grizzly and probably won't try again.

Most of them are pretty un-appealing but I've had a couple of spring bears that were not bad and had interior grizzlies killed during the spring that tasted as good as black bear

In a sick sort of way I'd like to take one of those big bears feeding on a dead on the beach whale, walrus or seal and after going thru the skinning and gagging process, consider bear backstraps for dinner.

quote:

Originally posted by 505 gibbs:
Is there any issues with trychenosis (sp?), as there is with black bears?

Yes there is. In all my years working Public health for the USAF in Alaska every year we would investiage at least one or two cases of Trichinosis.

Every case was contributed by either under cooked black or brown bear meat. The overcooking can contribute to what causes the meat to taste bad, imange eating a Porterhouse well done.

It can be killed by cooking meat to 165F. They publish a time table for pork showing how many minutes it must be heated to for certain temperatures. If the meat is under 6 inches thick freezing can sometimes kill it as well.

Trichinosis is hard to cure. I remember conducting follow up interviews with patients 6 months after being treated and they still suffered severe pains in their muscles.

I did try grizzly, once. Glad the birds like it cause it was disgusting.

I wanted to try a little of my brown bear that I shot in '09 and it tasted like a bear that had been eating rotten salmon.

I tried some of the grizzly bear that I shot last week and it had been eating mostly blueberries and it was OK. It had a decent flavor but he was an old bear and was a little chewy.

Both cuts of meat came off the hind quarter.

While on a moose hunt in russia one year we stayed at a trappers hut and shared a meal with him it turned out to be bear meat. Thank god it was well cook so no problem with Trichinosis but it was very bland in taste,So i could live with out it!

I have eaten the meat from several black bears. It has always been good.

my brother has eaten black bear meat and he also ate some backstrap from an interior Alaskan Grizzly that he said was very good.

I have been told that any bear who's main diet has been fish, is not fit to eat.

Our PA bears seem to live on diapers and carrion. I won't eat them. A bear we got in Ontario wasn't too bad though. Diet is pretty determinative

Wanted to try mine but just couldn't stomach the strong smell of fish.

Imagine the fish stench for them big bears that have fish accessible on the coast....interior grizz prior to salmon spawning are okay, ate them a few times....just the ribs.

interior berry fed grizz is ok, but chewy every time....just gut shoot one and watch the worms fall out...then rethink the eating it idea...
still can't believe we have to salvage black bear meat...i won't eat that either no matter how good it taste.

Grizzley is good if they have not been into gut piles or fish.I ate a few of them.We made steaks and sauage out of them.My old gf was not going to eat any then she tried it.She loved it.I had the freezer full and said feed that bear to the dogs I am bringing alot more meat home.She ate alot of bear steaks that week.It was a good small griz about 7 feet.

quote:

Originally posted by loud-n-boomer:
Do you eat your Brown Bear, and if so what parts and how do you prepare them?

Yes, i did.
We have taken a bear nearly Baikal Lake and the bear was like boars, but the meat sweetly i think.

Regards
Igor

I am thinking diet of the bear has so much to do with it. I had tenderloin from a black bear my friend shot in the mountains near Uniontown PA and it was good. So good in fact that my wife told me I better get a bear myself so we have more of it to eat.

The guides cooked Brown Bear on both of my trips to Russia. I noticed they didn't eat any of it, but rather fed it to the hunters. I passed both times as I couldn't get past the smell.

When I picked up the life sized mount of my 2nd Brown Bear a couple of years afterword, the same smell was still there to the point of running me out of the trophy room. Half a bottle of Febreze has tamed it a bit. Still, every once in awhile, I'll get a whiff.

Nope, I rather eat Borsch than Bear!

My dog Oscar won't eat brown bear. He will eat dog turds . So I think that says something about brown bear meat

I have a dog named Oscar also with the same attibutes. Hes a Beagle


Cal30

Mine is a 100 lb. Village dog from Kake

quote:

Originally posted by gumboot458:
My dog Oscar won't eat brown bear. He will eat dog turds . So I think that says something about brown bear meat

Gumboot


Do you work underground up there?
Im trying to decide where to go from Newmont... I want to get closer to my home in Wallace Idaho. mining in Nevada .... Well the money is good But it sucks down here if you know what I mean.
Just a thought I dont think Alaska has room for 2 Oscars.
Keep in touch Miner.


Cal30

you will probably have to paint your house to get the smell out after you cook it.
what you think im kidding?

We're in the process of feeding our dogs a brown bear right now. We cook it and add ground barley,it smells ok and the dogs scarf it up.

You guys are spoilt

That's what hunting is about

Stalk , hunt and eat to survive ...

You sound like a pretty ruff customer Londonhunter,

Naturally my hands are wet because I am standing under a waterfall !

What about that brown bear bacteria they call "bear hand" or is that a term for guys who spend the winters in Alaska alone ???

I spent 5 month's in the Wrangell Mtns by myself one winter and if I didn't die of bear hand then chances are I've got nothing to fear now.

My neighbour also spent 5 months in Bangkok and didn't get AIDS or VD

He got ran over last weekend outside his office