How good is bear meat?

I was at a games meal last year and a guy had a "special" recipe that he used. he marinated the meat (mostly chops and loin) in dry mustard, red wine and pepper. He let it sit for a day. He seared all the meat on high heat and then slow cooked it with a large piece of smoked pork in a sauce made from the marinade. It was the best meat at the meal imo.
 
The only bear I've eaten was in a sausage, which I was told was 50/50 bear and moose meat.

It was like a salami or summer sausage, and was absolutely delicious.
 
I was told it was terrible. I shot a bear last fall and it was excellent. Even the person who told me it was terribel liked it when he tried it. As others have already said I think it depends a lot on age and what it has been eating.
 
ummmm, maybe I will try it then

bill c68 said:
I by far prefer a spring bear to venison. I have yet to eat any meat from a large ber but the smaller ones are good. I would describe a bear burger as a mixture of pork and beef.
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OK, after reading all of the posts, I am starting to wonder what a bear cub tastes like since the only bear meat I had was very tough and very dark. So I guess the trick is to go out next year during the spring bear hunt and bag myself a little cub. Preferably one that is still on mothers milk and soft greens which in turn will probably have the tender(est) meat….

I may be turned to the dark side after all.:yingyang:

Robert

P.S. I may have used it, but I know that “Tenderest” is not a word.
 
Lard, made from bear, is as white as all can be, and very fine for cooking
with. One of the best peach pies I have ever eaten - the pastry was made
with bear lard.

A young animal ... taken well away from garbage piles & humanity is generally very good. Never eaten a spring bear, but in the fall, the young of the year or a yearling (1-1/2+) is generally pretty good table fare, particularly if there has been a good berry & mast crop ( beech nuts/acorns). In the shield country, bear, to me, is preferable to venison - but further south, deer that have been into the grain, corn & apples ... well that's pretty nice too.

The native boys use a little bear oil on their arthritic joints ... they swear by it, and use it for waterproofing their boots as well.
 
Reom the best to the worst. A young spring bear is the best. It has no fat, is tender,& is better (less gamie) . A big bore in the middle of mating is not eatable.:eek: I have shot both. If it was a "dump bear" i would not shoot it let alone eat it. Ham smoked ribs BBQed steaks slow cooked:).JMHO AJ:wave:
 
rlg said:
OK, after reading all of the posts, I am starting to wonder what a bear cub tastes like since the only bear meat I had was very tough and very dark. So I guess the trick is to go out next year during the spring bear hunt and bag myself a little cub. Preferably one that is still on mothers milk and soft greens which in turn will probably have the tender(est) meat….

I may be turned to the dark side after all.:yingyang:

Robert

P.S. I may have used it, but I know that “Tenderest” is not a word.
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Well, I have never shot one right off the teat, as the bears get bigger you do notice a difference. I have taken a sub 100lb bear, a 120 ish bear and a 150 ish bear, you do notice a stronger taste as they get bigger. I also got a quarter from a larger bear and I must admit is was tasty.
 
beretta boy said:
... and so are jackals, red pandas, skunks, otters. kinkajous and wolverines !
Many of these are not considered particularly great table fare.

Even though the tight-arsed anal taxonomists classify them as carnivores, bears are considered omnivorous - and, as such, depending on what their diet has been and how they've been taken, handled & processed ... bear meat can be very good indeed.

Ever try a west-coast Canvasback that has been gorging on rotten salmon
or a deer that's spent the last month on eastern white cedar browse ? Both are pretty close to disgusting. Now, a young fall bear, well fed on acorns & beechnuts, that's not something to shy away from in my book !
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Yes, Yes ,Yes. And as well as canvasbacks, black ducks can feed on east coast rotten salmon and can be just as bad!! Bear meat is delicous.Don't shy away from it!!!
 
A lot depends on the animal and what it was eating, also field care and butchering play a big part in the table fare of bear or any game. Bear makes terrific sausages and the roasts are great sort of like a cross between roast pork and a turkey leg.
 
I tried some last year at a pot-luck. It was a roast, slow cooked and well prepared. It tasted really good !! It was a younger black bear to my understanding, taken in N. Ontario
 
I've had it twice prepared by others. Both times slow cooked for real long times. Marinaded for a full day previously. I still couldn't acquire a taste for it. I have had sausage from my own kills but for some reason just can't develop a great love for it. I know people that love it, and I just can't say I do. The last bear I got, I cut it up, and gave it to a friend that has sled dogs. They devoured it. He loves it when he get bear meat for the dogs, because it is pretty oily and thats great for their fur and skin. (they are run in -40 or colder in winter, so anything to help him, I am down with that)
Better than not using it I guess.
 
Lots of varied opinions in this thread!

Here's my experience: We hunt bears in the fall only, and where we hunt there is no dumps/garbage, but lots of berries :)

Black bear is, by a huge margin, the FINEST wild game to grace our table. I'm not kidding, in the years that I have been hunting the islands, I have not had a bad bear. Even the "crappy" cuts are tender, with a flavour very close to that of beef. At the end of the season last year, my freezer contained my share of:

2 Doe's, 1 buck, 2 calf moose, one bull moose and 2 bears....the bear is long gone :) My wife, every year: "WHEN are you going to shoot another bear?!?!"

That said, I have tried bears that hit a dump (bad) and spring bears that had been feeding on winterkill deer (disgusting)

It all comes down to where/what they eat.
 
Bear

Bear meat is great.

Cool it right away, cut it and freeze it. I don't select big bears.

I don't think it is gamey. I shot numerous fall bears in salmon streams and they were fine. Their guts were still full of berries.

I took someone from Ontario out one spring though and he shot a bear I didn't want him too, a motheaten toothless old boar who had worn out hip joints. Very old bear, but that so and so shot him 'cause he had a reddish brown coat.

Well that bear had been eating rotten fish all winter, had four to five inches of fat on him, had not hibernated obviously, and tasted like hell.

A good younger bear makes great roasts, stews, and awesome burger. Made to be married with garlic. Baked ribs with onion and tomato sauce is incomparable to anything else!

I didn't get a bear last year, but a buddy just gave me half a bear he had frozen in quarters. Tasty tender beast too!

Well what do you do with one-quarter of a thawed out bear?

Can it.

My wife thawed it out, cut it up into roast sized chunks, browned it and and roasted it in the oven until it was 1/2 done, then cut it up into one-pint portions, put it into jars and canned it.

She took the nicer stew meat and browned and half stewed that too and put it in cans.

Now we have twenty jars of canned bear meat to take camping and hunting.

It is real convenient, you get back to camp at dark exhausted and hungry, and instead of having to worry about taking the time to cook anything that takes a while, put on some rice or pasta, open the jar and heat it in a pan and there 's dinner!

I don't know why some guys claim bear meat is gamey. They must **** it up somehow.
 
I am a rather new hunter, and one of the main reasons I was motivated to finally get my licence was when we were over for dinner at a friends house they cooked up a bear roast. It was some of the best meat I have ever had.
 
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