How good is bear meat?

I believe that a bear is a distant relative to a pig. The meat is dark, and I find it dry. Cooked with extra moisture works really well. We have always tried to harvest a reasonable sized animal and one who was not on garbage or fish. The berry, grain, or grass fed bears are great eating.
Cook them slow and to a minimun internal temperature of 165 degress F, to ensure you dont' get Trichinosis, a parasitic disease caused by a certain roundworm.
Bear meat is great when well done. Roasts are my favorite, the steaks have always been a bit dry.
 
i really like the spring bear. But never had a fall bear, heard they get a fatty taste. Had one mixed with deer meat(muley) for sausage and pepperoni once, and almost threw it all away. My last bear I got I took a good portion of it camping with me. i introduced it to people who thought they would never try bear. They loved it also and I didnt get near as much as I wanted.
 
Bears are leaving their calling cards now on the ground everywhere around here - blueberry pies. I'll be trying to collect another blueberry fed bear in a few weeks. I would think it'll taste good like all the others I've dined on.
 
Bear steaks & roast

A really good friend of mine gave me a couple cuts of a fall bear that was shot in the Huntsville area of Ontario. The steak (big fatty piece) I had it marinating over night in red wine, garlic, onions,thyme and pepper. I then seared it on the BBQ to a nice medium rare. And of course I had to make a red wine reduction and wild blueberry sauce to go with it. My first bite of bear was a shock! Man was it ever fatty and gamy. The texture is that of a rare pork, and the meat was really dark. But it had the look of beef. Not wanting to dishonor the animal I struggled through half that rare steak, and thank god my dog grabbed the rest off the table when I got up to gag.

The second cut was a roast, and after learning my lesson from the steak episode, I slowly braised the bruin in a bottle of red wine, onions, garlic, tonnes of fresh herbs (thyme to control the gameness) and lots of root vegetables. My city raised wife and kids even liked it.

If I ever get another hunk of bear, I would definetly cook it with another type of meat to make it less intense.
 
gitrdun said:
I've never had it myself and often wondered the same thing. I've heard mixed opinions on it. One thing is for sure though, also something I hear from ALL that ate it, you have to make sure that it is very well cooked in order to kill some type of bacteria or some word that I can't even pronounce :redface:
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Bears are chock full of TRICHINOSIS, a rather nasty bacteria that can quite easily kill you or at very least make you very very sick , also found in pigs, especially hogs that are kept in natural conditions and wild pigs , not sure about any other animal, it is heavily advised in the MB conservation website to cook all bear/ hog meat very well
 
I heard that the trich bug cannot be killed by freezing in a lot of cases...:eek:
That means you are eating the gross little bug that would cause you bad intestinal pains.
I have tried bear meat several times and each time it was gross and would turn my stomach.
The only thing that I like is bear pepperoni,probably only due it being mixed with spices and pork.
 
Depends what the bear has been eating, and it's age. I prefer to make bear into curries and spaghetti sauce etc, rather than chops and roasts, but I usually shoot big bears. Small ones do taste better.
 
I'm hoping to put my tag on this little blackie when the season opens in Sept. He has been eating all the corn & horse feed I have been putting out. There are no garbage dumps around, just lots of grass, berries & acorns This will be my first bear, & I can't wait to taste it if I can put my tag on him.

George

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303carbine said:
I heard that the trich bug cannot be killed by freezing in a lot of cases...:eek:
That means you are eating the gross little bug that would cause you bad intestinal pains.
I have tried bear meat several times and each time it was gross and would turn my stomach.
The only thing that I like is bear pepperoni,probably only due it being mixed with spices and pork.
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yup you're right can't be killed by freezing only by cooking , i like bear, , just like everyone said so far , depends on what they been eating , but i'll personally never eat bear that isn't well done .
 
I've shot and eaten a lot of bear over the years, and the flavor does vary a bit because of the food being eaten by the bear. One that has been raiding the apple orchards for a month or more is the very best! An oat fed bear is also very good table fare. A bear that has discovered a rotting carcass of a deer or (insert any other animal here), is positively disgusting. Bears that are up in the high country and eating mostly berries are also delicious to eat. I, as some others here, prefer one that is younger to eat. The fat rendered is the best pastry lard ever to be used. Regards, Eagleye.
 
mmm...chicken said:
A really good friend of mine gave me a couple cuts of a fall bear that was shot in the Huntsville area of Ontario. The steak (big fatty piece) I had it marinating over night in red wine, garlic, onions,thyme and pepper. I then seared it on the BBQ to a nice medium rare. And of course I had to make a red wine reduction and wild blueberry sauce to go with it. My first bite of bear was a shock! Man was it ever fatty and gamy. The texture is that of a rare pork, and the meat was really dark. But it had the look of beef. Not wanting to dishonor the animal I struggled through half that rare steak, and thank god my dog grabbed the rest off the table when I got up to gag.

The second cut was a roast, and after learning my lesson from the steak episode, I slowly braised the bruin in a bottle of red wine, onions, garlic, tonnes of fresh herbs (thyme to control the gameness) and lots of root vegetables. My city raised wife and kids even liked it.

If I ever get another hunk of bear, I would definetly cook it with another type of meat to make it less intense.
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Big no no
 
I can't imagine why your bear meat was "intense" unless your friend tried to age it, or spilled the gut bag or something.

Unless he tried to age it.

I find and learned from experience that bear meat, unlike the ungulates, does not ripen, it just plain goes bad.

Kill it

Gut it

Skin it

Cool it

Cut it

Freeze it
 
I shot a bear last year and had it made into sausage. All I can say is that I cannot taste bear per say because of the way it was seasonred and it was mixed with pork. Next time I will save it for roasts instead of sausage.
 
Cooked well, doesn't necessarily mean "well done" as long as the meat reaches a certain temperature (not sure what that is right now) a little pink is ok. The only meat I ever cook "well done" is ground meat and chicken.
 
checked 3 separate sites today and recommendations by the gov't ...... cooked well according to them means no pink, they all called it "well done" , but , to each their own , i for one will not play with my health , tastes good either way and that's reallt what counts
 
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