The Truth About Bear Meat

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Sep 22, 2013
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Okay...give it to me straight. The only bear I ever killed was very healthy and filled with fruit and was supposed to taste great. It didn't unless you think ass is delicious. It was dressed immediately and placed in a box to chill within 2 hours. It was on a cold day in Nov on the morning of the first snow. Handling and cutting out of the fat played no part is the taste. It just sucked. So...are those who eat black bear meat easily satisfied and likely to eat anything or could there be some reason why this bear was awful? I hesitate to hunt em again for this reason but bought a tag anyway. Archery bear season opens tomorrow.
 

Soj51hopeful

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Did you butcher it or have it done? All the bear meat I've had has been good except 1. The 1 bear that tasted like ass I had done at the local butcher shop. The steaks were good but the ground meat was nasty. All I can figure is they waited until they had a few bears to do at 1 time and threw them all together to grind with someone bringing in a nasty one to go with them.
 

SLDMTN

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The grizzly meat I've had was edible in tacos/chili/spaghetti and made good sausage. I do not need to eat that meat by itself though...

Last spring, we took two black bears less than 12 hours apart, one boar and one sow. The boar was awful, the sow was great and tasted like beef/pork mix.

There was a wild game meat feed at the kids' school where parents brought in all types, the black bear was the only meat that got completely finished. It was crock potted with a fairly typical roast prep.

I firmly believe that the bear meat will taste like it smells. Purple paw black bears (wild blueberries) are a favorite of a lot of people up here in AK.
 

Daniel_M

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Could be a number of reasons why, but most of it comes down to diet. Some of the best meals I've ever made came from bears taken late season, who's diet is exclusively herbivorous and far from any salmon streams.
 

carter33

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Fairbanks
Only had black bear. Cooked the back strap with heavy seasoning over an open fire the night after taking him and it was good. Had the rest ground and made into breakfast sausage, this was also good and goes well in a crock pot queso cheese dip for football season.
 

Sodbuster

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Had a Black Bear roast from an Arkansas bear and ground burger from an Alaskan Blackie. Both were good.
Both were butchered immediately after hitting the ground.
 
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
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Chugiak, Alaska
I've only had black bear from AK, one I shot on POW in the spring and different pieces of meat that friends have given me over the years, from their spring killed black bears. None of it was good in my opinion, some of it was okay, and some of it was worthless. The bear I killed I just had ground up and made into breakfast and Italian sausage. It was okay, but it was always a difficult decision to make when deciding to pull it out of the freezer to eat. Anyway, that's my opinion of bear meat.
 
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I've had good and bad. The one's I've taken care of was good. The stuff I didn't like was simply over cooked or, it would have probably been good. God Bless
 

hunter4life

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New Mexico
I can only speak to NM bears. All the ones I have had have been uniformly bad. I have eaten bears that were feeding on acorns, prickly pears, juniper berries and pinon nuts. We have to pelt tag them and they pull teeth to age them. The youngest one was 9 years old. Maybe a young yearling bear would make for better table fare?
All these were processed at home and my family is very experienced at processing game, so I don't think that is the issue.
 

Glendon Mullins

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Okay...give it to me straight. The only bear I ever killed was very healthy and filled with fruit and was supposed to taste great. It didn't unless you think ass is delicious. It was dressed immediately and placed in a box to chill within 2 hours. It was on a cold day in Nov on the morning of the first snow. Handling and cutting out of the fat played no part is the taste. It just sucked. So...are those who eat black bear meat easily satisfied and likely to eat anything or could there be some reason why this bear was awful? I hesitate to hunt em again for this reason but bought a tag anyway. Archery bear season opens tomorrow.

how did you fix it?? like spice wise etc.?

I have killed 3 and they were all pretty good. I have found that if you fix it with some sort of sweet tasting marinade/sauce etc. it does much better. One time i fixed it with cajun seasoning, and sure enough it tasted like ass.... hot, spicy, cajun, ass

My favorite thing to put on it is made by Pepper Palace (google them up) and it's called their Sweet Bourbon Sauce. I just grill the bear meat and right before it's done lather the sweet bourbon sauce on it and its good (put it on too early and it will burn because of the sugar content)

And I know this may sound crazy, but one time i fixed bear steaks in the oven, baked them in pure maple syrup, (i was living paycheck to paycheck when i was young in north carolina after a divorce) so that was basically all i had that evening, and they turned out GREAT!! lol
 
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I almost always kill at least one bear a year (spring/fall). I mostly make home made breakfast sausage out of them. I cut them all up myself, as I do with all my game. I trim all outside tissue, as well as any fat or connecting tissue. I've used a lot of different recipes and all have been real good. My family loves it, my son and daughter grew up eating game meat, but my wife and step-sons are from a non-hunting/ no game meat back ground. We by no means dodge it in the freezer, as it makes great breakfast burritos, spaghetti, tacos etc.
 
OP
Where's Bruce?
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Sep 22, 2013
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Did you butcher it or have it done? All the bear meat I've had has been good except 1. The 1 bear that tasted like ass I had done at the local butcher shop. The steaks were good but the ground meat was nasty. All I can figure is they waited until they had a few bears to do at 1 time and threw them all together to grind with someone bringing in a nasty one to go with them.

Now that you mention it...I used a local butcher. That SOB might have swapped out my bear for some crappy one. Mine was full of beeries, we looked at his stomach. Hmmmmm.
 

todde1792

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Now that you mention it...I used a local butcher. That SOB might have swapped out my bear for some crappy one. Mine was full of beeries, we looked at his stomach. Hmmmmm.
We used to have real issues with that several years back, or so it seemed, never could catch him in the act

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 

Soj51hopeful

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Montana
I butcher all my own game meat now. I have had a couple times I just didn't have time so I used a butcher and either came up shorter than expected or had this problem with flavor. Now I know exactly what I have.
 

swampokie

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oklahoma
The bear I killed last year in Oklahoma caused my family to throw all the elk and deer meat out and chase bears exclusively. It was awesome flavor. The stringy membrane throughout the meat make it a bit chewy but the flavor was awesome.
 
Joined
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Alaska
Where I hunt spring bears they have no access to fish and we keep all the meat, process it into hams, breakfast sausage and roasts. I have yet to have any of it taste bad. We really enjoy it. None of them smell bad when skinned or anything, we do not gut them though, just use the gutless method, get the fat off as soon as possible then get chilled.

The grizzly/brown bears I have killed, I wouldn't eat them if it was the last meat on earth...but they eat fish and smell like a$$. No thanks.

I hope to shoot a nice fall bear here soon and I am looking forward to the meat.
 

Ryan Avery

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I make all of them into summer sausage and breakfast sausage. Not a fan of bear steak. But IMO bear makes the best summer sausage.

I shot a spring bear last year that was 23(she had ear tags) and the summer sausage was still delicious!
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dihardhunter

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NW Montana spring bear taken from high country avalanche chutes...delicious! One of the fattiest (don't read greasiest) game animals I've ever tasted. Flavor was sweet, not the least bit off-putting.

View attachment 57776
 

KJH

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May 10, 2016
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I shoot a black bear in the spring every year. I've NEVER had one that was edible and they all stink when skinned worse than anything I can describe. Talk to me about disgusting... spring bears come to mind right away. I scratch my head every time someone says it even "ok". We eat game many days a week at my house so I know it isn't an aversion to game flavors. Dogs won't even lick at it...

I'd like to try a fall bear that has been eating berries, just so I can compare them but I can't get myself to waste a tag or the time on one in the fall.
 
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