Bear Meat

[dla]

Bear meat is great! Just make sure to fully cook it

Bear is one of the best sources of trichinosis - a serious parasite.

 

[BackcountryBloodline]

Bear is one of the best sources of trichinosis - a serious parasite.

Good thing it's reliably killed by cooking...to be honest I'm more worried about a flu than trich, it's not necessarily something to take lightly but it's certainly not the boogeyman it's made out to be.



"The great majority of trichinosis infections have either minor or no symptoms and no complications. The two main phases for the infection are enteral (affecting the intestines) and parenteral (outside the intestines). The symptoms vary depending on the phase, species of Trichinella, quantity of encysted larvae ingested, age, sex, and host immunity."

 

[SLDMTN]

If the bear smells like a dumpster on a hot summer day, save your energy. In my experience they're going to taste how they smell. We killed two black bears 30 yards apart, big boar and a decent sow, the boar meat smelled awful and the fat smelled even worse. The sow had no odor to it and came out great. The nephew's school had a wild game cook-off and I donated a hind quarter for it. They slow cooked it with prep similar to a pork roast, it was the only meat that the kids ate all of and asked for more.

I have yet to taste a grizz that I needed to eat again. A small sow charged camp a few years back and wouldn't leave the hanging meat alone so she got dumped. The only thing in her belly was berries and she was very skinny. No salmon anywhere near her range to spoil taste. The burger wasn't too bad but the smell from cooking it would definitely make your neighbors stop by to make sure everything was ok. It stunk up the entire house every time we cooked it. The taste in chili, tacos, spaghetti was fine but there was a lingering smell to the dish.

 

[journeyman713]

Bear is one of the best sources of trichinosis - a serious parasite.

When worried about parasites...
In addition to cooking thoroughly, you might consider adding a second line of defense with anti-parasitic properties, one of which happens to be Garlic.

 

[barrister]

I've only had one black bear. I shot it on a spring hunt in Ontario. I don't know what it's "wild" diet consisted of, but the bait its was eating was all sweet food and candy. The meat from that bear is the best wild game I have had to date, and I have liked the meat from all of the game I have harvested (many whitetails, an antelope and a mule deer). This particular bear is the closest to farm raised beef I've had, in both taste and feel/texture. It's all been backstraps on the grill, cut pieces in stew, or roasts. None of it was ground up.

 

[Oregon]

Any thoughts on spring bear meat vs fall?

Spring bear is much better than fall. You get the veal tenderness of not using muscles, the first few weeks eating grass and zero fat.

 

[TrackerDan]

I have my butcher grind it with bacon ends and the burgers are always a huge hit. They also make a cheddar jalapeno bear summer sausage that is the best summer sausage I have ever had.

 

[atomicathlete]

I was talked to a guy from Michigan who told me a buddy gave him some bear burgers. Said they were the best burgers he ever had. Is this the general consensus?

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Bear Meat is great! Use the Meatball recipe in Steve Rinella's book!

 

[gammagrammar]

Well this is all encouraging.

 

[madcalfe]

i usually shoot 2 black bears a year. maple breakfast sausage, garlic coil, hams, pepperoni. its all good

 

[Chefofthewoods]

I regret not opting for spring bear reading this. Accumulating points in Michigan.

Maybe Ontario? At least two guides I know were offering reduced rate bear hunts last fall due to lack of berries; and bears were easy to bait in. This was Rainy River district around Fort Frances. $1000 for 5-7 days depending who younwent with.

A woman was killed there by a bear on an island (Rainy Lake impoundment has lots of little islands with cabins on them)

 

[chasenr]

Bear meat is great but not sure I would use it for burgers... I guess it depends how you like your burgers. I prefer mine on the medium to medium rare. At with tric in bear, i'd stay away from burgers. But using it as ground beef or roasts is great. Smoked/Pulled beef tacos = tasty

 

[Frost]

Kill temp on trichinosis is 137... but you have to be certain it’s 137 absolutely all the way through. Go 140-142 to be safe and you’ll be just fine. You do not need to murder it.

All the bear meat I’ve had has been great. All except one have been spring black bears eating mainly grass. Tenderloins, backstrap, steak, fajitas, stew, sausage, it’s all great. I shot a 12 year old sow on the Oregon coast a couple years ago in August that was eating berries. That was by far the worst smelling animal I’ve ever smelled. No other bear we’ve killed has been remotely close to this smell. It was like she had been dead for a month. We made it all into sausage thinking it probably wouldn’t be edible but it was as good as any other sausage we have made. Smell went away and you’d never know. I kinda wish I had tried some steaks from that one.

 

[sneaky]

When worried about parasites...
In addition to cooking thoroughly, you might consider adding a second line of defense with anti-parasitic properties, one of which happens to be Garlic.

You can never have too much garlic

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[Agross]

I regret not opting for spring bear reading this. Accumulating points in Michigan.

Maybe Ontario? At least two guides I know were offering reduced rate bear hunts last fall due to lack of berries; and bears were easy to bait in. This was Rainy River district around Fort Frances. $1000 for 5-7 days depending who younwent with.

A woman was killed there by a bear on an island (Rainy Lake impoundment has lots of little islands with cabins on them)

Man that's weird cuz every guide I talked to said the exact opposite. And I talked to a bunch. Not trying to argue, but we talked to the guide we have gone with several times who has been guiding for 25 years and he said he had never seen the berries that bad They were literally everywhere last year. Had his worst year as far as bear harvest. Then we talked to another guide we are going with this year, he said the same thing . He's been guiding about 40 years and said last year was the worst year he's ever had bear wise because of the insane amount of berries. We went to the hunting expo in Grand Rapids and talked to several other guides , all of em said the same . So we are hoping that means this year will be a great year for bears. Assuming we get to go with all the crap that's going on right now.
To the OP , the best way we liked our bear meat was brats and roast. Couldn't believe how good the brats turned out. And I eat alot of different brats

 

[Chaseoz341]

+1 on Bear Bfast sausage

 

[roosiebull]

we love bear here... I do know bear meat can vary.

when I was working up in SE AK I was at my girlfriend at the time's house, heard something in the hall (about midnight) and I walk over there and look down to see a big bear snout coming through the doggie door. I grabbed a boot and whacked it in the nose.... pulled it's nose out, then back in, so I whacked it again.... my girlfriend was freaking out a bit, and I put my hand above the dog door (was gonna grab it's snout when it came back in, but instead it was an arm.... almost got my face, haha..

after that, put it's snout in again, and this time I put some force into that boot and swung it hard, that sent the bear spitting gravel out of the driveway!

when that was all said and done, the whole house smelled like rotten pink salmon, could still smell it in the morning..... I can imagine those bear at that time would be nasty eating..... I wouldn't shoot a bear in that situation.

if you do grind it, run it through the grinder a couple extra times.... bear burger can be really "dense" if you treat it like deer or elk.... double or triple grind it and it's excellent.

I like ground and slow cooked roasts... corned bear is excellent too

 

[MTJake]

When making bear into sausage, do you mix pork in with it?

 

[Coveyleader]

I've eaten, but I don't salvage when not needed.

 

[gaarchery]

I’ve only personally had it one time, but I hear it depends on the bear