Bear Meat

[csaaphill]

I found a recipe online for huckleberry bourbon bbq bear. It was flipping amazing doing little medallions. And I overcooked the crud out of it, 180 degrees, and it was still tender. Cooked it in the cast iron to sear it than tossed it in the oven to finish.

https://www.leupold.com/leupold-core/stories/field-to-table-bourbon-blueberry-bear-roast

book marked that page that looks awesome.

[dilleytech]

I like smaller bears early in the season that have been feeding on a berry diet.  I do straight burger grind and steaks.  My kids love it.

Older bears and those that have been feeding on dead animals is not so good.  I had a big 7 foot black bear a number of years ago that was very tough to get through.  Metallic taste.

I've been using my su vide to cook the bear steaks at 145 for 2-3 hours and then pan sear.  It's the only way to safely eat medium rare bear steaks.  Hank Shaw writes about it, and I haven't had trich yet.

I would agree younger bears are better. Personally every mature bear 300#+ I have Eaten has been very tough. But your results might very on taste. My 420# 7.5’ 20.5” skull boar I got this fall I believe is the best tasting bear I have eaten. Which is good news for the 46 pints of fat I rendered.

7 bears in our house the last 3 years and all fantastic eating. It’s my preference for anything sausage related. But it’s good cooked any way. I consider it similar to beef.

[Jonathan_S]

Single pass through the rough grinder and we have sausage gravy for the whole winter. Steaks and kabobs are good but sausage is so versatile.

Shot a very large boar in ponderosa/sage country a few Augusts ago and it was the only nasty Eastside bear I've ever shot. It was edible but just barely. I think he'd been digging roots and mice a lot. Meat care wasn't the issue on that one.

[Curly]

Dang, I sure am getting hungry reading this thread. 
 

[logola512c]

I like smaller bears early in the season that have been feeding on a berry diet.  I do straight burger grind and steaks.  My kids love it.

Older bears and those that have been feeding on dead animals is not so good.  I had a big 7 foot black bear a number of years ago that was very tough to get through.  Metallic taste.

I've been using my su vide to cook the bear steaks at 145 for 2-3 hours and then pan sear.  It's the only way to safely eat medium rare bear steaks.  Hank Shaw writes about it, and I haven't had trich yet.

I would agree younger bears are better. Personally every mature bear 300#+ I have Eaten has been very tough. But your results might very on taste. My 420# 7.5’ 20.5” skull boar I got this fall I believe is the best tasting bear I have eaten. Which is good news for the 46 pints of fat I rendered.

7 bears in our house the last 3 years and all fantastic eating. It’s my preference for anything sausage related. But it’s good cooked any way. I consider it similar to beef.

4 bears in my freezer the last 3 years, and same thing.  All tasted good.  Since you basically have to cook the crap out of it to get rid of any trich, we just use it as a replacement for beef in meatballs, meat loaf, beef curries, and beef stew, along with italian sausage and a tasty maple-bacon breakfast sausage.  Probably gone through about 150 pounds of ground/chunk bear in the last 3 years, with another 60 or 70 pounds still in the freezer.  Also rendered the fat this year and got about 3 or 4 quarts from each bear.  Zucchini/carrot/pumpkin muffins taste mighty good with the rendered bear fat as I stir my iced beverage with one of my special swizzle sticks.

[DOUBLELUNG]

Bear is some of the finest slow braised roast meat I've ever prepared.  It also makes for very nice pastrami.   

I like bear most all ways, but where it really shines is in slow moist heat cooking, either whole (roasts) cubed (stews) or ground (spaghetti sauces, taco meat, chili).  The texture is just uniquely good when slow cooked, tenderizes but doesn't fall apart.

[birddogdad]

i didn't see it mentioned but i really like to corn bear...