Bear meat

[WildBear]

Can't go wrong with Breakfast sausage! Burger is so versitle. That was the majority of our bear last year with a couple roasts. Got to agree with how you cook it..

[Gutpile]

Just ate one of the hams and oh man was it awesome.  I had no idea but the butcher smoked the hams. I thought he just cut & wrapped them  who knew? We  heated it up and wow was it good, tender too!! 

[BC CHASER]

Bears are cousins of pigs so if you get one this year have some bacon made out of it.  My butcher was kind of hesitant at first but let me tell you what, IT IS AWSOME!  Very little fat and you can cut it to your own thickness.  He did mine in maple and a few peppered.  Burger, bacon, roasts, pep. and sausages.  Remember dont shoot bears that eat garbage unless you like the taste of tampons ands diapers!   Good luck everyone!!!

[rjm5]

I'm gonna have to go with sausage or burger on this one. Not a huge fan of the steaks or roasts.

[Kent Hunter]

We like it all. Steaks, roasts, burger, and sausage. The bears that I've shot in WA, ID and MT have all been just great. The only exception has been the bears that I have shot in B.C. They were not very palatible. I agree with what one poster said about bears that have been eating garbage or fish. My wife does not like wild game for the most part, but she has said that it would be just fine with her if I would shoot a bear here in WA every year. She loves bear meat. The bears that I have taken from the area around the north end of Lake Chelan have been out of this world delicious!!

[Broken Arrow]

I had my first and only bear I shot made into smoked hams and a souther breakfast sausage with green chilies and lots of sage. The hams were so good we actually served one of them at Thanksgiving and relatives we had over who are always critical about wild game being to "gamey" would not stop eating the bear. My kids devoured the breakfast suasage in quick order as it became their first choice of "what do you want for breakfast question"

Now I must add that this was a bear from the Blue Mountains that for months had probably not eaten anything but apples, pears and plums.....( actually put an arrow into him as he was trying to get an apple from the tree).

I really agree that what the bear is consuming goes along way as to what kind of table fair it will turn out to be. I did have some suasage from a bear that my hunting buddy killed on the west side a few years ago and it was so damn bad i tried to feed it to the dog and even he refused.

[BONE COLLECTOR]

 i you get one that isn't very big put it on a spit and cook it like a hog.   or if it's big do a hind quarter.  use green vinemaple on an alder fire.

[Abolt338]

Depends on what they've been eating.  Get a good, young, berry-fed bear and take the loin, backstraps, and thighs and turn them into steaks.  Everything else goes into sausage - I prefer summer sausage as it makes good Holiday gifts.

If it's been eating fish or carrion, do the whole thing as sausage.

Easy way to tell is to cut a steak of backstrap and fry it with salt and pepper.  If you enjoy it, it's good to go...if not, sausage.

RW