Hunting Washington Forum

Big Game Hunting => Bear Hunting => Topic started by: rasbo on October 29, 2012, 04:59:41 AM

Title: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: rasbo on October 29, 2012, 04:59:41 AM: I always hear folks say I don't like bear, its to greasy,I have never eaten any bear that was greasy..In fact most the meat can be dry...And fat needs to be added....
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: atc250r18 on October 29, 2012, 06:23:49 AM: Agreed, I don't know what these people have been eating. I hear it all the time but none of my bears have been greasy. This years bear had 3 inches of fat on his back but the meat was dark red and lean.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: Wildsau on October 29, 2012, 06:58:37 AM: It's been so long since I eat any bear, I, almost, forgot how it tasted. Try as I might, this year, I can't seem to find any that want to go home with me. It's, almost as if they have gone south for the winter.

Went out Saturday, and other than getting soaked, I was able to get a yote to come in on my calls, but he was at the wrong angle to shoot him with my bow.

Been hunting Ft. Lewis, when Range Control opens areas that I have seen some sign, ealier, 'cause I don't know this area and the laws have changed so much since I left. Used to be unless land was posted, you could hunt on it, but, today, it is up to you to KNOW where boundries are, no matter what. :bash: :bash:
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: ICEMAN on October 29, 2012, 07:08:31 AM: Our hands get greasy as we process bear, but the meat is similar to other lean wild meat.

Nothing beats bear steaklets with eggs for breakfast!

I also started to pressure can a bit of it and it shows on the jars as incredibly lean, hardly any indication of fat in the jar when done. Yum.
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: danderson on October 29, 2012, 07:17:20 AM: Some of the bigger bears that I have cut up have lots of fat not just under the hide but through out the mussels, take the extra time to trim out as much fat as possible and the quality of the finished product goes up alot, add some lean pork to your burger of beef fat to hold it toghter other wise its to lean. :tup:
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: bearhunter99 on October 29, 2012, 07:27:13 AM: They are the greasiest thing in the world to gut and skin, it takes a long time with soap and water before you can grip anything again :chuckle: :chuckle: The meat however isn't greasy once its cleaned up.
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: rasbo on October 29, 2012, 07:34:30 AM: I agree on slippery critters to clean,this last bear was a dog bear and had little fat.but the meat is fat free pretty much...I think them that say it is greasy havent eaten bear before.I cant believe the amount of people say its greasy...Maybe it was cooked in oil and at to low of temp :dunno:
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: HUNTINCOUPLE on October 29, 2012, 07:43:43 AM: Im with ya on eatin bear! Good stuff and bear steaks in the morin with eggs is one my favorites as well! Actually any game steak with fried eggs is my favorites!!! :drool:
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: Ripper on October 29, 2012, 09:00:59 AM: The first time I ate bear meat was in a summer sausage form. It was greasy and terrible so I thew it away. I didn't want to hunt bears after that because I wont kill it if I wont grill and eat it. Come to find out years later it was just really bad sausage! I love bear meat, one of my favorites now. I think that some people just use that as an excuse to not try it! They just assume it's greasy. I've also heard people say the meat is stringy! I have no idea what they are talking about. :dunno:
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: deerslyr on October 30, 2012, 08:03:46 PM: My buddy and I got a sow this spring. Was great eating, just marinaded in italian dressing and wrapped it in bacon and grilled. Very mild. The biologist tooth aged her at 7. We were extremely surprised considering her size. He said they just dont get that big in the beartooth because they go through all of there fat reserves over the harsh winters :dunno: Either way we were tickled with her, put a lot of time in and didnt start seeing bears until the last week.
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: h20hunter on October 30, 2012, 08:10:12 PM: My bear this year is some of the best game meat ive eaten.
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: lokidog on October 30, 2012, 08:14:55 PM: People say the same about racoon, but if the meat is butchered properly, it has not been greasy in my experience.
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: Ripper on October 31, 2012, 05:23:47 AM: Quote
People say the same about racoon, but if the meat is butchered properly, it has not been greasy in my experience.
:yike:

I didn't anyone ate them! I guess they're just mini bears though. I've been told they are the smallest member of the bear family by a biologist, but still never occurred to me to eat them!
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: billythekidrock on October 31, 2012, 05:27:26 AM: Quote from: rasbo on October 29, 2012, 07:34:30 AM
I agree on slippery critters to clean,this last bear was a dog bear and had little fat.but the meat is fat free pretty much...I think them that say it is greasy havent eaten bear before.I cant believe the amount of people say its greasy...Maybe it was cooked in oil and at to low of temp :dunno:

I agree 100%
Fat free meat with way less grease than a good beef steak. Don't get me wrong, I am not putting down a good beef steak.
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: BULLBLASTER on October 31, 2012, 09:29:58 AM: I cooked up a lean steak from my bear this year just to try it out. The rest gets sausage treatment. The meat was tender and very juicy and flavorful but left a Mindoro waxy aftertaste. I cooked it in cast iron with a bit of butter and oil. The sausage is good. I just didn't really like straight bear steaks any time I've had it.
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: JohnVH on October 31, 2012, 09:32:32 AM: mine wasnt greasy, and it tasted better than any deer Ive ever eaten.
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: hardkorrhunter on November 05, 2012, 12:56:59 PM: I agree i got my first bear this year and i thought it was better than any beef id ever ate. Oh i got him with my bow to so double the bonus..
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: robescc on November 05, 2012, 08:45:05 PM: I think people have heard that from someone else so they assume it is and repeat it. That is an old wives tale in my opinion.
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: steen on November 05, 2012, 10:03:02 PM: Bear roast is the tenderest, moistest roast ever! So is whitetail doe steaks!
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: deerslyr on November 06, 2012, 12:31:23 AM: Quote from: robescc on November 05, 2012, 08:45:05 PM
I think people have heard that from someone else so they assume it is and repeat it. That is an old wives tale in my opinion.

:yeah:
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: RadSav on November 06, 2012, 12:45:47 AM: I've found that is usually spoken by someone who wants you to believe they've eaten bear before but never have. Or they butchered their own and weren't smart enough to remove the fat.

Quote from: lokidog on October 30, 2012, 08:14:55 PM
People say the same about racoon, but if the meat is butchered properly, it has not been greasy in my experience.

I've eaten quite a few raccoons in the south. They tell me to only shoot the young ones as the older ones smell too much like fish and it's hard to enjoy the taste over the fishy smell. But, all of them I have eaten have made dang good vittles. Very tasty!
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: NWBREW on November 06, 2012, 03:24:19 AM: Ok....I'll just say it. The last bear I killed was the nastiest tasting thing I have ever had. I might as well of just chewed wax. I'm telling ya it was BAD. Everything...burger, steaks, sausage...it sucked. It was killed on the wet side up on Pilchuck.
That was in the 1980's when baiting was still legal.

What we used for bait back then was past date pastries (Hostess :chuckle: ), meat scrapes from butcher shops (anyone who has ever ran a bear bait site and not a pro knows what I'm talking about), it got pretty nasty. We would cover it with logs and dump molasses on it. then when we left we would give a few spay shot of Anise in the air.

Now I have bear since. One was out of Twisp (6,000' top of Gold Creek) a couple more were NE corner bear 2,000'. The burger, sausage and Salami was some of the best I have ever had.

My take on this.......you get what you put into it...or what I put into it....what they eat will have a lot to do with how they taste. :twocents: If I'd of known that then...I would have used more Ding Dongs then meat. :chuckle:
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: RadSav on November 06, 2012, 04:07:18 AM: Quote from: NWBREW on November 06, 2012, 03:24:19 AM
My take on this.......you get what you put into it...or what I put into it....what they eat will have a lot to do with how they taste. :twocents: If I'd of known that then...I would have used more Ding Dongs then meat. :chuckle:

I'd have to agree with this. Bear that have been eating young grass shoots or berries are dang good eating. But ones we have killed eating old rotten fish off the river banks or skunk cabbage have been down right awful. Last skunk cabbage bear we killed I made into 250 pounds of dog food. And the dog refused to eat it! He seemed to enjoy licking his ass all day and yet wouldn't even begin to take a bite of that bear. We ended up using it as bear bait. The bear seemed to enjoy it ok.
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: Seabass on November 06, 2012, 04:06:33 PM: Don't quote me on this but I have always been of the understanding that bear meat takes on some of the flavors of what they have been eating. It may be an absolute wives tail but for some reason I want to say that it is factual. That being said I have shot all my bear in or around huckleberries and never had a bad one. I have only had sausage made once just for fun. All the rest of the bears I have ever killed have simply been processed and eaten. ALL of them good!
Title: Re: greasy Bear meat?
Post by: RadSav on November 06, 2012, 04:17:55 PM: Definitely sweeter tasting meat when they have been eating berries for a while. Not sure I noticed that when they had been eating donuts ;)

One thing we noticed years ago is that the bone marrow taints the meat quite dramatically. We never allow a saw to be used when butchering bear. Knife only does make it better. Actually I think it makes all butchered animals taste better. But, it is much more noticeable on bear.