Contributors to this thread:
Tried to see if anyone had made bacon from bear but couldn’t find anything online so I thought if I could get my hands on some bear belly I’d give it a go. I never baited bears this spring but went out on a retrieval with my best friend on his gorgeous bear to help pack and take pics
I slashes a strip of belly off his bear and started the process Mike the Carpenter outlined here on Bowsite. Since I ran across his thread I’ve made numerous batches out outstanding bacon. It’s so simple it’s silly.
Anyways, throw the salt sugar and pepper on it, in the fridge and keep flipping every day. It was in the fridge from mom night to Fri night is when I have it the rinse. Back in the fridge and smoke it this morning (Saturday)
The GMG makes things super easy so I mowed the lawn waiting for a notification that meat has reached temp. Wanted to get a little more smoke flavour so I did it at 180 for about an hour then adjusted to 220 from my phone while mowing. The pieces were different thicknesses and because of it being bear I wanted to make real sure they hit 160 (even though it will most likely be fried later). It’s obviously a lot redder than pork, and finished in roughly 1:30
A fattier piece - good to help coat the pan!! (And flavour)
A fattier piece - good to help coat the pan!! (And flavour)
Well you guessed it. It’s out-of-this-world fantastic. I kid you not it may be better than pork bacon. I’m so bummed I didn’t take more as all I took was like a 10” strip. And the fatty parts are amazing. So when you cut, the marbly stuff is awesome.
Take it from me - don’t ever throw it out!!!!
I should add - the meat itself aside from the fat seems to be much juicier than pork. I dunno all around it’s insanely good
Never thought of that, save the belly meat.
MMMMMMMM, BACON!
Now I really want to get a rolly-poly, fat-ass, acorn stuffed fall bear!
Hoping to get that Colorado bear (monkey) off my back...
Would you use the whole flank Or is there a particular cut to use?
Could you please post up the recipe?
I really want to try this. Anyone have any recommendations for methods of cutting the belly off the animal with an eye for making bacon?
Can you please post up the complete recipe?
Bacon doesn’t come from the flank. If you cut right behind the shoulder and across the top of the ribs length wise. Length wise cut should be on the same line that you would cut to peel the backstraps out. Next, peel the whole side down cutting all the down to the brisket. When it’s peeled out correctly it should be a nice long rectangle shape. You could leave about 3-4 inches of the flank on if you want just a little longer slab of bacon. When you peel this off the ribs your knife needs to stay flat against the ribs. Then if you so desire, cut the ribs out for spare ribs.
I’ve made a ton of pork bacon, some beef bacon, and even elk bacon. Bear meat is actually similar to pork and so is Mt. Lion.
How does elk turn out, butcher boy? I have saved elk ribs and smoked them with that meat on them and they are good. Bacon may be even better!
The elk bacon was pretty good. A little different considering there isn’t a lot of fat on an elk. The difference with an elk too is that you would need to use the brisket for bacon and not the whole slab like I explained earlier. I suppose you could use that whole part of the ribs then just slice it through the middle length wise again to make it smaller and easier to slice. I also recommend investing in a small electric slicer.
Yes my one regret is that I didn't take more of the meat. You can essentially make bacon from anything, but it is best with marbly meat that is quite fatty and no sinew. So on a bear I would take the entire rib roll next time going right down one side, around the brisket and up the other side.
Recipe is 1/2 cup kosher salt (any larger grained salt will do), 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 2 tbsp fine black powder. Mix this up, and apply liberally over the bacon. This amount of brine will coat about two pieces of meat that fill a 9x13" glass pan if you want to think about a size. Roughy speaking.
Step 1 is mix brine and coat and put in fridge. Step 2 - 24 hours later is pour off liquid and flip. Step 3 same as above. Step 4 same as above. By about the 3rd or 4th flip I usually don't have any moisture at all to drain off. Do this for 4-5 days, then pull it out of fridge and rinse under running water, but DON'T rub the seasoning off. Goal is to let the salt come off in water but leave the pepper on. Back in the fridge to let dry. At this point you can eat it and it's fantastic. Or you can smoke it to add smoke flavour. Smoke at 180-220 until interior temp hits 160. With bear you obviously want to make sure you hit the 160 mark at some point either frying or smoking. Enjoy!!!! It honestly takes so very little time to make.
If you want to speed up the brine and cure process, inject the meat with your brine and then soak in the brine for 24-36 hours. Rotating the meat isn’t necessary as long as it stays covered. Take it out of brine and smoke it. Cool, slice, package, freeze. If you don’t smoke it then slightly freeze the slab then slice, package, freeze. Before smoking you can rub in some black pepper to your liking or before you slice it if it’s not smoked.
APauls..... got a perogie recipe to go with that??
Thanks for the instructions. I'd have never done it right without that. I've always just included that hunk of meat/fat in the trim and ground it.
I always thought the bacon was the belly fascia that holds the guts in and attaches midline by the sternum with the fat on the belly as the outside of it.
I can see now, that on a small deer, this would be pretty tough to get a big enough piece to worry about. But I imagine on a larger bear or really any larger animal, this is a pretty large hunk.
That and on deer the fat has the dreaded tallow effect. I know I've eaten caribou bacon and it was tremendous, and I've heard moose bacon is great as well. So I assume any animal with good fats would be good. Deer - I won't be trying.
Agree with you on deer! Have tried ribs and was not impressed.
Haven't tried bear bacon but it sounds great. A friend of mine made turkey jerky and it was really good. He makes a whole lot of deer jerky and it is fantastic.
This thread needs more bacon pics!!
I'm saving these brine ideas.
Bacon in the smoker this morning. It’s pork but this is what a whole slab should look like.
Looks good!
I’m going to have to figure out the right way to cut it off so it will come out right. May have to look it up on U Tube. Talking to a buddy that was making bacon from pigs he was saying to use the flanks down to the brisket.
Seriously going to have to do this with a bear and maybe an elk this year. I cut out the brisket on last year’s elk and was going to make it into pastrami but may shift gears to bacon for it if that makes sense...
Yep, for elk bacon use the brisket. You can see from my pictures that there is very little flank meat if any on these pork slabs. If you look closer you will actually see where the ribs were and then down to the brisket. Top portion where the bacon hanger is hooked through is right behind the shoulder. Bottom portion is about 4 inches behind the last rib.
Tavis the worst part is going to be trying to decide what to keep as bear ribs for smoking and what to keep aside for bacon! I usually see a bear or two while deer hunting and now I'm debating a quickie fall bait for bears. I don't know, either way, if one comes by I won't be trophy hunting!
butcherboy thank you for taking the time to share your expertise. I grew up on a small farm where we grew and butchered our own. Hogs, beeves, chickens, turkeys, rabbits and of course the hunted meats, squirrel, deer, groundhogs, and gamebirds. Through my post-college life I've continued to self-process. I've always enjoyed the processing as much as the hunt. I learn a lot from you. Please keep sharing.
After over 30 bear tags in Colorado and never drawing back an arrow on one, I hope to just get a chance to this fall! Have not had issues finding or shooting them in other places. Just Colorado... Hope to get the Bruin off my back this year:-).
Treeline good luck. I had the same "monkey" in Virginia for over 30 years. Did the "Virginia Big Game Slam" last season (not all archery since I couldn't bow hunt
Ooo, that would be handy.
Here is my method for making bacon. Mix up your brine and inject your slab. Use the leftover to cover everything or mix up more to cover your bacon if needed. Leave in the brine for at least 24 hours then cook or smoke it. If you don’t have a smoker you can cook it your house oven. 190-200 degrees until the internal temp reaches 160 or at least 152 degrees as long as it holds that temp for 5 minutes. If you use an oven be sure to use a pan and rack that will allow the drippings to stay in the pan and not the bottom of your oven causing a grease fire! Once it’s done, I cool it over night in the cooler and then slice it with a slicer, package and freeze.
The best and easiest way to make your brine is to buy a premixed cure. It will have everything you need and I recommend using a brown sugar cure. Not the white sugar cure. There are plenty of recipes out there to mix your own as well. Some good places to buy cure is Bunzlkoch, ultrasource, Walton’s. You don’t need a motor and pump like I have. A handheld pump will work just fine. Just be sure and move the needle everywhere and fill the slab up so it swells all over. I do this for briskets, turkeys, shoulders, hams, etc. all with different flavors depending on the type of meat. Also, cured meat is always better sliced and not pulled or shredded.
That looks delicious Adam!
Hell of a nice set-up ya got butcherboy,
Robb
I would like to try making bear bacon. One quick question, do you use the pink cure salt? I see it for most pork bacon recipies. Thanks
Well, unfortunately, no bear again this year in Colorado...
Dang it! No bear bacon:-(
I didn’t use pink salt but imagine no issues with it.
The sodium nitrate will give the meat the classic pink color of bacon. It’s what is actually doing the curing. It will be fine without it but it will be more of a brownish cooked meat color. Just be sure to thoroughly smoke/cook it. If not as a whole slab then definitely cook it completely as a sliced piece of meat. The nitrate will also help with any bacteria in the meat, especially in the cooling process.
How much pink salt would you add per pound?
It doesn’t take much. I buy mine in by the box and it comes with a few hundred bags in it. Each bag is 6 oz if I remember correctly and that will do about 100 lbs of meat. If you are going to cure about 10 lb slab then 1 tsp mixed into the brine should work. A little more will make it more salty if that’s what you prefer. I wouldn’t go more than 1/2 tbsp for 10 lbs. I’ve done it so long that I can pretty much eyeball my measurements and be right on the money
