How do you cook your black bear?
Bears
Got a nice 150-175lb black bear this weekend at my NY farm, last bear meat I took home was in 1991. Curious how you guys cook your bears?
Ground bear with a fattier ratio of bear fat straight in for bear burgers. Make like any beef burger. Unreal good. Seriously.
I agree with Matt. Great burger, so much better than venison. Not my favorite meat cooked as a steak. Ok but not great. First two I killed tried to eat like I would a deer or elk. Last one I killed all burger except back straps/tenderloins. Also consider rendering down some fat. Biscuits made out of bear lard are the best.
Burger and sausage. Unreal burgers.
John you didn’t find the backstraps on the tough side? Almost tough and stringy..
Bear roast is my wife's favorite and she's not a huge wild game fan.
Nothing fancy just potatoes and veggies in the bottom of the crock pot, bear roast on top, season and a little water since it's not as juicy as beef. High for an hour and then low for about 3 more for a small one. Mix a little corn starch with cold water and add near the end to thicken up the gravy.
just like any cut of beef except bear needs to be cooked well done. makes good steaks roast and stew.
Bears make fine summer sausage and sticks like almost any game meat but, slow cooked roasts were only way I could get cuts to taste good. Backstraps wrapped in bacon are my go to on venison and it didn't work on bear. Weird. Wish I would have ground more for burgers based off these recommendations
Do you have to try and remove as much of the fat as possible on a bear, like you do on deer/elk/etc?
Great post I’m pursuing bear this year on our Tn place Lewis
Pat
Millie and I will cut hams into roasts, removing as much fat as possible and cook it low and slow in a crock pot adding root vegetables about 3 hrs into the cook. It's better than a chuck roast (by far).
Cook back strap and tenders like any other game meat...but cook beyond medium... nearly med well to minimize and possible parasites.
We'll try sausage next spring.
It's killer for sausage and ground. The tougher cuts are some of the best braising meats on earth. I shot one a little smaller than yours a few years ago and was able to render close to a gallon of fat that we used to cook with for quite a while. Also, bbq'd bear ribs are out of this world good.
Pot roast and stew was my favorite ways to eat bear.
Slow cooker roast or dutch oven stew over slow burning coals.Last one takes about 5 or 6 beers to cook slowly . When cooking by the fire I measure the time in beer cans, if doing a "Argentine asado" , in bottles of red wine.
Bear fat
Bear fat
Will this bear you shot be The next blood trail challenge?
Back-straps, Tenderloins like any other species fried or grilled. Neck roast in crock pot. The two hind quarters are being smoked. All the rest ground as burger single course grind, nothing added.
Rendered the fat , 2 white jars had already been refrigerated turns white at 38 degrees but is still very soft does not setup hard like pork lard. others jars are still cooling down to rm temp. Stays liquid at room temp 74 degrees. Been using it as a brush on oil when air frying, wings, frys etc.
Bear ribs are my all time favorite meat. Split ribs down to sections that will fit in Instant Pot. Cook 50 minutes or so. Place on tin foil and lightly brush on you favorite barbeque sauce . Place on grill at low heat. Then after awhile ,slide off tin foil and brown ribs . Awesome eating . I have ribs from my wife's 341 lb bear ,that she got in Ontario in August to consume this winter.
Damn Pat if that bear is only 150-175 pounds you must have long armed the hell out of it lol. I thought for sure that was over 200 pounds. I love bear meat more then deer and if they didn’t have Trich nothing would top a medium rare bear back strap!
" I can everything " ...lol. I like canned bear meat in stew and hash, I grind a lot for breakfast sausage (use it more for recipes like sausage balls, etc than as patties) and a bear that young should have some tender chops for grilling. Try your moms pot roast recipes too.
Troy, no I’ll keep bear fat mixed in. It’s awesome. Silver skin or sinew is what it is, but good hard white fat is perfect. We actually really savour bear fat around here. My wife makes soap, hand cream and we render it down for cooking oil. I’ll deep fry fish in it! If you do some reading, there are actually a LOT of health benefits to specifically bear fat. It has a lot of vitamins not found in other fats. We often use it for salve for minor cuts/rashes and it works well as an alternative
Roast cooked in a pressure cooker. Tender as can be. Make gravy from the broth and serve with mashed potatoes. Better than deer roast IMO. My son's girlfriend thought she was eating beef.
Cook bear the same as you would beef. But perhaps to a higher internal temp. I've eaten meat from over 100 bear. Older ones can be a bit tough. A grain fed young bear is superb vittles.
I made bear Osso Bucco last week and it was fantastic. I always use ground bear for tacos if we have it in the freezer.
Ours normally goes into the crock pot for pulled pork style or italian beef style dishes.
I process mine very similar to a deer. Fry some of the choice cuts, grind some into burger, keep a few roasts for the slow cooker. IMO, bear is better than deer.
Best piece of black bear I ever had was a roast done in a dutch oven at a campsite. The cook added vegetables and water some seasoning and slow cooked it, not directly on the heat.
I think bear meat makes the best stew of any Wild game. Been making sausage out of bear & venison. Using bear for fat rather than pork
Damn, I need to go bear hunting ! This is making me want to eat a bear…..
One of our favorites is a recipe we got from RMEF magazine "Elk Parmesan" - see link. Elk, deer, etc. all is awesome in this recipe. I made combo pronghorn/black bear and oryx/black bear within the past couple months and both times family agreed the bear was better!
Just had a bear roast for supper last night that had been pan seared and then cooked in the over in a cast iron skillet. When at temp it was served with fried onions and a chokecherry sauce.
We like to cut some things steaks, trim the fat. Then take heavy duty tin foil and layer salsa, steak etc and wrap tight. Put in oven 325 for 1 1/2-2 hrs. Pour drippings over. Serve with Spanish rice.
One of the few game animals ive been told to always cook well done. Could have parasites like pork. As others have said some are really good, and others have been really terrible. I've cooked about 12 over the years and it seemed to me that the spring bears tasted better. Grass diet maybe?
Forgot to say congrats on the bear!
I've had more troubles :%=in women then I have eating bear meat!
Where I'm at bear steaks are kind of tasteless. We opt for ground meat and roasts. Tacos, burritos, meatloaf and roasts - all good!
Bearman yeah you're right there! Both are fairly safe if well done though.
Pat if you recall the mountain lion roast from MHH it works well for bear roasts too. Season the roast with dry rub. Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a cast iron Dutch oven to near the smoke point, sear the roast in the oil, add three large Vidalia onions peeled and quartered on top of the meat. Add a can of 7 Up soda. Cover the Dutch oven and cook 8 to 10 hours in a 250 degree oven.
Delicious!
Delicious!
Thanks guys. I ended up making a batch of smoked and fresh Italian sausage. Also a handful of steaks by request for my NY neighbors.
Last bear I had was delicious but the steaks were tough as hell. The bear was 12 years old maybe younger ones are more tender. Grind or slow roast.
Do a beef burgundy with bear. One of the best meals I've ever had....slow cooked in red wine with root vegetables. Better than the best lamb.
Bear ham
Bear ham
Got my bear hindquarters back from the smoker.
Sliced like ham, use in any ham dishes or creamed over toast (SOS) Saved the bones for soup
Pat never waste bear steaks on New Yorkers ;)
I don’t. First one I arrowed was baited with lots of things including fish. Wife tried to cook a roast, and stunk up, really stunk up the whole house. She said, “don't ever bring any of that sh it in the house again.” I’ve given away the other four I’ve arrowed.
Give away. Not worth it...
My smoked Italian bear sausage is delicious.
I haven’t eaten a steak and probably will give them all away.
Pat if you're giving them away I'll PM you my shipping address. Bear steak is my favorite!
I’ve eaten 4 different black bear and all fantastic. Yeah I can imagine if they are eating fish it might be nasty.
Black bear seldom eat fish.
Ground and roast. The three I've killed have been terrific, they were eating mast crops and berries.
I've had young tender black bear, I've had old, lean, tough black bear, I've had old, fat black bear. I've never had bad black bear.
I made as many roasts as I could with mine. Scraps went in with venison for sausage. Absolutely love the roasts.
I love bear stew.
Cut meat into 1/2 chunks Potatoes, corn, celery,carrots, mushrooms, onion , cream of celery and some chicken broth
Cook in a instapot
Hey Pat how did you make your Italian sausage like to make some Thanks
Goelk,
65% trimmed bear meat mixed with 35% trimmed pork shoulder butt. Cut both in small 2" cubes and added together until I had 25lbs. Then mixed in the Italian spices from the Cabelas Italian Sausage kit, and then mixed together. Ran the mix through my course grinding plate only once. I mixed the ground meat once more after I added 2 cups of water. Ran that into through my grinder with no plate, and into the casings that came with the kit into the stuffing tube.
Once I had all the fresh sausage stuffed, I pinched it into lengths and hung in my smoker. 3 hours at 225 until it was all done. Then I vac-packed the sausage into packages of 2-4 sausage links each and froze.
The balance of the meat was cut into steaks, and I also stuffed 10lbs of fresh, uncased sausage for loose sausage for tacos, spaghetti sauce, etc.
I really like to smoke my sausage so they are already fully cooked when I want to eat them. I can take it out of the freezer and microwave them, hand them out in the goose blind, make a snack - etc.
Straight bear meat for me, and I've eaten my share of it. Best wild meat out there.
And I don't trim the silver skin or sinew on bears no need.
Shot a bear in Minnesota this fall. Had the whole bear ground into hamburger. It is awesome.
Is there a difference in taste from a Spring killed bear compared to a Fall killed bear?
I haven't noticed a difference, but I haven't had them side by side to find out either.
We set up a "living history " at the local fall festival this past weekend. I made coffee by crushing the beans with the butt of my knife and boiling over the fire in a tin can, fried biscuits ain cast iron skillet and fried salt pork, bear sausage and home grown eggs in the meat grease. Made brown beans with salt pork in the Dutch oven over the fire. Everyone who tried the bear sausage raved over it.
