Bear Meat

[jdtuttle]

I harvested my first bear during archery & finally had a chance to cook some up. Bear meat is great ;D ;D. I let it set in some pineapple juice for 2 days. Then drained it well & placed in slow cooker with onions, potatos, carrots, a little thyme & salt & pepper. Went hunting for six hours came home & boy was it good. Can't wait to make some more. 8)
Jim

[semologger]

if you want to send some down this way i wouldnt mind. Never had any. Congrats on the hunt

[Norm]

Cool Jim, what cut  did you use?

[Tom]

I've had it and loved it.  It was Black Bear from the Okeefeenokee Swamp and cooked up into a pot roast looking stew with potatoes, green peas, carrots, celery and lord only knows what else.  MMMMM boy! It was good.  I don't think any preparation was done other than cutting the meat into pieces about 1" square or so.  It had lots of gravy and went well with the catshead biscuits and Sweet Iced Tea.  8)

[Jeff]

When I eventually get a bear, and I will. I know I will. Yes, some how I will I say...


I'm donating most of the meat to who ever wants it.  I don't like it very well. I can eat it, but I'd rather give it to those that really enjoy eating it.

We had some moose balls for supper last night. (No not what yer thinking., Just ground moose in meatball form.)   Pete made them from some moose given to us from friends in the U.P. that went on a Canadian hunt.  I think its the way Pete made them. He didn't add any other meat to give it some fat like pork sausage. They were very dry and not good at all.

[SwampDonkey]

Moose is certainly very lean. It tastes alright. But, I'm not a big fan of it. Moose roast in a slow cooker would be great, but in a roast pan would likely be dry sledding. My choice would be moose over deer meat though. I don't want any deer meat and would rather see the bear walking, than in my roast pan. ;)

[sawguy21]

I have never liked bear meat,IMHO too gamey and  needs to be overcooked to be cut with anything less than an axe. Moose is good cut into strips, marinated, then slow cooked on a grill.

[jdtuttle]

I've had my share of poor game meat. That's why I took the opportunity to learn from old timers about how to properly take care of the game as soon as it's down. Makes all the difference in the world. Bear, Moose, Elk, Caribou, Deer, Antelope, Rattle Snake & just about anything except Jackrabbit. If you use a little pineapple juice before cooking it seems to take the wild game taste away. I can honestly say the bear was very close to tasting like roast beef. Hind Quarters Norm. Jeff, Never had Moose balls but would love to try em. Ever had Rocky Mountain Oysters? Little butter & Garlic fried over an open fire can't be beat. When I lived in Montana we had em every spring during roundup.
Jim
 

[ErikC]

  We eat bear all the time, and it is excellent in roasts. I never cared for bear steaks much though. My wife likes bear more than venison. Our favorite recipe is --Add 1 bottle of catalina or french dressing to the roast, potatoes, carrots and a chopped up onion and cook about 5 or 6 hours at 300 deg. the sauce is great tasting gravy and the roast is very tender. And it's easy.

Erik

[olyman]

had a chunk of black bear the guy shot in minnewhoha---(mn) it was goodddddd---tasted to me danged near like a regular beef roast--serious---

[Jeff]

I think it tastes like roast beef too.  Roasted in Motor oil.

[pappy19]

I wouldn't eat bear for any amount of money. I've seen too many maggot ridden animals that bears love to eat. The more rotten is the critter, the better a bear likes it. No thanks, I'd rather eat a marmot or a beaver than a bear.

[JimMartin9999]

Hey what is wrong with jackrabbit ,hare.I eat it all the time      Just keep away from the old ones.

[Engineer]

I've only had bear once, at a game supper put on by one of the local fire departments for all of the chiefs and captains in the county.  It was NOT good - greasy, gamey and tough.  They also had elk, venison and wild turkey which were all much better.  My favorite was the turkey - someone did a good job with it and it was dark meat, tender and very flavorful.

Our fire dept. does a venison steak dinner every winter, where we get deer from the game wardens and do steaks and stew for our active firefighters and retired volunteers.  It's a big hit, but I don't think it would go over so well if the main course was bear.  Somebody would think that we shot Smokey.   :D

[olyman]

as in a lot of the caes--it has to do with who killed the bear--and how they skinned it---some people wont eat coon--but a black friend of mine prepared three that i gave him--it was good--he was originally from the south------

[ely]

i have eaten near about every animal we have here at one time or other. except for skunk and buzzard. i messed up the skunk and got the smell on him while i was skinning it. >:(and i could not get past the buzzard puking smell to even try skinning him.
some are just fine for food others not so great but edible. beavers are on the higher end of fine food, river mussells are on the lower end for me.
as for bear i will still eat it when i get one in spite of jeffs analogy. :D

i may have told this before but there was a bunch of guys that used to bum deer meat from my cousins at lunch all the time, they cooked a bobcat and took it one day and shared that with the boys, afterwords they told what they had eaten and that was the last time theyever had to share anything. ;D
anyway it was just a little tougher than some meat, cold have been the way they cut it up as i was only there for the eating.

i love deer meat but would eat moose any day over deer. been quite awhile since i had any moose.

[ErikC]

   Went on a bear hunt last week with a few other guys. We caught 4 one day and shot a big sow. That night we cooked a hind leg cut up in thin steaks and marinated in teriyaki sauce and olive oil. My hopes weren't that high, but it was really good. Not greasy and not gamey, and great flavor. It never even had time to cool out before someone was cutting it up!
  Bobcat is pretty good if you pound it and fry it. I've had it that way a few times.

Erik

[clif]

One of my favorite ways of fixing Black Bear is to make green chili with it .  Up here spring bear is good if you get it right after it gets out of hibernation.  Fall bear we try and wait until they are off the salmon and eating the berries just before the snow chases them into hibernation.   

[jdtuttle]

Clif, Can you send me your green chili recipe? I've made pot roast & stew so far & both tasted great.
Jim

[clif]

Jim, I thought I knew where that recipe is but I have not been able to find it so that means it is probably in one of my recipe books and that is going to take  a little time to research  I will try looking it up Sunday.  I know it is here some place  :P  I really thought it was on a recipe card , but it is not in the box.  Clif