Bear Meat?

[BRL]

This may be quite simplistic, but would like to hear some feedback. I have tasted many species of wild game, most to my liking. However, I never really hear about bear meat. Bear hunting is quite a popular sport, but you don't hear much about people eating its meat like other game animals. My brother lives in Maine and I am considering a bear hunt, for the first time, this fall. Can anyone share their opinions as to what they think? Thanks for any replys.

[Geno]

I've heard many opinions on this, but:
If you take care of the meat, quickly and properly. Get it skinned, remove all the fat and get the meat cooling as soon as you can, I find bear meat is as good or better than anything I've ever had.
But, if the animal lays in the woods all night, or the hide and fat isnt removed, or the carcass not cooled, the meat tends to start decaying quickly, and you'll get the "gamey" taste everyone talks about. And probably not want to try it again.
All I can say is, I've never had any that tasted bad, older bears can tend to get tough and chewy, slow cooking helps a lot.

[ihookem]

The taste of bear meat depends a lot on what it is eating. I have heard in Alaska that the bears that just eat fish are not too good and even stink. In Wisconsin they are very good because so many hunters bait them as soon as the snow melts. I baited a bear for five months  corn and molasis, sugar, apples, cookies and stuff. I got the bear and the meat was very sweet. In Minnesota , baiting is lagal for only two weeks before season starts. Not as good eating then.

[Lawdog]

BRL,

Geno has pretty much covered what you need to do as far as taking care of the meat.  The one thing he forgot is to be sure to bleed out the meat very well.  Try to remove ALL of the blood, if possible(just like you should do on wild hogs or any other wild game).  We eat at least 2 Black Bears(sometimes 3) every year and a better wild game meat is hard to find.  It also depends on what the bear has been feeding on too.  If they have been feeding on fish then you are going to get fishy smelling and a wild tasting meat.  One last point is that if the bear has been run like what happens when hunting with hounds then the meat tends to have a very strong taste too.  Lawdog
 

[freddogs]

Bear meat---good.

[wipartimer]

Can't wait to find out! :grin:

[Sourdough]

I have a friend that likes spring black bear.  He cures the hams, shoulders, and side meat, just like a hog.  You can't tell the differance.  But stay away from the ones eating fish, gosh do they stink.

[barebowhunter]

I find bear meat to taste a lot like beef. Be sure to remove all the fat. I prefer roast. Slow cooked as you would a beef roast. If you don't tell anyone it's bear they will think it is beef. My mom won't eat wild meat so I never tell her and she never knows!! ha ha

[Cabin4]

Black Bear meat is the best big wild game I have ever had. Not all black bear are created equal in this regard. The only black bear I have eaten are from Maine. Given thier diet there, the meat is great.

[BRL]

Sounds like great news to me. I'm glad to hear the approval of bear taken from Maine, as that is where I will mostly hunt them. I'm looking forward to my trip.

Thanks everyone!

[DeerMeadowFarm]

The bear I shot in Maine (204 pound boar) was excellent eating. If you like tomatoes I found that cooking the roasts with tomato paste or chunks of tomato seemed to make the meat tenderer. It could have been our imagination, but I read in some game cookbook that the acid in the tomatoes helped to break down the muscle. Make sure you trim all the fat. Also, bear meat should be cooked thoroughly as they fall into the same class as pork and you can catch some nasty stuff if you don’t.
Another note: a few years after I got my bear, a friend shot one. I shot mine at very close range (under 6 feet) and killed him with one shot. My friend fired a clip from his 7mm Mag hitting the bear several times. That bear died hard. Maybe it’s coincidental, but the meat from that bear was borderline horrible! Maybe too much adrenaline got into the bear’s bloodstream before he expired?

[Buckskin]

Quick kill, skin, gut, and bleed all the blood out just like you need to do with a domestic pig.

[elmer]

Anyone here have any experience with meat from fall black bear from New Foundland? I am considering a black bear / caribou hunt.

[STL Cardinal Fan]

Elmer,

I have been to newfoundland twice and the outfit I hunted with was and is simply fantastic. Feel free to drop me a message for further information.

In fact, any hunter interested in hunting in Newfy and needs a guide.......let me know. I have a great guide and will be more than happy to inform you of the outift.......simply put though, you will not go home upset.

It will be a hunt of a lifetime.....

yours truly,

Cardinal fan  

[alaskacajun]

There are basically two different bears in the fall up here, the ones eating fish and the ones eating berrys. Black bears that have been eating berrys have awesome meat. It tends to be sweeter...

I went on a float trip with a co-worker in 2002 near the Brooks Range. He knew several people in the village that we jet boated from. The brother-in-law of the guy with the boat asked us to get him a black bear for the meat and fat. I guess they use the bear fat like Crisco, he said it smells like bacon grease when you cook with it. As luck would have it, we came across a nice little sow eating blue berrys and Don shot her. That night we had fried bear meat for dinner. It was awesome. We also had moose and caribou tenderlion mixed together and it was hard to tell the difference. We dipped the meat in Zataran's Fish Fry and fried it in Olive oil...

I have also had several different batches of bear chili made by various friends and I couldn't tell the difference between it or beef.... Being a true Cajun I imagine if hard pressed I could make even a fishy smelling Brown bear taste awright, but then again, the powers that be don't expect you to keep the meat for a reason... LOL

The first bear I ever got was pretty big and old, it took quite a while to eat all of it. I found that if I soaked the meat in ice water for an hour or so before I cooked it, the gamey taste wasn't as bad. After soaking it the meat turns pink and the water is really bloody...

- Clint