# What do you use bear meat for?



## chasin tail (Mar 31, 2010)

Only had it a couple of times, and it was not that well prepared likely. If I'm fortunate enough to harvest one, I'd like to know if you all typically grind it all up and use as burger, sticks, steaks, or whatever. Thx in advance


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Grind is most versatile for sure. I like to steak the backstraps and the rest grind for burger, sausage, sticks, etc. Personal preference.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Oh, bear chili is excellent too.


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## Spartan88 (Nov 14, 2008)

Canned bear meat is great in stew.


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## stickbow shooter (Dec 19, 2010)

Sausage and sticks .


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## Musket (May 11, 2009)

Bear meat is excellent table fare. Handle it like you would pork. Leave some of the fat on for roasts and steaks. Completely different than you would handle a deer.


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## Musket (May 11, 2009)

Don't pass on the ribs or flank. They are fantastic.


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## Sprytle (Jan 8, 2005)

I got a bear last year and the meat was some of the best meat Ive ever had! The steaks just seasoned and grilled were excellent! Ive made a lot with the burger, stroganoff being my favorite. Made some summer sausage that was great too. Im putting in for my bear tag again just for the fact that I want some more bear meat!! From what Ive read, the quality of bear meat all depends on what the bear has been eating. The bear I shot was a farm raiding bear and lived mostly on acorns and cornfields. Ive heard some bears from Canada that feed on the rotting salmon are almost inedible. GOOD LUCK ON YOUR BEAR HUNT!!


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## can'tstop (Mar 6, 2012)

Keep some roast out of the back legs. Cook it till it’s falling apart some of the best meat I have ever had. Hamburger on the grill are hard to beat too. 
Good luck hopefully you get to try it.


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## HTC (Oct 6, 2005)

Sprytle said:


> From what Ive read, the quality of bear meat all depends on what the bear has been eating.


Very true. I believe it also depends on age a lot. Roasts from a young bear are incredible. My first bear was a young sow and it was like good beef. The larger of the two bears in my gallery was 460 lbs and 11 years old. Had a roast from him sitting in the slow cooker from dawn to dusk and I might as well have been chewing chain link fence. I then made ham out of the roasts and sliced it thin...awesome stuff, everyone killed themselves on it. lots of recipes online....I used this one and smoked it on the pellet smoker, it was very easy to do.
https://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/wild-chef/2012/12/meat-week-how-smoke-black-bear-ham


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## Scottygvsu (Apr 19, 2003)

Bear ribs are my favorite thing to eat period. I’ll second what was posted earlier, leave the fat on the steaks and roasts. Cook your eggs in the drippings.


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## Adam Gibbs (Jul 13, 2006)

Roasts out of the back end. Try it using a Mississippi Roast recipe. Wife was hesitant at first but had it for leftovers the next day. She isn't much of a bear fan either. Other than that you can do steaks and backstaps. I grind most of mine though. We use it in tacos and pasta dishes. Cant really tell its bear.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Sprytle said:


> I got a bear last year and the meat was some of the best meat Ive ever had! The steaks just seasoned and grilled were excellent! Ive made a lot with the burger, stroganoff being my favorite. Made some summer sausage that was great too. Im putting in for my bear tag again just for the fact that I want some more bear meat!! From what Ive read, the quality of bear meat all depends on what the bear has been eating. The bear I shot was a farm raiding bear and lived mostly on acorns and cornfields. Ive heard some bears from Canada that feed on the rotting salmon are almost inedible. GOOD LUCK ON YOUR BEAR HUNT!!


Mine tasted like donuts and honey lol


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## Dixiedog (Aug 9, 2006)

Hello, second what was said earlier. Depends on what they are eating and of course how it is handled. I had a freezer in the back of my truck that it went straight into after skinning and field dressing. he had been raiding oats and had some of the best clear fat on him. Every cut tasted great. Tasted to me like elk or beef. My buddy got his up in Canada and it was a trash dump bear. That stuff was pretty ruff. Had what he gave me ( no one in his home would eat it) made into brats. Still wasn't that good.


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## Tilden Hunter (Jun 14, 2018)

chasin tail said:


> Only had it a couple of times, and it was not that well prepared likely. If I'm fortunate enough to harvest one, I'd like to know if you all typically grind it all up and use as burger, sticks, steaks, or whatever. Thx in advance


I get mine cut into steaks and the rest ground. I don't have any use for bear or venison roasts. The bear meat I use the way I would use beef, except that it has to be well done. There is a 6% chance it has trichinosis, but well done will fix that.


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## william thompson (Aug 8, 2016)

Have had bear steaks, stew and roasts. Can honestly say the best preparation was in a Canadian camp. Guy took stew pieces and put in slow cooker with bloody Mary mix and was outstanding.
Took a 450lb bruiser last year had it cut up in stew meat, mostly burger, sticks and summer sausage. Ebels meats in Fallmouth, MI did work and didn't have a bad thing to say. They did an awesome job. 


chasin tail said:


> Only had it a couple of times, and it was not that well prepared likely. If I'm fortunate enough to harvest one, I'd like to know if you all typically grind it all up and use as burger, sticks, steaks, or whatever. Thx in advance


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## Wild Thing (Mar 19, 2010)

Our U.P. bears are excellent eating. Of course, like others have said, I think the most important element is how the bear was handled in the field and how soon it is cooled. We skin them, quarter them and get them in the fridge before we go to bed on the day they are killed. Age the meat in the fridge for a week and then butcher it.

For bear brats....about 12# of pork - check...










about 15# of bear meat - check...










grind it together - check ...










season it with some brat mix from Cabela's and stuff into skins - check...










vacuum seal those that you don't eat right away...










You can cook these on the grill like any other brat if you like, but we like to brown them and then simmer them in your favorite spaghetti sauce and serve with cheese ravioli's. Just awesome!


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## Wild Thing (Mar 19, 2010)

Center cut bear (or venison) loin roast:

We cut the loins (backstraps) into a center cut loin roast (keep the two ends for grilling) and then season the loin roast in a favorite rub, brown it on all sides for a total cooking time of 8-10 minutes and then cover it with tin foil and let it rest for 15 minutes. Then put it into a preheated oven uncovered for about another 20-30 minutes at 250 degrees until it is done (remove from oven, cover with foil again and let it rest for 30 minutes before serving).

Venison loin roasts come out at 135 degrees but since there is a slight chance of trich - bear meat should be handled like pork and go to 165. Although they say that if the meat is frozen for 6 months it will kill any trichinosis bacteria.

6 of us (2 gals and 4 guys) ate every scrap of these 2 loin roasts (1 venison and 1 bear) for dinner on the eve of the deer season opener last year:



















Make sure you save a few roasts for "Corned Bear Roast". We got the recipe from a guy in Alaska. It is equal or better than the finest corned beef.










Don't have any photos but you want to save those nice little scraps that are just too nice for grinding to use for marinating and then skewering onto "Shish Kabobs" on the grill - OMG - my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Hope you get your bear.


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## shooter 50 (Feb 27, 2012)

CROCK POT BEAR AS YOU WOULD A POT ROAST RECIPE OR PORK LOIN RECIPE,LOTS OF ONION AND LIPTON SOUP MIX AND COOK IT LOW AND SLOW TILL MEAT IS FALLING OFF THE BONE!


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## imjon (Apr 6, 2007)

I've shot two, one in Canada and one in Maine. Both were good eating. As has been said, and with every game animal you'll ever shoot, handling and cooling are probably the most important phases of the hunt.
Friend shot an elk in Colorado one night. Guide wanted everyone to go look for it. Elk had laid down but we jumped him. Searched until 2 in the morning and were back out at 6 that morning.
By noon we were just doing a body search hoping to stumble across it. And we did find him, by smell. Walking down the trail back to the ATV's and there was a s***ty smell. Elk was about 15 yards off the trail dead and spoiled. Only thing that was saved were the cape and antlers. I still wonder if we'd just let it lay down overnight if we'd have found him dead near where he'd been shot.


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