Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation I have a bear hanging out in the garage....

Neighbor called a few hours ago.... Wanted help with the bear he shot.... He just wanted the skin for a rug..... My wife and I helped get it off.... As a result.....now we have probably 250 pounds of bear hanging up.....

I have never shot or eaten a bear before..... Some people say they love it others hate it.... I understand trichinosis is a concern and that it needs to be cooked to the same internal temperature as pork.....

I also just read that bear doesn't need to hang and age like venison does..... Is this correct?

Suggestions for a first attempt at cooking bear? Thanks.

2ndwind- Try to bone it out and get as much of the fat and gristle off as is humanly possible. The roasts should be treated like beef. Slow cooking seemed to be best for my taste and tenderness choice. I prepare venison and elk toward the rare side but bear I want medium well. BTW it is very good.-Mike

Thanks Mike.... I never tried very hard to find a bear during hunting season (they seem to go out of there way to find me and my camp sites when the season is closed though).... My wife and I think of ourselves as "trophy meat hunters".... I would have felt badly if I shot a bear and then didn't like the meat....

Do you agree that bear meat does not need to be aged like venison does?

"I have a bear in my garage!"

Way cool post!

Several VERY important points... In the freezer bear meat goes BAD at about 6 months. At that point trust me, just toss it!

To prevent it from going bad it can be canned and will keep virtually indefinitely.

Chili verde in huge quantities is a good thing to do with it and then canned. I have done as many as three whole bears at once.

Most strains of Trichina are killed by freezing at 0 for a week. Our local strain is not...

Slow smoked/cooked for pulled bear is outstanding...

Good bear meat is outstanding stuff.

Thanks Art...... Good Lord.... 3 bears worth of chili verde.... IIRC our pressure canner does 8 quarts at a time..... How many times does 8qts divide into 3 bears

Last one was made into burger, breakfast sausage, and pepper sticks.

It's good meat if not too much salmon in the diet - perhaps not your problem. What is the main feed source for bears in your AO? Berries? Acorns? Poodles?

Poodle berries?

Honestly do not remember the numbers... but believe I posted about that one here... Have also done CV with muskox from Brother Dave, moose, caribou, deer, and mountain goat.

When Riley was growing he would come home from school and evaporate a whole quart in a single sitting.

We run two pressure cookers at once and they do two levels of quarts each. It is still a lengthy process. Looking into retort bags for canning moose and caribou meat...

Well, I did have a cat go missing.... I had been thinking it was the coyotes.... But now that the poodle possibility has been raised....

This bear had likely been eating apples and acorns.... It came from a hardwood ridge top in the Blue Ridge Mountains of NC. I'm feeling optimistic.

retort bags?

Like MREs come in... plastic and foil bags designed to handle pressure cooking in. They store much better than cans or jars and may allow more efficient use of the pressure cookers...

Requires a chamber type vacuum sealer to use them.

BREs.... Bears ready to eat.....after just breaking a jar full of olives on the kitchen floor while barefoot I could see BREs really getting ready to take off..

Is it dead already?

Yeah I was certain it wasn't just playing possum after Chris slit the skin up through the testicles..... Discovered the baculum..... Apparently when a male bear gets sexually aroused..... It really does get a boner.....

Here we go.......

Yep

I just tried to order Eileen's Sausage Season online... had some kind of glitch so just sent her an email...

Again a question for you seasoned bear butchers.... Is it correct that aging bear meat (we keep a separate refrigerator running during deer season) is not important?

Don't try to age bear meat, the fat will turn rancid making for a lot of work to make it fit to eat. I speak. from experience I use to love to eat bear,but now can't stand the smell of it. ---Mel

Thanks Mel..... Mrs Wind and I are planning to cut and wrap it this evening then...

Good plan,let us know how it comes out.