Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Anyone have a good recipe for bear meat?

My husband and I have elk, venison, wild boar, duck, and bear in our freezer. I like to avoid steroids and hormones that are often added to meat that is available at our stores. Mark [safariman] had some backstrap he cooked with meat tenderizer and garlic waiting for me when I came home for my lunch break. It tastes very good, but I am wanting to expand horizons a little and wondered if anyone has a recipe they like for bear meat. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Well-done to avoid trichinosis.

Spag sauce, meatballs, chili, taco, sausage.

Any stew that calls for beef.

Thanks ironbender ...and well done is the only way to go for me.

Bear meat tastes so bad that the only remedy is feed it back to the bears or do like ironbender suggests and hide it in something.

Denny.

Go back to the shortribs thread about three weeks or so and look at my recipe for oxtails/shortribs. Subtitute bear and life will be good. ( just be sure to add some beef bones of some sort ) That or any beef stew recipe that you like will work fine. Also, any chile colorado recipe that calls for beef or pork works great.

Good bear meat is tremendous. I have had it many ways but given your stated preferences; almost any moist cooked recipe will work. My absolute best bear meal was a stroganoff served in a Canadian hunting camp. The lodge owner swore it was the best way to fix bear.

It's not for everyone but I will take it any day over hamburger they sell at the store that has steroids and hormones in it. ..just me.

Thanks Sean. It sounds like you know how to cook. I'm interested in learning how to cook wild game better so it's great to have this forum and share ideas. I cannot remember the last time we purchased meat in a store.

We love stroganoff so I'll give this a try. Thank you!

That wasn't the point I was making, but i do know some don't care for it.

The 'sauces' are just another way to cook well done is all.

The bears we've processed have all been great. In fact so good that when I told my sis-in-law that she was eating bear burgers, she wasn't freaked.....sadly!

The Spaghetti Sauce that Asphalt Angel made for me last week using Bear Burger, was probably one of the best Spaghetti Sauces she has made for me. On Saturday I think it was, we had bear sausage and eggs and two cheeses all scrambled up together and some hash brown. Just wonderful! She is better at this than she lets on, and the cool thing is that she DOES cook and eat the game I bring home. I fed her flame broiled Elkburgers when we were dating and the fact that she ate them and liked them played a role in my quick admiration of her


OK, that was a stretch, I was already double crazy madly in love with her at that point. I would have been trying to get my ring on her finger if all she ate was tofu and bean sprouts! But it sure doesn't hurt anything that we like so many of the same things.

Carry on with the recipe' stuff, I am sure proud of my Asphalt Angel!

That would be correct...and the rest of your post causes my mouth to water.

The OP didn't mention the cut of meat, but hunks of bear meat in stew is outstanding, considerably out-classing venison. While back, I made some bear marsala with tenderloin medallions. Delicious.

i have a land owner who loves bear meat. he puts a roast in a crok pot with 1lb of beef burger. cook til its tender enough to pull apart then add a big can of bushes baked beans.

We thought the same about bear vs. venison. ...at least this years venison. The great news from the nutritionist at Cancer Center Treatment of America was bear meat had 3x's the amount the iron that hamburger does. Venison was about the same which is still good nutritionally. It's just more a challenging to get the taste where we want it. Thanks for your suggestion!

This would be very easy to do like on a day off, and have it to eat on for the longer work days. We have a friend who we can purchase grass fed beef from for something like this. Thanks!

I've had bear meat many times and the only way I could stomach it was turning it into swiss steak, but here's my favorite recipe for bear meat.

Take it to your local processor and have him make pepperoni sticks out of it.

Back when I was getting black bears fairly regularly my kids came to prefer bear over beef. Just trim the fat closely and cook like beef. It has a very hearty rich flavor and no gaminess. If Mark brought home the fat you have the basis for the best pastries in the world. Bear lard is at the top !

LOL. not a bad idea for Mark, my bro, and his other hunting buddies. I'm more into elk jerky

That's what he did yesterday. He used lard, garlic, and meat tenderizer. I had 2 small cuts and it was great. The best thing is I didn't get hungry after that meal for 6 hours.

+1. We had a bunch made out of my son's bear.

A bear hindquarter makes a good ham. A buddy of mine had one smoked at a processor and it tasted just like ham. I didn't know it was bear until he told me.

I've only killed one bear but the meat was awesome !!! My wife also loved it .
For wild game cooking , you may want to look into Eileens cookbooks. I've got " Slice of the Wild " She seems to cover most everything from field to plate . I believe her husband is also a forum member here

http://www.riflesandrecipes.com/ind...ry&layout=blog&id=4&Itemid=6

A pot roast with instant coffee was one of the better ways that I have cooked it. It's an old Adirondack recipe. I think The recipe came from The NYS Conservationist mag. about 20 yrs. ago or maybe ENCON. Remove all fat.

You are most welcome. Posts like yours are the best of the campfire. Much better than the bickering and name calling. Best wishes to you.

Eileen's book is definitely a great reference for wild game prep and care besides the recipes. John was posting a thread about a sale up in Ask the Gunwriters forum a few days or week ago.