I watched the youtube video by Rinell about him giving himself, his crew and friends trichinosis by serving raw bear meat. One thing in the video is that he had the meat analyzed, it had about 400,000 larvae per pound! Egads! Nasty stuff.
And they have found AK Trichinella is far less susceptible to freezing... Cook it or can it to be sure...
Rinella is a stand-up sort of guy for the way he handled the deal, IMO. I know his brother in passing here in town and he seems a good sort.
Eating sushi from bear and pig meat is asking for trouble. Make sure you cook it. I believe 160 degrees will kill Trichina parasites, but you might research this a bit more.
160 is always the temperature given because it will kill trichinella INSTANTLY, but lower temps for longer periods will do it too. I'm not about to quote them offhand, but a little web search should come up with the temperature/time lengths.
And you can find the same info about freezing, just do not believe the published stats for AK bears unless they specify the difference in AK bears...
I know about the difference in freezing's effects on southern and northern strains, but the cooking info applies to all.
Has anyone actually seen a case of human Trichinosis?
Sounds pretty bad.
DF
I know a guy who had it, because a friend of his made black bear jerky (from a Montana bear) just by drying the meat, not heating it at all. As I recall, he and the three other people who ate the jerky were about half the cases in the U.S. that year.
See: ADF&G:
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=disease.muscle2It wasn't trichinosis, but I did get intestinal parasites once from eating raw sushi. Not fun. I would imagine that trichinosis is even worse.
Interesting. We never heat jerky meat either. But have never shot a bear either.
I guess if I ever did I"d have tgo figure out how to heat jerky while drying it.
I know a guy who had it, because a friend of his made black bear jerky (from a Montana bear) just by drying the meat, not heating it at all. As I recall, he and the three other people who ate the jerky were about half the cases in the U.S. that year.
Are they still friends?
How can anyone not know about bear/pig trichina?
I bet Lost Wages loves to see these guys come to town!
Jeff,
It doesn't take much heat. As noted earlier, the long-recommended 160 degrees will kill the larvae just about instantly. Most people, however, cook pork at 160 for way too long, the reason it often turns out dry. But 21 hours at 120 will also do the job. In fact my wife (who does the vast bulk of the scientific cooking research in our house) usually makes jerky in an oven on a very low setting. All it does is speed up the drying process.
I thought being a greasy meat, bear wasnt used for jerky.
I knew a woman years ago whos brother died from tric.
Bear really isn't greasy meat, and neither is pork. Trim the fat off and the big cuts are pretty lean.
And render the fat for lard. It doesn't come any better.
actually, a spring bear is fairly lean. This year I put up over 200 lbs of sausage, most of it, Jalape�o/herb and close to 150 lb, of jerky and pepperoni sized snack sticks. The jerky I hot smoke--160 degrees, for close to 2 hrs. and the snack sticks closer to 3 hrs. May dry it out a bit, but better safe then sorry and still makes for good snackin'.
Not to belittle the potential problem of parasites in bear meat (and seal, walrus, etc), but fish - including salmon- which people seem to think is fine fare in raw form is very often riddled with a variety of nasties, some of which can become hosted by humans as well.
Jeff,
It doesn't take much heat. As noted earlier, the long-recommended 160 degrees will kill the larvae just about instantly. Most people, however, cook pork at 160 for way too long, the reason it often turns out dry. But 21 hours at 120 will also do the job. In fact my wife (who does the vast bulk of the scientific cooking research in our house) usually makes jerky in an oven on a very low setting. All it does is speed up the drying process.
I've heard the oven method... but our batches are so big..... usually 50 or more pounds of meat to start with... LOL
Not to belittle the potential problem of parasites in bear meat (and seal, walrus, etc), but fish - including salmon- which people seem to think is fine fare in raw form is very often riddled with a variety of nasties, some of which can become hosted by humans as well.
That's why they recommend to first freeze fish that is intended for sushi.
I can do that without even trying.
When the smoke alarm goes off........dinner is ready!
When the smoke alarm goes off........dinner is ready!
You've cooked blackenend fish before I see.
When the smoke alarm goes off........dinner is ready!
You've cooked blackenend fish before I see.
We tried to blacken fish once in the house. We ultimately had to abort the cooking and leave the house for an extended period.