I've never had black bear meat. Heard and read about trichinosis risk and a lot of people said they didn't like it. Now it seems there's more people saying they enjoy it. What's your opinion of it?

Very good in pot roasts. OK in summer sausage .. though to be honest I don't eat any summer sausage regularly. Not so good as steaks/shish kebabs, etc.

I've shot both spring and fall black bears. I've only eaten fall black bear. Being a big black and fatty animal they can spoil quickly esp in the direct sun. Mine shot just before dark was gutted and packed full of ice to cool it down fast. The next morning it was checked in at the mandatory check station. Soon after, it was skinned, quartered and in a cooler on ice.
Once home I cut all the fat away I could and cut into chunks for grinding. Had it turned into hickory stick and brats, both were great eating.

I've also had crock pot style roast from other people's fall bears. Some very good , others not worthy of dog food.

Like most wild game it depends on what it has to eat and how well it's cared for after the kill.

Had it one time that I remember.
Cooked over a good bed of coals
with just salt and pepper.
It was beyond reproach.
Tender as any meat I've ever had.
Of course, it was COOKED and
not bloody like so many like these days.
I don't eat bloody meat, and I don't
have any red wings.

I might have ate some bear that I didn't
know about. Some of the different dishes
at various hunting camps had meats of
unknown origin

As long as they weren't eating what I suspect is winter kill or gut piles, I've always liked it.
The few bad ones I have had reeked of eating something nasty....sure as hell wasn't berries or grass.

All depends on what they eat. We have great eating bears here, better than blacktail deer any day.

I have taken Spring bear and Fall bear. Spring bear is to be avoided. They come out of hibernation and it takes some time for the toxins to work out of their system. Saskatchewan Fall bear was the best. The hams are like a slightly more fatty pork. The backstrap and tenderloins are very very good. Big boar are not as good as the younger boar or a sow. I have never eaten the heart or liver, the Cree I hunt with warned me off the organs, they did not elaborate except to say wasting disease could occur. Trim all the fat off the meat you can before cooking. When cooking make sure the meat can drain as it cooks. Make sure when processing the meat in the field to clean the blood off the meat thoroughly and as soon as possible. If you make jerky out of the meat it is very good but chewy. If you plan to keep the pelt flesh it thoroughly and keep it as cool as possible until it can be tanned.

Killed one in 73, ate it and never killed another. It seems like a lot of work to make it tasty.

If they haven't been on fish or carcasses they're not to bad. But with a freezer full of moose, bison and sheep I have a hard time convincing myself to shoot one.

It's been quite a few years but there was a case here in ID of a hunter shooting a bear and making a bunch of sausage or jerky or something out of it. He gave it to all of his friends and they all got trichinosis. He didn't get it hot enough.

I got one in pennsylvania last fall. Roasts were excellent. A beef tips over noodle type meal was very good and all.

Most of it was ground up for breakfast sausage and came out very tasty. Kids love breakfast sausage.


-Jake

I shot one in Maine years ago. The outfitter gave me a recipe for a marinade. Nothing complicated, just some olive oil, garlic, onion and soy sauce. Cooked it thoroughly and it was great.

smaller bears say up too maybe 200 lbs are fine,but the big old boars that weigh over 300 lbs are terrible.

Fall black bear gorging on blue berries is good eats!

I have shot about a dozen in my lifetime. All have been great eating. Rule number one is to cook it done.

Love bear meat !!

As said, all about what they eat & how you care for it, after the shot.

I hang & process all our meat.

One roast left from this years spring black bear, delicious. Roasts cook up like a beef roast. Most of the meat gets ground for sausage for me. Flavour, like any animal is dependant on what they eat.

Trichinoses; ANY animal that eats meat is at risk of carrying trichinella. It’s quite common in pork/rodents as well which is why it’s to be cooked through to kill the parasite.

Every bear I've killed was over bait. Put every one of them in the bait barrel after skinning. And they were subsequently eaten by the other bears visiting the bait.

I like bear meat very much. I miss hunting and eating them.

Very uncommon in pork now. Hog feed must be cooked which has virtually eliminated trich in hogs.

Walkin garbage disposal. Guess everybody’s definition of “delicious “ is quite different. 😂😂

If domestic, yes.

Depends entirely on what they have been eating.
Bait site, trash can, city dump, dead stuff eatin bears are terrible eating/ should not be eaten by humans.
Living in the apple orchard, berry patch, or springtime bears have always been great eating, at least for me.

Absolutely love it. Bear sausage and Bear burgers are life at its best

There's better things to eat,it's doable but not a big fan of it.

I know a good many that consider it their favorite. Good black bear is outstanding. We processed six of them this spring and have eaten most of them...

Big problem is it goes off at about 6 months in the freezer. Then it is very strong. Canned in retort bags it is outstanding and keeps much longer.

I love black bear meat a lot.

4 experiences.....3 spring bear, good eating. 1 fall, had to throw it away after processing....beyond nasty! memtb

I had bear when I was a kid and I was not impressed at all.

I MUCH prefer venison! I can't get enough venison.

If it's mixed with pork sausage I can eat it.

Otherwise not a fan.

Shot and ate them as a youngster when i was tougher than hell and poor and didnt know any better. I prefer other things to eat and really dont care for bear meat. Ive heard much about using bear fat or lard for cooking and baking and would like to try that once but ive already got lard and its cheap so i dont see the why in eating bear parts.

I do enjoy hunting them and its good to keep the numbers down for herbivore population health.

all bears have worms in them.. if you eat bear meat you are eating worms I learned that as a kid and almost died from the worms. .. I will never kill a bear to eat... you can eat the meat if you cook it enough to kill the worms but you are still eating cooked worms.. I don't need that crap in my body...

I've always put bear meat in a medium sized Dutch oven, then added carrots, onions, celery, garlic and some chicken stock. Let it cook for 4-5 hours on low heat. Then throw everything away and eat the Dutch oven.

Makes a really good pot roast.

I have only had it in burger meat and it was pretty good. I ate several!

So do deer and elk. All animals as a matter of fact, from what I have been told.

Go vegan I guess, until it is realized that plants have nastiness in them too.

Then starve, I guess.

Deer and elk seldom eat rotten meat and gut piles that are loaded with worms.. no to mention garbage left by filthy Humans..... remember that old saying........... YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT....also no one mentions the worm eggs and maggots in bear meat.. an worm egg got into a friends 6 year old sons eye ball and had to have surgery to get it out... I lost track of them and don't know how that turned out...

That all very well may be....
I cut into a caribou round one time and had a dozen or so worms crawl out of it. It churned my stomach and I asked a few biologists about it and they said that all critters have them, some individuals more than others.

It's all protein. If you eat pie cherries, you'll often find a maggot in them. You've created some imaginary. pristine world in your mind, and are trying to live there. Reality is far from it. If animals in the wild have critters in them, imagine whats in the factory meat you buy from the store, where the animals spend their whole lives in their own filth and excrement.

We (family) love it. All of our bears are shot on the farm we deer hunt on. We would rather eat a bear roast over a whitetail deer roast any day. Makes great sausage too. After 9 bears we have not schit worms yet. We do not eat bear meat rare.

If we didn't eat them we wouldn't kill them. Very cool animals.

Same here !

Fall bear is excellent

I have eaten B B meat 2 or 3 Xs and it was delicious.

It was a N Arkansas bear and the meat was trimmed of ALL fat and boiled BEFORE cooking to make certain it was
safe to eat.

Being a N Arkansas bear it's diet was pretty good - except - possibly for carrion?

The meat was fried on 1 occasion like steak. Being boiled it was tender & tasted good.
It was BBQd on 1 occasion and I'd eat it any time.
Don't remember the 3rd X or if there was a 3rd.

I'd sure kill one and process it properly when I have an opportunity.

Jerry

I have only had bear meat once, and it was good. A few years ago friend shot a black bear during archery season here in NJ. It weighed 679.5 lbs field dressed on a digital scale. We had a game feast, and the bear was part of the feast.

We like to slice it thin and make stir fry with snow peas and broccoli. The bear meat kinda renders it’s own grease and being thin sliced helps with the chewiness.

I’ve eaten spring and fall bears and both have been good. I have taken care not to eat any that were killed on fish or gutpiles. Even ate a couple fall grizzlies killed in the berries, they were very good.

2001 or there abouts... Fall yearling black bear... taken out with a 31,500,000 grain projectile traveling 62 mph... cooked up in a typical stew recipe with veggies and taters. delicious.

Twice, first and last times.

We have eaten black bear meat from various places, and as many have said already the taste depends on what they've been eating recently.

Here in southwestern Montana they taste very good when they first come out of the den and are eating new grass other fresh veggies. When they've recovered some strength they can get into winter-killed, rotten game and then aren't very good.

Same sort of deal in the fall: If taken early, when their main food is berries, they're excellent. In fact have cooked steaks from a 3-year-old choke-cherry fed bear in the same pan as cow elk steaks, and most people couldn't tell the difference.

Have also "tried" meat from bears which have been eating winter-killed cattle and gut-piles from fall big game. Definitely not so good....

John, I used Eileen's recipe for pastrami using a Bear roast. It was fantastic, but once again, all our Bears come from farm habitat

I have never had black bear but my uncle said it taste like friendly dog. I didn’t ask anymore questions.

What about the fat? Been hunting in bear territory now for 6 years with no success but did hit a nice one with the Tahoe couple of weeks ago so maybe my luck’s changing. So just in case can you grind meat with the fat or no? Same for the roasts & steaks. Even hear the fat rendered to lard is good to bake with. Edgeykate me.

Get rid of the fat.
Period.

Rendered fat makes pure snowy white lard, good stuff. That said I always trim all the fat off any wild game, way less chance of gamey flavors that way IME.

I ate some bear sausage that was ok. Never tried eating bear any other way and sounds like I don't want to. We usually bear hunt within 5 miles of the dump and run them with dogs till they tree, hole up or decide to fight the dogs.

Just the other day processed my 460 lb. bear fat on the back was 4" thick....100 lbs of fat too render for lard....boiled the bones 12 quarts of broth....32 quarts of canned meat....40 -1.5 lb tubes 100% bear burger....10 roasts....20- packages of filets 3/4" thick 4 to a package...

Wife and I would rather eat bear than dry corn feed deer.....a little fat in the meat helps cooking and does't hurt the favor but improves it....

I bait with sweets and grains used 1200 lbs in the 30 days of baiting....

You almost sound like you're cooking a racoon.

I've only had fall black bear meat from Michigan. My family and I prefer it to venison.

That's funny! I've always said a bear is just a big racoon with no tail.

Or fish. The last bear meat I had was from northern Idaho, on an elk hunt. It was meat, with no flavor to it.

For me, black bear meat has many other game animals ahead of it for preference.




This .

Had bbq'ed fall bear chops off the grill when I was on the VFD in NE PA. Everybody that ate them was wishing for more... Like most game meat, proper field care and preparation go a long way toward ensuring palatability...

Have a small roast that I am making pastrami with right now. I use Mrs Mule Deer`s recipe. It is really good.

Yeah, we really like her bear pastrami too!

Got a N MN fall bear that lived on an oak ridge with some swampy area nearby and had also been hitting our bait site for ~10 days. Bait was pastries, oats, pelletized molasses, covered with logs that we then poured used restaurant fryer grease all over. I assume the bear lived on greens from the wet areas, snowball berries, high-bush cranberries, and acorns on the oak ridge.

Anyway, I sliced the backstraps into ~1/2" thick "steaks" rolled them in seasoned flour, browned them quickly, then dumped in just a splash of Jack Daniels and let them simmer covered for a bit until "done". Pretty much everything else got crock-potted like a beef roast and it was excellent.

I also got a SW MT spring bear. The meat was significantly lighter, much more similar to pork than a true "red" meat. All of that bear got mixed with some pork and made into sausage patties. They were very good, but with enough pork and spices mixed in, almost anything can be made palatable.

I've only heard of bad black bear, but never had a bad one myself, and that's generally multiple bears per year. One of the best meats I get, and that includes moose and Sitka blacktail. But I'm usually getting fall bears on berries in the mountains. In fact I just had black bear chili and a black bear burger for dinner. Noting added to the burger, just meat and fat from the bear. About the best burger I've had, period.

To this day, the only game that made me gag. I’m not likely to give it another chance

Only black bear I’ve eaten was jerky. Was very good.

I have never tried making pastrami with bear meet before, This would be some to try.

Gut it well,
clean it well and cook it well,
Bear meat are delicious.

Clean off all the fat you can see, and then boil the roast to get the intramuscular fat out. Drain it out and slow roast it in an oven at 250 till it is well done. I like the roast done with onions, carrots and taters in the pan. fall off the bone tender and tasty.

Cook beaver about the same.

As is the case with all animals with a singles stomach -as opposed to ruminants- it will depend on what tha bear has been feeding on recently. An interior spring bear that has been feeding on blueberries, or an autumn bear well fed on acorns has noting to do with one that has been feeding on dead fish along the shores of the ocean.

Here in Spain, dried pig's leg is very popular and considered a delicacy. We call it "jamon" and it is classified and sold at different prices depending on its feed.

I make it a point to try and get out early every Spring for a rolly-polly fat bear. Interior bears, black or grizzly, big or small are good eating.

Bacon, burger, chops, roasts, sausage, stew meat, or tenderloin, it's all good.

Ted

I love it. My wife and I go through one per year. I prefer then to venison for roasts.
Also great for bratwurst, jerky, ground, sausage, etc. Anything as long a you cook it properly.

Bear Pastrami a la Mrs. Mule Deer Eileen Clark:

Like anything else, treat it right and it's wonderful, treat it wrong and your dog won't eat it.

I prefer spring bear because it has less fat. I try to separate all the fat from the meat before processing/cooking. A beef roast might be good with a nice layer of fat, but a bear roast won't.

Black bear meat is my preference for making meat loaf.



I guess you avoid farm raised pigs as well?

Oh fuuck, here we go, “bear meat is delicious “!!! What do you “delicious “ folks rate pussy or a good ribeye??? I really wanna know..

That looks killer!

Just put one in the freezer this week. Having bear burgers for dinner tomorrow. It all starts with proper and prompt care of the meat from skinning to cutting and wrapping. I do agree with what several have said here get all the fat off that you can. The Amish in our area love to get the fat as they render it and use it on their bridle leather and as a water repellent on their shoes and gloves. Won't try to change anyone's opinion on palatibility but I will say if I haven't processed the meat from shot to pot, I won't eat it or feed it to my family. It definitely takes more care but yields a different tasting but good eating meat. Just one mans opinion. Good eating and good hunting.

The most important thing is did you use the 9X56 to get it?

Ted

I made "corned bear", like corned beef, and converted a bunch of folks that said they did not like eating bear.

Have only had black bear a few times, but I prefer it to deer.

No got him with the bow. First bear with bow. Didn't go 50 yards.

I have cooked and eaten spring bear from AK. I thought it was great as did everyone else who tried it. The meat can be very mild and easily over-seasoned. I ate some fall bear from Newfoundland probably 35 years ago that was fantastic. My mother cooked a bear roast like a roast beef and made gravy. I have been told that fall bear can be disgusting especially if they eat fish.

I have a friend in AK that won't touch bear meat. Its kind of like the way some people in TX will shoot but not eat wild boar. Both make me scratch my head.

I was hoping I could talk my lovely wife into trying spring Black Bear this year, but, no luck. I'll try try again this coming spring.

My very favorite thing to do with bear meat is ground burger made into burritos.

I eat bear meat almost every morning. My processor made it into mild spicy sausage and maple/brown sugar sausage. Even my city slicker wife likes it.

Thanks, Dinny

Like any animal, their diet affects meat quality. Pennsylvania bears typically eat whatever they can find but will feast upon cornfields if they can. This meat is quite good. But a bear that consumes a diet of rotting road kill deer would not be my choice for table fare. But the question is, how does a hunter know what the bear in his sights has been eating?

Sherwood

my buddy would hunt spring bear somewhere in canada every year and swore it was awesome. gave me some burger and a roast. his definition of awesome and mine were obviously much different. i occasionally hunt bear here in PA but doubt i would ever shoot one. i would hate to have hundreds of pounds of that stuff. but i'm sure diet and processing matter a lot. just not gonna take a chance.

More likely he was cleaning out his freezer... bear does not keep long in the freezer. At 6 months it is best just toss it.

If you are shooting bears at the dump, you know they are probably going to have issues. Shoot them in a salmon stream, same thing. Shoot them in the spring or in an alpine blueberry patch and they will probably be great,

I shot an early spring bear once. Took the backstrap and brined it then hot smoked it to a safe internal temp. When it had cooled I sliced it about 1/4” thick and took it in for sandwich makings at a get together. There wasn’t a scrap left and probably half the people who partook refused to believe it was bear. It can be very good.

The black bears that live around farms in PENN are probably excellent eating. A friend of mines brother shot one near a garbage dump back in the 80s and after field dressing it, he cut open the stomach to see what it had been eating. He told us that he wished that he hadnt done that.......

Prepared right bear meat is pretty good. Loins, sausage, salami, burger etc. But the threat of trichnosis is real. I knew of a young guy who was pack hunting in one of the nearby Sierra wilderness areas, conversed with with him off another forum when he wanted to buy a tent I was sellin. I was astounded to learn later on the same forum he contracted trichnosis after another group of backcountry hunters invited him and his brother to eat fresh bear ribs cooked over the campfire at night. Obviously in the dark the ribs were not cooked well enough. The young hunter stated the trichnosis almost killed him and the after effects were going to be long lasting. Even the state Fish and Wildlife contacted him for details.

That said I pass on any bear salami that's offered to me nowadays. I would also avoid any bear meat cooked by others unless I knew it was cooked well. Bear meat cooked over a campfire should be avoided its just not worth the risk.

I have had a dozen great eating bears. But I did get one once that tasted very sweet much like it had been eating a lot of over ripe apples. I am sure what they reflects on the taste. No problem here. I do my own butchering and always do the frying pan test just to see how I want to process them. Sausage is your friend if the taste is off.

I have had a dozen great eating bears. But I did get one once that tasted very sweet much like it had been eating a lot of over ripe apples. I am sure what they eat reflects on the taste. No problem here. I do my own butchering and always do the frying pan test just to see how I want to process them. Sausage is your friend if the taste is off.

I have found bear meat to be a bit more greasy then other wild game. It's not bad, but because of that fact I like it in roasts, burger, and sausage. For me any steaks, strips, and cubes didn't make very good table fare

I abide by a couple axioms when it comes to which species to hunt. The first was proffered by my late BIL, and the second one is mine. #1) Don't hunt anything that can hunt you. #2) Don't hunt anything that could have trichinosis.

Has served me well so far. YMMV

Had some once, did not like it. As it was not my Bear not the choice cuts. For now they leave me alone I will not hunt them.

I've only eaten fall UP Michigan black bears. Most of them finished on a steady diet of day old donuts, fifteen miles from the nearest door knob. Some of the finest meat I've ever had has been loin chops cooked over maple coals from those bears. My brothers are always asking when there is going to be more of that. The trick here is to get them cooled down and inspected ASAP so you can get the hide off as quick as may be .They will have inches of fat all around them and will spoil sooner than you would think do to lack of heat transfer in the mild early Autumn temperatures they are typically taken in. I'll be honest, I never wanted to like bear as the thought of eating wild omnivores never really appealed to me. But in my experience its damned delicious

I've taken two in Quebec. Both boars over bait. One about 150 lbs dressed the other about 240 lbs dressed. IMO it's good for burger or sausage but I wasn't crazy about it in stew or on the grill.

I've only shot one. Colorado 2019

boar, 14 years old. it had been eating off two dead mule deer when I shot it. no clue what it had eaten the prior weeks or years.

meat was fair, but not great. definitely best as hamburger in spicy meals, but quite edible.

FWIW, I saved the fat and rendered it for boot wax and glad I did.

pro-tip: don't render the fat in the kitchen while the wife is home.

Nope not for me.
Way to rich for my taste buds, but i like hunting them and i have people that like eating them.

Shot one bear. Tasted horrible. I'll stick to cervids

Some of the best (a roast from a recent kill) and some of the worst (from an attempted salt/sugar cured ham).