Bear meat, any cooks out there, thoughts, recipes etc.

[Ron LaClair]

 as was stated earlier, definately save (and render) some of the external body fat. I hear you can use it for almost anything. It cleans up nice and white. My wife made a pie crust using it and it was really good !  

I use to render down the bear fat and we used it for cooking, pie crust, cookies, or just frying grease. One time when Jay Massey was in Michigan he stayed at our house. I popped pop corn one night while we watched TV. Jay commented on how good the pop corn was and I told him I popped it in bear grease. He said, "hmmm I'll have to tell Martha about that"

   

 

Bear grease, you can use it on your boots, you can use it on your hair. You can use it in the frying pan, you can use it anywhere .

[Ray_G]

In addition to all the great ideas you are getting, I'll throw this in.  I had my local butcher shop make smoked ham out of both hind quarters.  He boned them, put them in the net material and smoke cured them.  Good eatin'!

[Scott Beitzel]

i have tried bear meat about almost any way a fella could fried baked broiled basted poached packed and pickeled but the best i have to say that i have ever layed the small parts of my taste buds to was sausage ground large and mixed with a sausage meatloaf mix i believe mckormicks makes the seasoning it comes in a shaker and will season 20 lbs of meat grind mix let set over night and then package and freeze .
just make sure after you try it don't get any on your forehead or your tounge will beat your brains out trying to get it off lol.

it's that good ,

but then again just my taste,

Scott

[chinook907]

It's excellent meat, a lot like beef.  We eat 1/2 to 2 bears a year, just depends on how it goes hunting and how many friends it is split amongst.

My favorite way to make it is as a stew.  A friends wife gave me a moose stew recipe a number of years ago, and I've changed it around and added things over the years, everybody likes it.  It would work for about any game meat and I make it all the time with black bear.  Hope you get to try it and enjoy it.

Bear or Moose Mushroom Barley Stew

1 1/2 – 3lbs bear or moose stew meat
2 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons olive oil
Salt & pepper
1 cup hot water
1 cup red wine (you can substitute 1 cup beef broth + 2 T red wine vinegar)
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 cup carrots, sliced (about 3 carrots)
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
6-8 cups hot beef broth
6oz can tomato paste
16oz can stewed tomatoes w/juice
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup lentils (dry)
1/2 cup barley (dry)
8oz can sliced mushrooms

Cut meat into eating-sized pieces, season with salt and pepper.
Heat 2 T olive oil in 5 qt. stockpot. Add meat and brown, then add flour and mix around.
Slowly pour in hot water, 2 cups of hot broth and 1 cup of wine.
In a saute' pan, heat 2 T olive oil, add onions & cook until carmelized, browned & tender
Stir garlic into onion mixture and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds
Mix onion/garlic into meat mixture and simmer (covered) for approximately 1 hour.

Pour in the rest of the beef broth, add tomato paste, stewed tomatoes w/juice, thyme, basil, bay leaf, and simmer (covered) for 20-30 minutes.

In a saute' pan melt butter, add mushrooms, sauté until tender.

Add mushrooms, barley, and lentils to the rest and simmer for approximately 40 minutes.

Note: you may need to add more or less liquid depending on how thick you like your
stew. The lentils and barely will soak up a lot of liquid so keep an eye on your
soup to make sure you don't run out of broth.

[frozen bow]

I live in nothern Canada and I find bear taken in the fall are better than sprig bear. mabe because of the berries thay eat.