when mixed with a little pork fat it makes excellent sausage, It also makes good jerky and is really good brined and smoked like a ham. THe larger roasts are good if you rub them with a good spicy rub and smoke them for a day or so. Their not half bad as just standard old steaks. There are a couple of places up here that will make them into a honey smoked ham that you can slice thin and use as lunch meat.
As long as they haven't been eating fish black bear is excellent table fair. I doubt you get many fishy bears down there but we run into some here that stink so bad of rotting fish that their not edible, even the meat takes on that nasty fish smell.
Here is a chorizo recipe my buddy uses
10 lbs ground black bear meat
1 lbs thick cut bacon ground into bear meat
6 Tbsp salt
1 cup vinegar
5 Tbsp paprika
3 Tbsp Red pepper, ground or crushed
8 cloves fresh garlic, pressed
1 Tbsp oregano
2 tsp black pepper, coarse ground
1 cup water
3-4 finely diced jalapeño or pablano peppers
Grind the meat a couple of times and make sure the bacon mixes into the meat well. Sometimes black bear can be a little stringy so grinding it well helps.
Add all remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly until all the spices are evenly distributed.
Stuff the chorizo into a 1-1/2 inch natural casing. Hang chorizo to dry overnight in a cool dry place. You can also use as loose ground sausage if you prefer.
You can substitute Southwest chipolte seasoning for the crushed red pepper if you don't like it as spicy. Also sub green pepper for diced jalapeños.