Smokin-It User Forum!
Recipes => Venison / Wild Game => Topic started by: allmann on October 25, 2016, 04:15:26 PM
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I see there is a recent recipe for bear ribs, but are there any other recipes for bear or that can be tailored to bear? I was lucky enough to harvest a bear in NJs archery season and have absolutely no experience with bear besides it has to be cooked to 160 degrees. I don't have any ribs or I would definitely tried that recipe. I do have (6) 7-9lb roasts about 15lbs of ground and (7) 2-5lb loins. I also had the butcher make me Brats, sweet ital sausage, and breakfast sausage(ground and packaged like ground meat). I was going to try the breakfast sausage straight up and then planned on making patty's and smoking them and repackaging them into smaller batches. Would this work?
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Congrats on your successful bear hunt!
I do not have any experience with bear meat. So, you have to cook the meat to an internal temp of 160 huh? Smoking/Cooking the roasts whole is tricky at best if you have to take them to 160 which is way higher than I would want to take a beef roast or loin.
For your ground breakfast sausage, you could make a "Fatty" (search for Fatty in the Sausage section). I haven't made one of these yet, but it is definitely on my to-do list and seems pretty easy and looks like it would taste awesome.
You could definitely make some jerky from some of your roasts. That is what I do with a lot of my deer roasts and it turns out awesome.
You could also grind the roasts and mix with some pork and make some snack sticks. I have several posts on making snack sticks in the Sausage and What's Cooking sections that may help you.
I hunt/smoke a lot of venison, Pheasant, Duck, and Goose. But, as I mentioned earlier, I do not have any experience with bear meat. So, others with more bear and/or large wild game meat experience may have some better ideas for you. But, I think my ideas above could work for some of your meat.
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5% of black bears have parasites in their muscle tissue and when these worms are ingested by humans they cause severe, sometimes fatal, illness called trichinosis. This is what I found while searching for recipes and some ol timers confirmed it, but don't always follow it. I personally like my meat rare, but would not like to have the symptoms to trichinosis.
I plan on making some jerky and prob some snack sticks too. Thank you for the reply. I am also going to search for your duck and goose recipes.
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I think I have only posted about making jerky out of my duck/goose. But, I think there are some other good duck/goose posts out there.
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Congrats on the bear! I'll be watching to see what comes of it!
Interesting to know that bears carry the trichinosis worms. They used to be common in hogs, and that's why we had to cook all pork to 160+, back in the day. From my understanding, it's eliminated in commercially-produced hogs, but is still common in wild boar.
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Kevin;
I had the post on the bear ribs and I can share that the bear roasts are outstanding. I have made two in a crock pot with rave reviews from a number of folks. I basically made them like I made venison roasts. Start with celery/carrots/onions and then season the roast to your personal preference. I use a combo of celery salt, cajun seasoning, garlic powder and black pepper. Then add a can of golden mushroom and beefy mushroom soup. Cook for 8 hours.
Have a neck roast (my favorite) that I am saving for our gun deer season. I will try to smoke one
of the bear loins wrapped in bacon and will post my results on this forum.
I will make home made brats after our deer season is over and grind the rest of the meat up into burger. I have really been happy with all the meals from my bear harvest
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Thank You for the response. Did you cut all the fat off the roast?
I smoked a 2.5 lb cut from the loin without any bacon, I treated it like I was doing a prime rib. I was going to bring it to 160 (cause of trichinosis), but said to hell with it when I got too hungry and and did it to 140. I finished it on a hot grill to sear the outside and it was better than any prime rib I ever had.
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Sorry I have not been on the forum for several days. We did cut off most of the fat when we skinned and processed my bear. Thanks for the update on the loin results. I am looking forward to trying that same process
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I also have some bear backstrap. Because of trichomoniasis, there are 2 types of possible worms, it must be handled carefully. To kill one type, a month in freezer works. The other type requires cooking to IT 160, as said earlier. However, sous vide allows you to get around this. My intention is to sous vide for 8hrs @ 128 , folliwed by a reverse sear. The time component is what facilitates this ability. A par smoke or coldsmoke prior to bagging it would be a nice touch.
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Finally got around to the bear backstrap. Cut into individual steaks, seasoned with salt, pepper, granulated garlic, granulated onion & Worcester sauce. Sous vide for 16 hours (the fella who shot it said he found it tough so I doubled the time in the bath) followed by a hard sear in a black iron skillet. While resting i made a steak Dianne sauce with the sous vide juices. Smelled awesome but the meat had a slightly fishy taste. Not enjoyable. However, the rest of the meal was great. It was accompanied by green beans and smoked potatoes in butter & parsley. Fun figuring this cook out. I wonder if it was this bear or its handling from Alaska to Louisiana that was the issue? Would love to try it again with a different bear.
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Walt, you mentioned that your bear was harvested in Alaska. I wonder if it had been feasting on salmon. I have no experience with bear meat but the taste of the waterfowl I harvest is heavily impacted by what they have been feeding on.
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I agree. Also it may have been a grizzly instead of a bkack bear. Both were taken. I understand there is a substantial difference.