Thread: Bear Meat

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Hunting Bear or Mountain Lion, you best know what you be doing or you might wind up the prey.

Very true. Especially since we can't use dogs here. Even if you are hunting deer or simply enjoying the great outdoors, you may still become the prey of the mountain lion. I've seen many of them, and so I know that a great many more have seen me. We have had some recent mountain lion attacks in our state actually.

Originally Posted by RezDog

I must say though, as I am not much of a fan of bear meat, I don’t bother hunting them. There are those that think it’s the best. Both bear and sea lion are all in the preparation. It’s either delicious or terrible.

Too true. We find the best way to prepare bear is to grind it into burger. It makes great burger for spaghetti, lasagna, tacos and whatever else you would use burger for (including hamburgers). It is easy to control the fat ratio that way as well. When ground up like that, we have never had a single complaint. Most people can't tell the difference between it and beef. This bear gave us about 90 pounds of meat.

For deer we turn the back straps and tenderloins into steaks. The rear haunches becomes a mixture of stew meat and sliced meat for things like jerky and fajitas. The rest of it is mixed with bear fat and ground into sausage.

The left over bear fat is rendered down into lard and canned. The deer fat gets rendered down into tallow for soap making. If I can talk my wife into it, we will sometimes take the large leg bones and make bone broth. The hides typically get donated to someone who can tan them. Although for a while there it was hard to find someone who wanted them.

Originally Posted by STF

Sea Lion? I didn't know anyone ate sea lion. What's it taste like?

That is going to depend on who cooks it. It could be like eating an old shoe that tastes like low tide smells, or it could be tender and delicious and taste somewhere between buffalo and has a hint of seafood flavour.

Originally Posted by DVW

Too true. We find the best way to prepare bear is to grind it into burger. It makes great burger for spaghetti, lasagna, tacos and whatever else you would use burger for (including hamburgers). It is easy to control the fat ratio that way as well. When ground up like that, we have never had a single complaint. Most people can't tell the difference between it and beef. This bear gave us about 90 pounds of meat.

Kind of like donkey... donkeys make not so great steaks but great burgers...

Best tacos I ever had was made from donkey, but not ground, more like pulled pork, hand made corn tortillas, it was very good.
As for the bears, there are a lot of them around here, and they are not a particularly dangerous variety.

Originally Posted by RezDog

Best tacos I ever had was made from donkey, but not ground, more like pulled pork, hand made corn tortillas, it was very good.
As for the bears, there are a lot of them around here, and they are not a particularly dangerous variety.

I haven't tried donkey but had horse in Germany, my Aunt had an Ostrich farm so I've had lot's of that and I had alligator in New Orleans.

Had my first moose stew in Newfoundland, went back for more.

Originally Posted by RezDog

Best tacos I ever had was made from donkey, but not ground, more like pulled pork, hand made corn tortillas, it was very good.
As for the bears, there are a lot of them around here, and they are not a particularly dangerous variety.

I had a really good Donkey burger in Sicily. It had big flavorful mushrooms, and some sort of funky cheese. It was the perfect amount of fat... not too drippy and very moist. The Donkey had a slight sweetness to it, which offset the cheese.

Man, I think about that burger often...

Originally Posted by HungeJ0e

I had a really good Donkey burger in Sicily. It had big flavorful mushrooms, and some sort of funky cheese. It was the perfect amount of fat... not too drippy and very moist. The Donkey had a slight sweetness to it, which offset the cheese.

Man, I think about that burger often...

Your making me hungry.

Originally Posted by DVW

Your making me hungry.

Sounds like we're meeting up in Palermo...

Originally Posted by DVW

Bagged this a couple of days ago. Some new friends came over and helped me cut it up for the freezer, which was greatly appreciated. Now to go and see if I can fill my second tag. This has been taking some time away from the barn and razor making, but it is worth it.

I have always leaned toward either Chili Verde or Sausage with Bear meat

I have a Good Colorado Chili Verde recipe on the forum Here