Alaskan Brown Bear Stroganoff Recipe | A Tasty Way To Prepare Bear (2024)

FAQs

How should bear be cooked? ›

Cooking bear meat: Like pork, the proper cooking time and temperature for bear meat is 375 degrees F for 20-25 minutes per pound.

The best steaks come from the loin (aka backstraps). You can cut several large roasts from the front and hind quarters and reserve the rest for stew meat and/or grind into burger.

Place bear roast directly on the grill and cook for 1 hour. Remove roast from grill and place in a large dutch oven with garlic, orange juice, lime juice, bone broth and chipotle chilies. Cover and place back on the grill. Cook for 3-4 hours or until fork tender.

Some game meat has received a bad reputation for palatability. For example, many hunters shun bear meat. However, most hunters who do eat black and brown/grizzly bear say the meat is usually good or very good, unless the animal has been feeding on fish.

For example, fatty stringy beef brisket is slow-cooked, barbequed, pickled, brined, and/or boiled like corned beef. This is exactly how you should handle fall bear meat. If you have bear meat that tastes like fish, stir fry the tender cuts in oyster sauce or in a Thai dish that uses fish sauce.

Freezing is not effective in killing all types of Trichinella. All Trichinella is killed at 160℉ and for this reason, it is strongly recommended that all bear meat is cooked to that internal temperature.

Is it hard to get bear roast tender? No! Because bear is a fattier meat, it just takes a longer cooking time to melt fat and sinew to result in a fall-apart tender roast.

Bigger bears are generally much fattier, so even a 200- to 250-pound bear will only net 40 to 50 pounds of meat once the thick layers of fat, solid bone structure, and heavy hide are removed. Spring bears may yield a slightly larger percentage of meat than fall bears, as they have much less fat.

There is no benefit to aging bear meat longer than 24 hours. It is very important to thoroughly cook bear meat until gray in color but do not cook in a microwave. Trichinosis is a common disease found in some bears, and this parasite can cause serious problems in humans.

Most of the bears I've harvested have been fall bears that have eaten lots of wild berries. To me, these bears taste a lot like beef, but with a more robust flavor and a hint of sweetness. The fattiness of a fall bear corresponds to beef and pork more than other types of meat.

How to avoid trichinosis in bear meat? ›

Luckily, however, all this scary stuff is very easy to avoid. Killing trichinosis in the meat is as simple as cooking to the right temperature. 160 is more than ample temperature to kill all forms of trichinosis that may be living in the muscle tissue.

In Hulu's show, The Bear, they use Inside Top Round to make an Italian beef sandwich. But he claims to have gotten a bone-in variety which required an extra 2-hours of cooking because it needed to be braised.

Spring black bears are almost always excellent to eat. Depending on the region and timing of the season, they often have been feeding only on fresh greens, and haven't gotten into too much fish or carrion. Spring bears usually won't have too much fat since it's been depleted throughout hibernation.

They are closely related to each other and to the polar bear, which is classified as a marine mammal. A brown bear (Ursus arctos) is usually larger than a black bear (Ursus americanus), has a more prominent hump on its shoulder, less prominent ears, and longer, straighter front claws.

Bears eating other bears isn't entirely new—polar bears will eat each other, especially each others' young. But for grizzlies it's much more novel. Though how novel is up for debate. Michel told the CBC that he “knows of four other instances when a grizzly has hunted, killed and eaten a black bear in Banff.”

As omnivores, bears often carry the larvae of a nasty parasite, Trichina spiralis. Eating undercooked bear meat can cause trichinosis, which can cause severe sickness or even death in humans. That's why bear is most often cooked in stews, chilis, braises, or in well-cooked sausage. Skip the medium-rare bear steak.

Another major misconception about bear meat is that you must consume it well-done. As with poultry and fish, this isn't always the case. It does depend on the dish, but I recommend cooking bear meat sous vide style. This pasteurizes the meat but maintains the tenderness of a rare or medium-rare finish.

Trichinellosis, also called trichinosis, is a disease that people can get by eating raw or undercooked meat from animals infected with the microscopic parasite, Trichinella. Persons with trichinellosis may initially experience gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea and vomiting.