My YouTube channel has dozens of bear hunting videos and I get a lot of hate from antis, even death threats. But the thing that disturbs me is the numbers of hunters who feel that it's wrong to kill bears because we shouldn't kill what we don't eat. Where did this pervasive myth come from that you can't eat bears? Are there others here that like bear meat?

Anyway I did a video to try to help people understand that bears are good to eat and if a person's had a bad experience with bear meat, I offer some reasons why that may be the case. Anything you would add to this?

We get the same thing here about sandhill cranes.

The bears we've killed around our place( Backus MN) have tasted great.

I've eaten bear meat and it is fine to eat. Not necessarily the best meat but certainly not as bad as some people think it is.

One of the most important factors in deciding if you like bear meat is how it is prepared. Prepared properly it is delicious. Prepared incorrectly and it tastes bad and can be tough and grisly.

I eat every bear I harvest, either as fresh meat(roasts,chops,ribs), cured meat(hams) or used in sausage, smokies or pepperoni. Taken care of properly it is excellent. The main thing I have found, if you freeze it for long, is all fat must be trimmed as it can develop a very strong flavor. The bear I take are all shot in the fall out of berry patches or apple orchards,no dump bear. We also render the fat for the best pie crusts or boot grease.

We ate the bear I killed in Michigan. For a month before season, I fed it French toast, bacon, sweet rolls, pancakes and anything else I got from the leftovers in the mess hall kitchen at KI Sawyer AFB. That bear meat was delicious!

I've heard bear meat is similar to raccoon meat, which isn't bad. Good, not great. Anybody had both to compare?

Don't care for it but doesn't mean it is bad.

I took a 170lb bear this September, the steaks have been great, salt and pepper and cooked stove top in a cast iron skillet is the only way I cook it

I've only had one but it was really no different than beef except that the meat remained a dark red color even after coming. Only part I didn't like was one steak that was tougher than shoe leather.

I would much rather eat properly processed bear than deer.

Bear is great spring or fall as long as it hasn’t ate fish. The liver is the most delicate tasting of all the game animals . My favorite is a hind quarter that has been corned. Rendered fat is really good too. I give away the hide and keep the meat.

Bear meat is excellent if you take care of it properly,ribs are great might be my favorite.

Biggest things with any wild meat are proper processing (get it cool and clean quick as you can) and don't over cook it.
Bear and coon are good eats. There's worse. Like greasy, rubbery possum for one.

Been hunting and eating our bear since 1983. Never let any animal we harvest go to waste.

I will agree with you except bear should not be done rare, or medium rare from what I am told. I give deer the edge only because a nice pink center is preddy darn good.

We eat all our bear but this year we get and like it a lot. This year no bear for any of us, a first since I have been here......jk

My Wife, our kids and I have eaten several ive taken. My Wife likes it better than Deer now. I tries my Brownie this past spring in Alaska... I ate it with A-1 , Waggler tried it plain....Yeah, Not Good....Hahaha!

I've shot a few around Backus!

Bear is like pork, it needs to be cooked to minimum 160 degrees.

I’ve had both coon and bear, coon is edible ( not the fat ) but not bad if you fix it right. MOST bear meat that I’ve had was good the ribs are excellent!

I thought it tastes better than venison.

I have, over the years taken ten bears; both now and gun. It is like a mix between pork and beef. Every body in my ffsmily loved near far more then venison. Our season opens September first...it's hot! It is important to get them skinned out and cooled down quick. I will hunt them again for the meat...my taxidermist told me I have to many bears! By the way, the fat when rendered, is great for making pasteries

30 black bear later, I prefer Italian sausage, and breakfast sausage.
In my location, spring bears, only. Once they get on salmon, forget it.

I have eaten every bear we have harvested. Have never ran into one that wasn't good eating. If I had the choice of deer or bear I would choose bear meat.

O can't imagine NOT eating black bear ! Yum !

Spring black bear is really good stuff IMO !!

Now see.......if you'd been stationed at FT Rucker, AL or Keesler AFB you would have been feeding that bear okra !!!!!! Can you imagine how bad that would taste ?

Every day of the week !!!!!!

My only chance of me hunting black bear locally, is if I get to hunt in New Jersey or Pennsylvania. Hopefully I’ll get there one day.

I have heard it is good and will eat it when I get the chance.

We have really enjoyed every Black Bear we've gotten. We take very good care of them, packing with ice and cooling them down as quick as possible. When asked I tell folks it's like the best pork I have ever eaten.

Moosetrot

When I eat bear meat on a regular basis I will notice an improvement in my stamina and vigor in the bush.
Spring bear is excellent and easier to process than a fall bear.Fall meat from bears gorging on blueberries is also very good and good for you.
Bear meat is extremely lean-all the fat is on the exterior or between the muscle groups,not marbled within the meat.The fat on a blueberry gorged fall bear has a blue tint.The bile from the gall is also like blue ink.
Fat from a fall bear is in itself a great resource,and valued as medicine by traditional healers.
I like bearmeat in sausage mixed with a bit of ground pork,in a roast,cut cold and carried as trailfood,and bbq in the oven in a sauce-a good recipe for the tougher cuts.Smoked bear ribs are also excellent fare.

No matter how you eat it make sure it is well done.

Black bear is my favorite wild game.
How anyone can equate it to pork is beyond me?

Rendered bear fat is priceless as shortening in pastries.

Some of the best bear I have ever eaten was made into jerky.............on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington

Bear is quite good. I enjoy it every chance I get.

That said, I also enjoy my deerzies ....the way I prepare them, is tasty seasoned just right and tender as can be .

Makes pretty good next day sandwiches too.

depends on what the bear had to eat.in Alaska they get into the salmon, taste like someone sprayed wd-40 on the meat. in pa, man are they good!

Shot one in MN about 10 years ago. It was darn good.

Much better than venison if taken care of. We like it pressure canned.

bears eat so much field corn around here they taste like beef

If anyone would be willing to let go of a small jar of rendered bear fat, I'd love to have some... Good for pie crusts, pastries, and patch lube for my flintlock.

Mike

[quote=BernieB.]My YouTube channel has dozens of bear hunting videos and I get a lot of hate from antis, even death threats. But the thing that disturbs me is the numbers of hunters who feel that it's wrong to kill bears because we shouldn't kill what we don't eat. Where did this pervasive myth come from that you can't eat bears? Are there others here that like bear meat?

I'm not sure if people are naive or hypocritical in their judgment against those who eat the meat they kill themselves. There are other ways of getting meat, and most people who eat meat use these other ways. Every time a person buys beef, chicken, pork, etc. at the store, they themselves are killing an animal by way of paying someone to do it for them. They're using a debit card as a weapon, in place of a bow or gun.

Bear meat is very good to eat.

Never understood why people say black bears don't taste good. We've killed a bunch of them in VA & New Brunswick & they're delicious. Prob. depends on what they've been feeding on, how they were harvested/cleaned, & last but not least - how they're prepared.

There used to be(late seventies) a dump where people took their household trash near a place I liked to hunt. I don't think I ever came across a pile of bear scat within a couple miles of the place that didn't have pamper plastic in it. I've also seen bear feeding on rotted road killed deer.

Maybe they are fine to eat, but I'd have a hard time trying to not think of those images if bear meat was on a plate in front of me.

we eat every bear we have ever shot and every one that ate it thought it was great I believe wild game is all about how its care for and how its cook

bear meat is very good,like boco says it will give you much energy after eating. our ma made bear meat and honey sandwiches for me and my brother to eat be fore wresting matches.the fat when rendered down is whiter than Crisco lard and like said great for bakeing,the oil that is taken off the top when rendering is great for your boots and any ting you want to waterproof,dont use to much though or it will stain your socks I know.. a bear is what he eats,wild bear are great. don't hunt around dumps.

Bear meat is excellent. I like it better then pork. A good bear roast is hard to beat.

.\

Eaten lots of bears from that area in late 60's .
Older boars can get lil "rank" if I remember correctly.
Maybe this is the reason some have bad experiences with the meat.
But like Paul says.
Mine were delicious.
Been a lot of years now for me.

I understood that internal organs from Bear contains toxic levels of vitamin A, and should not be eaten, And all the meat should be cooked well done because of Trichinosis. Is this correct?

I purposely shoot them for meat, being thrilled to death to tag any legal bear I see first. I like bear best as either a nice roast, or made into sausage of various flavors....usually I tend to use a lot of sage like pork breakfast sausage. My Bride used to can them up back when the kids were young, I'd have bear sandwiches from that in my lunch pail back when I had a real job. I have never been a fan of bear steaks unless they were from a very fresh kill, Plain ground bear burger is also good. Like most, I get them cooled ASAP. Why some folks don't like bear became very obvious to me after 30+ years as a full-time taxidermist. So many nimrods would drive them around in the back of their trucks long enough to cause hair-slip on the pelt....you can imagine what the meat may have tasted like when they finally got them butchered!

Polar Bear liver is toxic because of vitamin A. Black Bear liver is gourmet food. Trichinosis is found in bear meat at times, at least Black Bear. Other species....I don't know.

Put a bear hind in a charcoal cooker with 5 uncured hams, took out 8 hours later. every on liked it. Cooling and skinning as soon as possible, very important.

I doubt if that is true about the internal organs of black bears but I can't say for sure. Trichinosis is the reason it should be cooked to at least 160 degrees.

Bear meat is delicious and the roasts are just like beef in my opinion. Ive not tried ribs, usually cut trim that goes into ground, but i bet theyd be awesome. I love hunting bear in the spring, its extremely addictive.

I don’t waste meat. bear meat it great. follow the directions for bear ham on the cabelas website. it will make you come alive. great stuff

\You got a link to that?

In NY they told me people just shot them and left them lay, guys I worked with went up north to hunt bear, the locals shunned them, they said no one hunts bear, they were afraid my fellow employees were hunting their precious deer, very few deer there due to the large coyotes

bernieb : https://www.cabelas.com/category/Recipe-Bear-Ham/567386280.uts

I don’t make mine that big. I use boneless roasts about 3-4 lb roasts

I've only had bear salami and snack stix but it was the best salami and stix I've ever ate

Perfect I am going to try this!

I've had bad bear meat, but it is the exception
most has been very good

have not done bear ribs before, but it is on the menu soon

This bear rib recipe is on my list to try!
http://www.bear-hunting.com/2016/4/hickory-smoked-bear-ribs-recipe-april-21-2016

The best bear for meat is one in the range of 150 to 250 lbs.
I'm hungry for a feed of bearmeat now.

those of you worried about eating bear because of what they eat when they get the opportunity to scavange have obviously never been around free range chickens or pasture raised pigs . I'd rather eat bear meat than chicken breast any day .

I haven’t been hungry enough to try beat meat yet, but Boco’s pot of bear meat does look good.

Lol

Back up? Anyone ever grind the meat for burger to grill or chilli? We got one eating our deer corn and thought in 3weeks if he is still around might let my son try to shoot it.

I have eaten bear meat probly 8 different times,,from bears from 3 different states.I have yet to eat bear meat that I like.Im not saying I spit it out,,just that I don't care for it.And the guys that killed and prepared the bears are guys ive known forever,and know how to properly handle wild game.Might be a taste thing.I also will not eat sheep.Smells rotten while its cooking to me.Thats why I have never had the desire to shoot one,Plenty of opportunities,,but just don't care to.

What has the bear been eating? If it ate good feed it will taste good (apples, berries, sunflowers, corn, etc) if it eats carrion rotten fish or garbage bait snot guess what? tastes like poo... add poor handling poo poo… My first bear a 7ft tastes great he ate blackberries, apple and pears... good in good out!

I try to have it every year. Mostly make country sausage, Italian sausage, and bratwurst. Yum.

Likes been mentioned earlier, if it ate right and u get it skinned and cooled down asap after harvesting it it will b great! Shot my first one(230#) 7 yrs ago and had a seasoned veteran help me get it out of woods and he asked me if I was gonna eat it or just get it mounted. I told him we're gonna eat it, day was not cold so when getting to camp got buckets of cold creek water and cooled down and skinned asap. Best bear ever ate!!

It makes great burger. We didn't add any fat or anything when we ground it. It's very lean and won't make a proper burger pattie but works great for anything you'd put ground beef in....chili, spaghetti etc

Try adding some bacon and breakfast sausage seasoning to it. Amazing stuff and it holds together for making patties really well.

As a kid my Dad would go to Canada and hunt bears in the spring over baits they brought up all sorts of stuff rotten to pastries and I can tell you that meat was not good had a funk and greasy. Probably the reason I never really wanted to hunt them if I can't eat it and enjoy it. But I came out here to Oregon and my first year my roommate shot a bear and changed my mind, it was good ate apples even finished w/ honey from his bee hive ouch! He had a small fortune in that thing and boo boo smashed it and devoured the works. I shot some pheasants one time late season the farmer had been spreading manure in the snow next to a slough he gave my friend and me permission bam bam ba bam... 4 birds pretty quick! gottem home peeled them open ewwww smelled like manure.... nope not doing it

Black bear Is our favorite meat. And we raise Beef.

I eat Iowa beef when I want burger on grill . But it sounds good.

Put your bear meat in a pressure cooker. It comes out like roast. Start by taking a 3lb chunk of meat. Place it in the pressure cooker. Add two cups of water and all the flooring's you want. Cook under pressure for 20 minutes. Release steam and add mushrooms, potato quarters, carrots and any other veggie you want. Cook under pressure another 15 minutes. Eat right away or leave it on the keep warm setting till whenever your ready to eat. Bear meat will absorb all the wonderful flavors. It's so delicious you will want to hunt bear every year. I have had many friends try bear meat this way and they all loved it. They cannot believe it was really bear. If it tastes bad it is because it was allowed to spoil due to improper handling prior to processing.

I hunted with a guy in Saskatchewan one year who used a slurry of fish and other stuff that smelled really sour and rotten. The bear I shot there was totally inedible. He told people that bear meat was bad and he didn't understand how anyone could eat it. I said no wonder you ruined it before the bear ever died. I never went back there.

I bait with pastries and trail mix and believe me the bear meat is fantastic. I've also had great bear meat from bears shot when hunting with outfitters who bait with grain. Corn or oats, I can't tell the difference both were great.

We like it but clean the animal well when gutted and rinse with water and cool it off quickly as possible. It seem l8e the bear fat melts at low temperature and can go rancid possibly and taint the meat. Just my opinion maybe someone with more knowledge could chime in.

I never had bear. but looking for a time I will be able to.I did in the past one guy I know got one and had me skin it for him and all said he would give me some meat but never did. I just look to find out as much as I can about it that way if I ever do get one I will know what to do.

Black bear is my favorite wild game. I'm the only one who eats dear in our family, but the all loved bear. It's all about how you handle them. Here the season opens 9/1, so you have to get them skinned out asap and cooked down. I suspect those who don't like it's are best handled poorly

Pressure canning or grinding is the two methods I use.

If you watch the video it will answer those questions.

Here you skin a bear twice; once to get the hide off and once to get the fat off. The far renders down to make excellent lard for baking

First let me say, I don't have a problem with anybody hunting bear. But, I don't like bear meat. Every time I've tried it the flavor was strong, almost like eating burnt liver. When I've told that to several people who hunt and eat bear, they have tried to convince me if I tried theirs, I would love it. Several times from these same people, I tried some. It always tasted the same, strong and like under-cooked liver.

Thanks, that's what I was wondering. I wonder if you add beef fat if it would patty better?

Bear meat is great . We grind alot of our venison but only grind the scraps on Bear . To good to mix and grind with other stuff . We raise beef but bear doesn't take a back seat to it . Like what others have said take care of it properly

I should add that fall bears here that have been eating spawning salmon are, to me, inedible. Great trapping bait, but not for my palate, at all.

See if you can get a grocery story that will give you some ribeye trimmings. YUM!