Bear meat, butchering, processing, etc.

[chrislibby88]

What are you guys doing with your bears? Are you doing your own butchering? If so what cuts? Are you using a processor? If so who do you use, and what are you having done?

I butchered my own last year, mainly because they were my first two bears and I wanted to get a feel for how they are put together, and I wanted to get my hands on some fat. I’m not local to north GA, and it just seems like a pain finding a processor that takes bears, especially later in the season when they are full of deer.

I did mostly larger cuts for slow cooking- boneless roasts from the hams, bone in shanks, whole shoulders, ribs, and stew meat from the trimming and neck meat. Also saved the femurs, sawed them into short segments to roast and make bone broth- they are still in the freezer. Saved all the fat, and got a ton of rendered fat.

Let’s hear what y’all do.

 

[WOODIE13]

I took the backstrap cuts, canned @ 18 quarts, a few roasts, then ground the rest.

Also rendered a good bit of fat all on my own

 

[NCHillbilly]

About like any other game animal- Separate the muscle groups, then cut into a mixture of steaks, roasts, ground, and stirfry meat. And of course, the fat. I don't do stew. Bear steaks and medallions from the backstraps and tender muscles in the hams are great. Also, the whole shoulders or bone-in roasts make great smoked bbq. One thing I have always wanted to try but have never done is cured bear bacon.

When I was growing up, a lot of folks cured whole bear hams and shoulders in the smokehouse right alongside the pork.

 

[WOODIE13]

A buddy showed me a trick to hanging them by cutting down between the back legs to the pelvic bone, there's a hole in the bone that you run a rope though to hoist it. Pretty slick

 

[splatek]

I only process my own anything. Never used a processor.

 

[ddd-shooter]

About like any other game animal- Separate the muscle groups, then cut into a mixture of steaks, roasts, ground, and stirfry meat. And of course, the fat. I don't do stew. Bear steaks and medallions from the backstraps and tender muscles in the hams are great. Also, the whole shoulders or bone-in roasts make great smoked bbq.

Same^
Everything is vacuum sealed, just like deer or beef.
I will use my small chunks or medallions for stew. I can't stand someone else touching my game. I work too hard to let some one else determine whether it's well prepared for me.
Bear sloppy Joes are good, meatloaf, chili, sausage, steaks, pot roast, and my personal favorite, bear b que.

 

[NCHillbilly]

I only process my own anything. Never used a processor.

Amen. I want it done the way I want it. Plus, just the principle. I didn't pay somebody else to kill my critter, so why pay somebody else to clean it for me. Processing meat is as much a part of hunting as the killing to me.

 

[WOODIE13]

Pass it on too

 

[splatek]

I only process my own anything. Never used a processor. I like doing it. With my bears from last year I did a few whole quarters, some roast/steak cuts

Amen. I want it done the way I want it. Plus, just the principle. I didn't pay somebody else to kill my critter, so why pay somebody else to clean it for me. Processing meat is as much a part of hunting as the killing to me.

yessir.
I usually quarter in field then break down at home. Usually have an audience of at least my woman and kids occasionally neighbors. They are so curious
one time I felt lazy called Lauren and said I’ll be late, I’m driving to a processor. She asked me “why do you even hunt?”
I turned and went home. Long night processing but she was right. Never looked back. (You know, never in all my three years of hunting, bahaha)
I really just want to know one knife or one persons knife, mine, touched the meat.

 

[Swampdogg]

Quarter at kill site , break down at home further

cast ironed the tenders ,backstrap ,
tongue and heart into tacos
rendered all fat, demolished the cracklin instantly
pressure cooked and canned the rest.

this year I’ll hopefully make some sausage and ground

 

[KentuckyHeadhunter]

Tongue and heart sounds good. Do y'all eat the liver on a bear?

 

[chrislibby88]

Tongue and heart sounds good. Do y'all eat the liver on a bear?

I left the tongue, didn’t consider getting the heart, since I really only cook deer hearts rare, and don’t care for them well done, but may try the next one if it doesn’t have a hole in it. I don’t really eat much liver either.

 

[ddd-shooter]

Tongue and heart sounds good. Do y'all eat the liver on a bear?

The only wild game organ I eat is deer heart.

 

[splatek]

I’ll eat it all
The bear heart is like any other cut, best some low and slow, not rare like Chris said. still good but not “hearty “ in my opinion. I eat livers dredged and fried. Not my favorite but healthy

 

[Swampdogg]

Tongue and heart sounds good. Do y'all eat the liver on a bear?

That is blood track training supplies for the dog

 

[Swampdogg]

You can dehydrate , grind and put in capsules for the best vitamins around with the liver as well

 

[Whit90]

Great topic. I am still in need of my first bear, but I will be doing it all myself. Just like anything I kill.

Can’t wait to get one. And I especially cant wait to cook with bear meat and fat.
Great butchering and cooking tips. Following along for more!

 

[chrislibby88]

If you are rendering your own oil make sure you trim as much meat off as possible. I wasn’t super diligent with trimming, and wound up with a crispy meat smell to my oil, it tastes fine, and isn’t an issue when cooking meat in the oil, but makes it slightly less appealing for baking and stuff. Doesn’t bother me, but my wife isn’t crazy about it.

 

[WOODIE13]

Going to try my hand at making some bear pelmeni with some of the ground bear soon, looks pretty good.

On the bear fat, grind it once it's trimmed, you get more rendered down.

 

[chrislibby88]

Going to try my hand at making some bear pelmeni with some of the ground bear soon, looks pretty good.

On the bear fat, grind it once it's trimmed, you get more rendered down.

I didn’t do this, I just cut it into thin strips hoping it would curl up into crispy cracklins. It sorta worked, but the inside of the cracklins still held a lot of oil.

 

[Killer Kyle]

I process all of my own deer, hogs, and bears.
I grind the majority. I chunk a good bit for stew. That's pretty much it.
I make ground for every day use and ground for burgers. In the ground for burgers I mix in a small percentage of the cheapest bacon I can find to make them bacon burgers. That's my favorite way to use bear meat really.
Different folks do things different ways, but I always grind twice. That goes for venison too. I just like the texture that way.

I will say that I had a roast earlier this year made by an old member here named Coastie. I had it at a lunch gathering and it was so unbelievably good that there were no leftovers left. Literally. We all ate that thing till it was gone. It was shockingly good. He and his wife have perfected that recipe over the years and I mean it was absolutely killer. One of the best roasts I have ever had of any animal period. If I get the recipe I'll slap it up here. I will definitely be doing some roasts with mine going forward.