My bro-in-law went bear hunting in AK last year, and brought back a bunch of bear meat. Since he knows I do a lot of smoking he asked if you could smoke bear meat, to which I replied "you can smoke anything!"
Since I've never done it, I wanted to ask and see if anyone else has any tips, and what you did when smoking yours (if you have).
I smoked a couple of bear roasts for a friend. Did them like a brisket. He was extremely happy with the results. Tender and juicy. (A little too gamey for my taste.) I used a rub I would use on beef that is mainly salt and pepper with a little garlic powder and a few other spices.
Yes you can smoke it. Low and slow since it will be greasy and you need to render some of that fat. Minimum meat temperature should be around 190 to make sure the worms (Trichinosis) are dead. If you have large pieces cut them up into smaller pieces about 3 lbs each. If you have a large amount of fat, trim it down to about a 1/4â€. Some will say that if it is a young bear you don’t need to marinade it but do so anyway. I’m sure you can find a marinade listed somewhere on the web that you will like. I use to use buttermilk and salt but any marinade will do. Bear meat take rubs really well. I also don’t recommend a hot and fast bear steak; talk about something that will be tough and greasy.☹ï¸
Before my avocation was bear photography it was bear hunting.
I read somewhere that bear meat has the worst trichinosis of any animal now, so do cook to very well done as mentioned above. That stuff can kill you and there is no cure once infected.
scottdware
I did some searching on YouTube and there seems to be a few worth while videos there. One clear recommendation I noticed was cooking it to 200F for safety reasons. Seems like there is a parasite that can be easily eliminated with heat, so it’s safe to eat once pasteurized so to speak. Some recipes look pretty good. Of course, most of the videos aren’t worth leaning on, but there are several worth checking out.
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