Smoked bear?

[Roger]

Anyone smoked bear before? We kept the meat from all but one of our Idaho bears. Thought I"d try smoking a front quarter. Going to treat it similar to a pork butt and see what happens. I'll wrap it at 160 and finish to 195. That will make sure no one ends up with any pesky worm larva boring through their muscle tissue. Any recommended changes to this regime?

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[S-3 Ranch]

Keep it on indirect heat, mine caught on fire from grease Running down to the fire box

[speck1]

We did some of ours the same way. Cook it like pork. Came out really good. We learned it has a lot to do with the bears diet. Berry bears pretty good to eat. Fish bears not so much. Good luck.

[Killer]

Taste like Pig

[coonazz]

I've cured and smoked a bear ham before. It was great!

[McClain]

Have not done what you are doing, but best jerky I’ve ever had was smoked bear jerky.

[Roger]

Thanks for the input. Seems to be going pretty well. I'm actually surprised at how little grease is cooking out so far. I'll keep a close eye on it. Don't need a grease fire on the smoker.

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[Hillwhacker]

How was the final product?

[drs]

Well no pics

[AntlerCollector]

I hope he didn’t choke to death on it.

[Johnny Dangerr]

Well??

I am thinking dog food.................

[PYBUCK]

Lost me at "worm larva". No thanks

Buzzard got to eat too

[muzzlebrake]

Bear meat is pretty good. Tastes just like Rottweiler.

[Roger]

Been busy with family events, but here is the update. When it hit 160, I decided not to wrap it as it had started pouring out grease. It stalled pretty bad at 167, but finally took off. I let it get to 185, then removed it as it looked like I was burning it up. Rested for two hours then in the fridge. "Pulled" it Sat. am to take to a family lunch. It was pretty tough and was actually too dried out. Some muscle groups pulled well, but much of it was too tough. I cut off chunks with a knife and chopped it in a food chopper. Lessons learned: 1. Go ahead and wrap it at 160. 2. With the wrap to protect it, take it all the way to 195-200 to break down fibers more. I think the end product would have been much better that way. That said, it tasted great! No one there had ever eaten bear. Everyone raved about how good it was and took home portions of what wasn't eaten. I had none left to bring home, so I guess that's a stamp of approval. Will probably do it again with another front quarter at some point. I was short on time and failed miserably in the "take pics when done and pulled" department.

Oh yeah, it was dog food also. My outside labs devoured that picked off leg bone. Bones and all! Turns out they love bear!

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[Roger]

Lost me at "worm larva". No thanks

Buzzard got to eat too

Come on Dean. I thought you west TX boys were built sturdier than a few intestinal beasties! [emoji1787]

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