You Bear State bear hunters

[AcornHunter]

or any other bear hunters anywhere, have you ever eaten any bear meat?  I've always wanted to try it, preferably a young, tender one, but there are no bears in our part of the state.

I'm guessing that it would taste along the line of coon.  Anybody out there who harvests from the Great Outdoors who doesn't have to guess, who knows?

[Hogfan46]

I have once. A whole ham from a fairly young bear. Packed with dry rub and on the smoker for about 12 hours. It was awesome.

[HuntnHog]

The only bear meat I've had was some breakfast sausage a buddy of mine had made out of one that he killed.  It was really good.

[kodiakisland]

The meat is darker than most red meat.  Like many wild animals, taste can be very good to pretty bad, depending on time of year and diet.  Bear meat needs to be fully cooked which can make it tough.  It's best used ground up or slow cooked.

If you are into rendering fat, black bear fat is the best there is.

[lumphog]

A buddy of mine was given some killed in NWA & we cut it into chunks like stew meat & cooked it in a crockpot with taters & carrots. It was deeeelicious.