Grilling Bear Steaks?

[genesis273]

I know a lot of you guys hunt bear, some do not care for the taste, some do. This is for the ones who do.
My question is, how is the best way to grill bear steaks?
I have a friend who`s daughter shot a small black bear this year and she wants me to grill some steaks. Simply because I can grill some mean venison steaks that will melt in your mouth. However, I know bear meat is different. Do I need to keep it rare like venison, or cook it longer? I have heard that you need to trim off as much fat as possible...is that true?
I don`t want to dissapoint her, so any great recipes will be appreciated!

 

[belly-deep]

Cook it rare and you might end up with trichinosis.

You better play it safe and cook it good and with a meat thermometer.

 

[konasage]

True, I saw just the other day that 90%+ of tric. are caused from undercooked bear meat. I was thinking simmer them in crushed tomatoes and garlic until they fall apart. ??? Let me know!

 

[----]

Unless you've had the bear confirmed to be trich-free, you need to cook it through.
Grilling steaks all the way through makes for a pretty tough steak in my opinion, so I don't bother with it.

If I were going to do it again, I'd beat the crap out of it with a tenderizer first and probably marinate it.

 

[DavidKeenan]

I agree with all the comments above. I usually do mine the same way as I do venison. This year the only steaks i had cut was the loin. I just had roasts,burger and a little sausage made. some bear meat had more fat than others so you'll need to know how much sauce to add depending on the taste you want. As for mine i'm glad I had it cut the way ii did. As it was very fat but the meat is much drier than normal. I like a little sauce on the burgers so when Its fry this works out best for me.

Here's a recipe for the burger if you want to try.

1 packet dried onion soup
a little bit of diced onion dried or fresh
sprinkle of garlic powder
sprinkle of steak seasoning of choice
season salt
touch of dried hot peppers of choice
Black pepper

mix the ingredients in burger fry on the forman.

I dont measure ingredients just add to taste.


Steak; use your favorite sauce and cook till done.

Roasts: Boil for about 30 min on high heat. Put in crock pot along with new water, add veggies to taste. I usually throw in a beef buion cube. and cook very low all day. MMMMMMMMMMM

let me add to.. Meatloaf; I do mine the same way I do my burger but add ketchup and a few crackers to help hold it together. As for the crackers very few as the meat is much drier than beef.

 

[ringer]

We ate a lot of bear and lion on an Idaho hunt a few years ago. Marinated strips in italian dressing then grilled it and it was pretty good. The lion was awesome, the bear was OK. Could tenderize the crap out of it and make chicken fried steak and gravy.

 

[StrutNut]

Cut it really thin and marinate in Italian dressing. If you have Stubs Marinade, the stuff is great. Think bite sized pieces. That way you can cook it through without it getting to tough. Bear burger is great. We made a lot of ours into bear brats.

 

[genesis273]

Thanks for the tips. I didn`t realize it was best to cook until completely done due to trichinosis. If anyone else has any ideas or tips, I would appreciate it.

The young lady (15yo) wanted to kill a bear and she don`t want to kill something just to kill it, so now we have to figure out how to eat this thing! I do know that I`m going to wrap it in bacon! Can never go wrong with wrapping anything in bacon!

 

[SDHNTR]

I've had bear done several ways... Some good, some not so much.

The best were a corned roast chunked up in a pot pie, jalepeno cheese sausage and a spicy summer sausage.

 

[greatbasin]

Backstraps make good steaks, so that's what I do with them.

I do the rumps into roasts, either hams or corned.

I also make lots of Jerky and if you ad back a small percentage of beef fat (I do 4%) the ground meat make burgers that are just like beef.

 

[camo308]

Bear meat can be really good, I've never had any that didn't taste good. The fat is not like antelope, deer or elk. The fat melts at a low temp and doesn't seem to cause a "gamey" taste that some find objectional. BUT ALWAYS COOK IT WELL DONE! DO NOT MAKE BEAR JERKY UNLESS IT IS COOKED COMPLETELY!. Just brining the meat and making jerky doesn't make it safe. And freezing it may not work either depending on where the bear lived. If you want chunks of steak in something make chili or stew. Most of the bear that I have taken or eaten is pretty tender too. It's great in a crock pot with some onion soup. Just don't eat it rare or medium rare, get that temp up to 170 degrees before you eat it. I wouldn't microwave it to cook it the first time either too much chance for undercooked spots.

 

[dan.kirkpatrick]

I usually trim all fat and debone asap once im butchering it,,,I usually grind all into hamburger as bear steaks are somewhat blah tasting,,,kinda like red looking pork chops but cook fully,,,I have also found that if bear fat is left on too much that after a few months it will gain a gamey taste when froze,,,keep it lean and vac packed and it will be fine for a long time.

 

[pseshooter300]

If you cook it past 150 deg you should be ok but cook it till its done all the way through

 

[mconway951]

I use the mccormick seasoning marinades choose the flavor you think you will like and wrap in bacon and grill on low temp until cooked all the way through turns out great no beatin the meat required

 

[genesis273]

Final Outcome:
I took all of the recommendations I read on this thread and went for it. After eating venison and other wild meat exclusively for over 20 years I was suprised at the amount of fat that was on the steaks. I marinaded the steaks over night. Had the young lady who shot the bear and her family come over. I did notice that these steaks smelled delicious and were beautiful on the grill. We sat down and cautiously stuck our forks in it, not knowing what this was going to taste like , or how bad it was going to be and even talked about ordering pizza is all goes wrong.
All I can say is that this was the best wild game I have ever tasted! I don`t know why, after hearing so many horror stories, but it melted in my mouth and had the best flavor!

This is how I cooked it:
Marinade overnight in Moore`s Marinade
Wrapped just one strip of bacon on each.
While on the grill, sprinkle Tony Chachere`s Original Creole Seasoning all over.
Cook to 160 degrees

This will be a favorite of mine! And thanks for the tips!

 

[greatbasin]

Congrats genesis! That's how the outcome is every time I cook bear for my family, and I have a wife who really doesn't care for venison because she feels it's too gamey.

My brother and his wife come in from out of state last year and we served bear hamburgers with all the fixin's and if I didn't tell them, they would have never know it wasn't beef.

Even better is, when my daughter told them dinner was the bear she shot...they weren't mad

 

[Gunner46]

The Meat Loaf, or Pot Roast recipes, will serve you well. Low, Slow, & Done ! I did a Lasagne dish once that turned out damn awesome. Used ground Linguica Sausage and it added the right touch. Here's a link to the basic recipe. Takes some time to prep and bake, plan ahead.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/worlds-best-lasagna/