doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT: Had bear for 1st time the other night.

Barbecued black bear brisket was on the menu at a little game dinner the wife & I attended on Saturday. The other game food options that night were elk, goose, pheasant, duck, and Minnesota walleye (which was our contribution). While I had some mild reservations about eating an omnivorous scavenger, I certainly tried it. This was reportedly not a "garbage bear" in any way (killed far-away from any humanity) and was fairly small (about 250lbs.)

I then went back for seconds (& I believe 3rds). I even tried what they were calling bear "chitlins" as appetizers (I believe they meant "cracklins" if I remember my Appalachian upbringing correctly) which... after some discussions about what chitlens really are (intestines), they then called them "chicharrones" which is a bit-more accurate. Most folks here would know them as "pork rinds". Dessert was a pretty-fair Banana's Foster made with a locally distilled rum (on hand to try as a drink as well) and I had a very good time, but...I fear that I was a bit frightful the next day (which is no fault of the bear).

Another interesting dish we tried was roasted elk shanks, which was shockingly-good as well (elk shanks are normally on my last-thing to do list when I'm processing an animal, need to re-evaluate that one).

I'm likely going to negotiate a swap for some of the rendered bear lard/oil for use with my coming (bespoke) Pennsylvania long rifle. I also hear that bear lard makes for some pretty tasty pie crusts?

Lloyd, I think you got the part about omnivorous scavenger right when it comes to black bear. Many of them do fatten up by visiting garbage dumps, etc., and I think that must affect the taste of the meat. I've eaten some bear that was tough, stringy, and not very tasty. But one of the absolute most delicious pieces of meat I've ever eaten was tenderloin from a small sow taken in big woods near Kinzua Dam.

I've noticed that diet definitely affects other game too. I concentrate my deer hunting to areas that are within a mile or so of corn and white oak acorns. The deer will browse on dozens of other foods, but they will eat a lot of those deer magnets when they are available, and it makes a big difference in the taste of the meat. The last thing I do after gutting is to make a quick slice on the forward stomach to see what they've been eating.

My now deceased m/l mentor was also a machinist/tool and die maker. He told me more than once that lard oil is the finest cutting oil known to man. Said he once was with Hacker Martin, in Hacker's shop in Gray, TN, watching him bore a m/l barrel with a brace and bit. He said he hit a spot where the bit stopped cutting as well as he wanted it to, and Hacker stopped, got some lard oil, put it down bore, and resumed boring.

SRH

That's interesting Stan. When I was plumbing the gas lines in my house, I was having trouble getting clean threads on the 3/4" and 1" black pipe. I tried using some old 1950's-60's vintage Ridgid Sulfur Lard cutting oil that came out of my grandfather's garage, and the same threading dies cut perfect smooth-as-glass threads on the same pipe.

Lard was used as a muzzleloader patch lubricant until petroleum lubes became cheap after Drake struck oil in 1856. And that is when shooters began having a lot more problems with corrosion causing rusting and pitting of bores. I now use the Thompson Center Natural Lube, and no longer have any problems with after rust.

I had it several times as a kid. It was always greasy, and tasted like it. I just crossed it off my list. I am pretty certain it was the only game meat I ever found objectionable.

I had black bear for the first time about three years ago and it was about as fine a meat as I have ever eaten. Beautiful almost sweet flavor and quite a lot more tender than I was expecting, and not greasy at all. Must have been a yearling but I'll never know... it was given to me by a local hunter who dropped into deer camp one night just to socialize and have a sip.

Lard Oil is a pretty good cutting oil, it does have to be kept fresh as it will turn rancid in a rather short time. "Best" thing I ever used for difficult cutting in over 35 years as a machinist has been "Illegal" since about the time I started my apprenticeship in 1964. Several of the "Old Timers" in the shop had supplies of it & when someone encountered a really tough situation they would bring it out. That was "Red Lead", which is not a liquid but more of a soft paste. It was way ahead of Lard Oil. "IF" Hacker Martin had some of it that bit would have gone through the barrel like a warm knife through butter.

What was in Red Lead, Miller?

SRH

[quote=Lloyd3

I'm likely going to negotiate a swap for some of the rendered bear lard/oil for use with my coming (bespoke) Pennsylvania long rifle. I also hear that bear lard makes for some pretty tasty pie crusts? [/quote]

I was once told by some Ontario friends that rendered bear lard is excellent for all types of pastry but we never tried it for pastry making. I can tell you that bear lard makes the absolute best fried potatoes I've ever had.

Brittany Man: I think I just mentally upped my offer of more birds (pheasants in this case) for more lard.

Does anybody here have a sense of the shelf-life and storage needs of such a substance?

Here's an article that might help you out, Lloyd.

http://www.bear-hunting.com/2014/5/bear-grease-101

SRH

I only shoot what I'm going to eat and for a long time I just put aside the idea of black bear hunting because I had never tasted it. This past September at my clubs cookout one of the members brought some bear he had taken in Canada. Just grilled, tasted great. So maybe it's on the bucket list now.

I have been told that spring bear do not taste very good having lived off their own fat all winter. Fall bear is better having fattened up on nuts, berries and whatever else. I have also been told to only eat bear taken far from humanity or any garbage dump. This was told to me by a buddy that was once posted at a dump by a guide. He witnessed bears feasting on used Pampers....

Did it taste like chicken ?

I believe true red lead is a insoluble oxide of lead. We used Red Lead paint by the buckets back in the day when I worked in the process heater business. Poison of course.

Red lead was a combination of two lead oxides. As Miller stated, it was used in machine shops as a cutting or dead center lube, and it was also used in thread sealants and as a pigment in paint and primers. Red lead was also used to mark steel before blue marking dyes were available. White lead was another form of lead also used as a paint pigment, and both were sometimes used in early engines as gasket sealants with soft copper head gaskets.

It is true that lard based cutting lubes will turn rancid in a short time, especially in warm weather. But they still use them today, and add a biocide to keep bacteria from growing in them. It doesn't always work so well, and the smell of rancid animal fat based soluble oil is pretty nasty. It soaks into your skin and is hard to wash the smell off. It also has the bad property of turning the insulation on electrical wiring on CNC machine equipment very brittle, which is why I learned to hate it... along with the disgusting smell. Sulphur alone is a good cutting lubricant, and it has anti-bacterial properties which is a reason it was mixed with lard to make sulphur-lard cutting oil.

None of this tastes anything like bear meat, but it is relevant for Lloyd who is considering using lard for flintlock patch lube. I think I will stick with my Thompson Center Natural Lube 1000 Bore Butter. It works great, and has a pleasing anise oil smell that doesn't seem to spook deer or other animals. Now, I'll bet fresh eggs or walleye fried in fresh bear lard would be interesting occasionally, although not so heart-healthy.

We used lard oil for our industrial polishing oil and never found a better product. When it is sold as a machining oil it tends to be expensive. But the oil industry uses it as an additive to their products and it is much cheaper when bought for the petro industry. I find that if you polish the inside of a barrel using it mirror finish comes easy. No cross hatch marks or light groves just shine.

bill

Doesn't most lard oil, today, come from hogs?

SRH

Stan;
As far as I know lard oil has always come from "Hogs". When another oil or grease was used it was generally specified, as Bear Grease or Sperm oil etc.

I can tell you that whenever we shot a bear, we had specific directions from my grandmother that she wanted the fat to render into lard for all her pastry making. She said it was the absolute best for that. She got her wish, cause we knew there would be pies, cookies and donuts forthcoming!

We often times made sausage out of the bear meat, but did corn some bear brisket as an experiment and it was excellent! From then on when we got a bear we'd make some corned bear brisket along with the sausage.

Everything in TenEEseee tastes like chicKen donUt???

George Herter of catalog fame said that bear lard was the best for baking pastry.

I've had bear three times, the first time was a little one that was roasted whole on a spit and it was great tasting.

I shot one with my longbow in '95 in the boondocks of Northern Wisconsin. I had to force it down and will never kill another one. Still have a jar of the lard in the basement fridge and use it for patch lube in my front-stuffers.

The third time last winter at a game feed and it was a bad as the one I killed. I'm done with eating bear.

I ate locally killed bear sausage once. I won't do that again...Geo

You have to wonder why some are good and some are awful? I had certainly heard many-more of the horror stories before I tried this one. I'd have to think that it's what they were eating and possibly how they might have been handled, both pre and post-mortem. I'm also guessing age might be a factor? I know for a fact that some elk eat better than others, and probably for similar reasons.

I have had bear that was taken in MN and grilled several times and enjoyed it. I shot a big boar last Spring in AK and was very careful with the meat. The best thing I can say about the one I shot is my dogs love it.

A friend shot a record B&C book black bear many years ago. It wasn�t bad tasting. When I got tired of chewing, I spit it out.

Bear is like a lot of game in that their diet made a lot of difference how they taste. Had the same experience with Brant years ago. If they were coming from the ocean side they were decent fare but if they had been feeding in the bay they were so vile even they dog would not come near one. They reeked of rotting sea cabbage. Only shot them a few times before deciding not to risk it and having game no one could stand.

Had a blind on a small pond one year when early rains caused about three acres of soybeans to be flooded before harvest. What a great year we had out of that blind. Every duck was prime with a layer of fat 3/8"-1/2" thick. We released 30 ducks raised by the state and in a week had 100+ living on our pond. You could take a limit anytime of the day but we only shot it three times a week. Had those tasty birds there all year long.

We see the same difference in taste and quality in pretty much any meat we consume. I worked with a guy during college who also raised high quality beef for very high priced New York City restaurants. The ribeye steaks he brought to work to cook for us were out of this world. He told us how he raised his ultra-prime beef. He was raising Red Angus cattle, and at 6 months, they were penned so they had minimal exercise. He said he initially fed them all the corn they would eat, but he gradually switched to barley before slaughtering. He claimed that the method of slaughter was very important, and he said he fed them several bottles of beer so they would be very relaxed when he killed them. He was adamant that they should never be in any way alarmed or distressed because adrenaline would affect the taste and tenderness of the meat. Then he went on about properly bleeding, butchering, and aging for the best quality.

It makes sense then, that our game will probably taste better if we hunt where the feed quality is best, and if we make a clean quick kill on an un-alarmed animal. It isn't often that we get the perfect day and night-time temperatures where I can hang and age my deer for a week without either spoiling or freezing solid. But I think it makes a difference when I can. When someone tells you that the steak they are about to serve came from an animal that was gut shot and tracked for a mile before finishing, don't expect a great tasting piece of meat. There are too many variables to make a blanket judgement about the taste of any game animal based upon one or two tastings. The final quality starts before you pull the trigger.

You hear all kinds of reasons for the taste to be off / unpleasant in game animals and I agree that proper care and handling of the critter is important. Also the fact that the animal is not stressed pretty much goes along with proper handling.

I happen to like the taste of Pronghorn Antelope, think it's some of the best tasting game out there. Lots of folks don't. When you see a herd of pronghorns being chased from one ridge to another in 80 degree weather before they are shot,then carted around in the back of a pickup for a couple of hours, you can bet they are going to be pretty foul tasting.

The bear I killed, walked off about 30 yards and died after a pass-thru with a sharp broadhead. He was field dressed, then skinned and in a cooler within an hour of death. Still could hardly choke it down.

Does sex of the bear affect the taste?

I had a friend in AK who was extolling the virtues of grizzly bear meat. He did add the caveat that only the bears that had been fattening up on berries were good, those that had been feeding on salmon were inedible.

I'm confused...should you kill the bear just after it had sex or before?

funny...

I had black bear, Virginia black bear, a bunch of years ago. It was pressure cooked and I thought it was tasty.

That said the person that cooked it complained about how bad it smelled.

Don't know about the "before or after sex" thing, but the rendering instructions I found online mentioned that if you were single you could possibly do it inside, but if you had a significant other you should consider doing it somewhere outside because the smell could be "significant" and linger for a spell.

No Steve, you are supposed to have sex With the bear before killing it.

Is it absolutely necessary that you kill the bear afterwards ?
Couldn't you just make it promise not to tell anyone ?

You would have to pay her $130,000, and even then she might go to the papers.