WhatsForDinner?: Bear Steak!

To some, the thought of eating bear meat is probably less than appetizing. However, as one who loves deer meat- which until now was the only wild game I've tried, I was quite excited for the new experience. The bear was killed and butchered by a dear friend of the Pollinator's grandfather, who gave us a pack of steaks (perhaps they're called "chops" instead) and gave a roast to the Pollinator's parents.

Ours sat in their package in the freezer for quite some time, especially after hearing about the in-laws terrible experience with it. They took their roast with them on a trip to a cabin in the mountain- what could be better than bear roast by the stream, so they thought. They cooked it all day and said it smelled wonderful! When dinner time rolled around they ate a bite and said it was so tough and terrible tasting that they had to spit it out! After masking the flavor in onions, celery, and cream of mushroom soup, they made it edible. Needless to say, I was terrified to try cooking it without a little of my favorite thing- RESEARCH!!

I surfed through a few pages of archived forum bear-meat talk and once I got past a lot of  nay-sayers ("the best way to eat bear meat-don't" FALSE) I found these very useful tips!

• No matter the cut, bear meat is dark, and will never obtain a "light" pink middle when done. 
• Cook all the blood out of it. 
• Cook it med-low and slow so it isn't tough.
• Make sure that it cooks at 160°F for 3 minutes. Then pull it or you'll end up with jerky.
• Never cook your bear meat less than done. They are common carriers of Trichinella spiralis, a possibly fatal parasitic disease that you get from eating undercooked meat of some wild game. (Thats why 160°F is so important!)
• Remove as much fat and sinew as possible- this is usually what would give it a funky or terrible taste. 

Most of the recipes I found called for the meat to be baked, while lots of others called for slow cookers.  That is two the three hours that I just did not have (as it was almost dinner time and I already had my veggies on the stove!) Finally I found a few suggestions for cooking stove top and this is what I did.

1. Remove all the fat and sinew from the meat. I had cubed steaks that were pretty well marbled so I ended up with little medallions instead of steak.
2. Put about 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in your pan on low heat. Sprinkle heavily with fresh ground pepper. (We like pepper in my house.)
3. Add your meat to the pan and turn the heat up to med-low or med. You don't want to toss the meat into oil that is already very hot- my first batch of meat was very chewy on one side.
4. Flip it a few times while cooking, being sure to poke a hole or two, checking for blood. 
5. When it seems the blood is cooking out, use a meat thermometer and when it reaches 160°F cook it for a few more minutes, and pull it quick. 

Its that simple! After hearing about how terrible it would be we were so pleasantly shocked to discover that it was MELT IN YOUR MOUTH good! And it smelled so much better to my pregnant nose than deer meat.  I'm not sure what cut of meat we actually got, but it was the best. Too bad I don't know for next time! 

(Forgive my smudgy presentation. I'm not the best foodie, yet!)

Here is our finished product. I served our lovely bear medallions with steamed baby mustard greens, beets fried in a little olive oil, and mashed turnips and potatoes. Then there on my favorite super foods, Cayenne peppers, on the side! 


Ever tried bear meat? Share your favorite wild game recipes in a comment below!