Quote:
Originally posted by fastpat
I shot a black bear in Montana when I lived there, much smaller than Jeff's at maybe 300 pounds, and did eat part of him. It's a rich tasting meat, like pork with the color of beef.
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Even 300 pounds is getting on the big end of the eatin' range. That's still a pretty darn respectable black bear for the lower 48. The best ones are much smaller, like in the 150 lb class. Bear meat is certainly nothing if not "rich". I like it, but not many people do. The fat is the culprit, so that's why the little ones taste better. There is an enzyme in that fat that permeates all the meat around it.
I've found the key is to trim absolutely every visible piece of fat off before wrapping it. If you wait until you take it out of the freezer to cook it, it's too late. What makes it very difficult on the big ones is that the meat is so marbled you simply cannot get enough of the fat out. It can taste really nasty then.
My field dressing/skinning knife has a 4" blade. I had to take two cuts on his rump to get through the fat; it came more than half way up the handle. Six inches or more of fat, and this was the last week of September. He still had a couple of active months to fatten up even more. Not that Washington bears truly hibernate, but they sure eat like they are going to.