This is the best bear roast you’ll ever make. The meat is stewed in a delicious and healthy cooking liquid that makes it melt tender… and easy to do.
The first time I had bear roast I was really skeptical. I mean, can you even eat bear? I thought it would be greasy and weird… Boy, I couldn’t have been more wrong. If you’re skeptical of wild game, but love beef, bear is probably the tastiest type of meat for you to try!
I’ve mentioned before that I didn’t grow up eating wild game. When I met my husband, Jared, I suddenly came across pounds and pounds of venison on hand every year and had no idea how to work with it. Fast forward 5 years and now I work with venison, elk and bear more than beef and pork and am publishing my first cookbook, all about cooking with venison (click here to get on my waiting list to get the book!).
Anyway, if you have a freezer full of bear meat like us… I’m sure you’re wondering what to do with all that meat. This bear roast recipe is the PERFECT cozy staple to add to your meal rotation. It feeds a crowd, makes big leftovers, and surprisingly, everyone loves it. My dad even served some in his office and disappeared in seconds!
How is bear meat cooked
?
There are many rumors circulating about cooking with bear. Some people think you can’t cook with it because it’s not safe for food, some people think it tastes fishy, and others think it’s difficult. Here’s the scoop
: the bear
is perfectly safe to cook, it just needs to be handled carefully in the field, quickly frozen and cooked to 165F
.
The best way to put it: work with bear meat like you work with poultry. Bears consume other animals and larvae, so it is possible for them to carry parasites. Therefore, you need to make sure that you have a nice and clean shot on the animal and that it quickly moves from processing to vacuum-sealed and frozen freezer bags as soon as possible.
When you cook it, you must internally reach 165F (like chicken and pork) to ensure food safety. But in reality, it’s like waking up with a chicken breast, so there’s nothing out of the ordinary to worry about.
Bear meat is not hard, but it is not good for steaks
Cooking bear so that it is well done brings me to another point. Many people think that bear meat is difficult because they have had well-made bear seams. If you ask me, no steak is well made. It is resistant, rubbery and dry.
Bear meat is best for roasts and stewed dishes (such as spicy taco tirado – YUM!) or for turning ground beef. Games like deer and elk are safe to eat rare (or even raw for carpaccio or tartare if they’re really fresh), so it’s common for people to assume the same about the bear. But, because bear meat must be well done, it is better to get plenty of ground and roasted beef.
Is it hard to get tender roast bear?
Don’t! Because the bear is a fattier meat, it only takes a longer cooking time to melt the fat and tendons to result in a tender, crumbling roast. I think the slow cooker really does the best job, so that’s what I’m using next.
You can, of course, use your oven to roast bear. You can follow the recipe below, but roast the bear on a covered plate at 300F for about 4 hours.
You’ll know the meat is ready when crumbled with a fork. If it’s not there yet, be patient and let it cook more! I promise you will be impressed by this easy recipe and make it all the time!
Got a lot of bear meat on hand? Be sure to try my Bear Chili. I think it’s my favorite of all time!
Impression
