Need some real world information about Brown Bears... (to buy, camp)

[Cleonidas]

Can you eat spring browns? I'm aware that their tissue will often (or typically) carry the spores of trichinella spiralis, but that hasn't stopped me from eating some other critters.

I've been told everything from "Spring brown is better than moose" to "It's like a 1,000 lb. coyote… Would you eat a coyote?"

I would like to get as many perspectives on the practice of arctophagia as possible before I make up my mind, and I'm not sure I want to buy a tag for killing an animal I'm not going to eat…

[AKStafford]

You might also try asking in the Alaska Outdoor Forum for hunting: Alaska Hunting Forums

[AK76]

I have heard from extreme to other about the quality of brown bear meat,but I have never had the chance to taste it the nearly 38 years of residence and hunting in Alaska. What I KNOW from experience with black bears that I have killed and or eaten, is that the flavor of their meat reflects what their diet has been up to the time they are killed and eaten. So if the bear has been into a vegetative diet, roots, grass nuts, berries they have a flavor resembling such. If the bear is eating salmon, rotting flesh from a moose or caribou kill, etc, they will have a flavor toward that end of the spectrum.

I can say that I have eaten black bear covering the range from having eaten new spring vegetation, to berries, to salmon and it ws easy for to detect what their recent diet had been. Funny thing about the salmon diet and the bear my hunting partner shot, we ate some for dinner in camp that night (early Sept.)and it had a fish flavor for certain, but I did not find it unappealing. This may have been because it was, perhaps, catching and eating more live fish than rotten dead fish, as there were still plenty of fish in the river for them to catch.

So were I to have the opportunity to kill a spring brown bear I would certainly harvest the meat for consumption, otherwise, I had a opportunity to taste some, I surely would.

[keyman51]

If the meat of the bear is frozen solid for a full week, I have read that you will be able to eat the bear safely. I have not eaten spring bear, but what was said about the bear in being able to detect their recent food source. We have turned our bear into sausage, and it is great, so that is something you could do. Also if nothing else, you can feed it to dogs. Again well cooked is the rule.

[Cleonidas]

I was thinking cooking shoulder overnight in a Dutch oven at about 225 on a bed of garlic and onions, rubbed with some chipotle powder, thyme, cumin, brown sugar, salt and black pepper and then pulled the next morning would make some great tacos, particularly with some fresh guac and pico... I was also under the impression that wild game trichinella strains are tougher than agricultural strains and may survive being frozen at 0 degrees for more than 20 days; spooky stuff.

[Rance]

Gross. Don't eat em.

[AK76]

My understanding is frozen at 0* or colder for 6 months or better, but it is always best to fully cook the meat, then there are no uncertainties.

[starlite9]

They aren't bad in the spring when they are grazing on grass and furns. In the fall after they have been into fish, the meat kinds stinks.


As for real world info on Brown Bears, you **** them off, they eat what bothers them...

[hogfamily]

Originally Posted by starlite9

They aren't bad in the spring when they are grazing on grass and furns. In the fall after they have been into fish, the meat kinds stinks.


As for real world info on Brown Bears, you **** them off, they eat what bothers them...

[ArcticState]

Yes I've heard spring is better, interior is better, blah blah blah but the truth is, brown bear meat is some of the nastiest s_ you'll ever taste, it's right up there w/scabs, blister juice and liquid fart. Seriously bad. How do I know? Some "friend" of mine actually made it into sausage, and it was 99.9% porkfat or something. Nearly made me want to reach down my throat, yank my stomach out and rinse it in a river.

I know "pulled grizzly shoulder" sounds sexy and all, and it might impress your friends, until they taste it and you'll end up on their hit list.

They make great rugs, but crappy tacos.