bear jerky

[2012_taco]

Has anyone ever tried making jerky with bear meat? I have some ground bear meat from a friend and was

looking to make jerky. Have good success with deer but didn't know if I should use any special seasonings. Also, I read on the net about trichinosis in bear, not sure if wild bear from Ny is subject to this. Any suggestions or recipe's would be great.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

What ever recipe you choose, I can't stress enough to get ALL the fat off of it before doing it. If you guys actually had someone else cut it up and didn't have control of the amount of fat that was included I might pass on the jerky thing. Bear fat is nasty. The trichinosis would be an issue if it was present because the temps in making jerky do not get high enough to kill it. If I were going to do it I would opt for an actual smoker so the meat temps would get up high enough to kill it. I would not use a dehydrator on bear.

[jjb4900]

don't know if I'd want to make jerky out of bear............too many risks.

[lauragutierrez]

I would agree with the other two. I have had bear jerky in the past that friends have made, but overall most people avoid even trying it because of the problems that can come from making bear jerky. It wasn't the best jerky i ever had. I would honestly say that I prefer deer jerky just because of flavor alone. Bear is such a greasy and fatty meat that it can be challenging to work with it well enough to make jerky. Of course there is the fact as already discussed of possibly not being able to kill harmful bacteria and such.

[2012_taco]

I gave it a try, after the dehydrator I put it all on a cookie sheet in the oven @250 for 1/2 hour, turned it into bear bacon! put in a large baggie and put in fridge a couple of days later it softened up a little and turned out pretty good. don't think I would bother going through all that again.