Roast Bear
Sear bear meat in hot fat to seal juices in, put in Dutch oven with 1 cup hot water, and cook 2-3 hours, or until tender. Thirty minutes before meat is done, put in cut-up stewing vegetables.
Bear meat is black, like mountain goat meat, and can be almost as dry and tough.
A plain camp braise: sear, add a little liquid, and hold it at a low simmer until the connective tissue gives way. The only thing this recipe leaves out is the one thing that matters most with bear.
- Cook it through, alwaysBear is the most common source of trichinellosis in North America, and the species that infects it, Trichinella nativa, is freeze-resistant, so time in a freezer is not a safeguard. Cook bear to at least 160F throughout, and public-health guidance for wild game now advises 165F; verify with an instant-read thermometer at the thickest point. Never serve it pink, and never taste raw or partly cooked bear.
- Cross-contaminationTreat raw bear like raw pork of unknown provenance. Separate board, separate knife, wash everything in hot soapy water, and do not let the raw juices touch the vegetables that go in later.
- Dutch ovenIn outdoor cooking of this vintage a Dutch oven is the cast-iron lidded pot set in or over coals, not a range-top enamelled casserole. Either works; on a stove or in the oven, hold it low enough that the liquid barely bubbles.
- One cup of water is a starting pointOver coals with a well-seated lid, a cup is often enough for the full 2-3 hours. On a modern burner or in a dry oven, check hourly and top up so the pot never goes dry and scorches.
- The vegetablesThirty minutes suits potatoes, carrots and onion cut in large pieces. Add them later if the meat is still tough at that point, since bear can want longer than three hours and the vegetables will collapse waiting.
- Dryness and fatThe book is right that the lean muscle cooks dry. Bear fat is soft and its flavour varies with the animal's diet and season, sometimes strongly; trim most of it and sear in a neutral fat or bacon drippings instead, then let the braising liquid do the work of keeping the meat moist.
- Cut and yieldShoulder and neck take this treatment best; hindquarter roasts stay firmer. Figure roughly 3-4 lb of trimmed meat to serve six with the vegetables.
- LegalityBear is a regulated game animal nearly everywhere, with seasons, tags and rules on transport and sale. Only meat from a legal harvest belongs in this pot.