grizzly bear, why is it?

[waksupi]

I am with you. Button buck or a doe. Even a large doe can be good so I think it is mostly what they eat. Time of year too. Diet changes and the taste gets in.
It is like a squirrel or chuck. Squirrels get muscles of iron from climbing and chucks from digging so they get tough. I can handle that.
Most kill and cook young goats, lamb and veal to eat for a reason. I love lamb chops and could eat a young goat or young cow. For good beef they castrate cows, feed them beer and the best food. Many over the world would pay $400 for a steak dinner but I would not give 50 cents for an old buck.
I have no idea of any bear out of hibernation eating new growth and berries. Maybe I was lucky and got early ones.

For purely academic discussion, it is the bulls that are castrated, not the cows!

[Lonegun1894]

At least it wasn't just me that caught that, Waksupi, but your explanation is much more family website appropriate.

[freebullet]

I have no experience with bear. Based on the wide range of comments I'd guess it goes about like my experience with all of Nebraska game. It's how you process & prepare that determines if it's good or not. I don't eat meat eaters or organs, just my personal preference.

All the deer I shoot big, small, young, old, male, or female all taste the same with the only exceptions being a wounded or diseased animal. They are all at the same tenderness level and their diet doesn't matter the meat tastes the same. That wasn't always the case for me. It took much reading and experience to turn my deer in to a consistent prized treat. Same goes for our harvest of other game be it big, small, upland, or waterfowl. Once I learned how to handle it properly and found recipes that work for us it became a sought after delicacy rather than a nightmare. I laugh at the "tough deer" stories same as folks in the lgs with expert knowledge. If that's your experience thus far, it's not your fault. They don't teach this stuff in school but, it doesn't have to be that way. I have shot big stinky tough deer however, you couldn't tell a difference in the steak when everything was handled properly.

I don't care much for carp although, I can make it taste good. If it not handled & prepped right it can be like eating a muddy sock just like everything else.

I've read accounts of folks eating coyote and other unconventional animals. Seems the same holds true in their experiences too. With predators I usually take the fur & skull mother nature gets the rest.

[44man]

For purely academic discussion, it is the bulls that are castrated, not the cows!

Still a cow but maybe we should castrate male bears!
A buck is still a deer too. I want one for the table with those little knobs on the head. When you tag, they are called antlerless, never seen ball less.
Just read in the paper about a girl that shot a doe with a huge rack. I wonder how that would eat?
I watched a woman on Andrew Zimmern's show that cooked crows.
I have recipes for everything but some have ingredients that will never be found or heard of in the stores.
I found something that works best to get anything good--Sous Vide. I tried it in a thick cooler and it is great but I want the machine that you set and forget. Meat can stay in it from an hour to 3 days. Fish only takes 30 minutes but you can't overcook it.
Look it up and watch videos.

[armexman]

Yummy Stink bugs! AKA as leaf debris bugs.
I love to eat these bugs when I go (rarely now) to Mexico.
In a fresh warm tortilla and picked out of the jar with a twig then spread out with a little salsa macha.
Goat made by one of my Sister-I-L; she starts real early in the morning with a dutch pot sealed with flour tortilla dough and cooked for almost 10-12 hours is to die for; she uses bay leaves, chile ancho sauce and oregano and other spices.

[44man]

Yummy Stink bugs! AKA as leaf debris bugs.
I love to eat these bugs when I go (rarely now) to Mexico.
In a fresh warm tortilla and picked out of the jar with a twig then spread out with a little salsa macha.
Goat made by one of my Sister-I-L; she starts real early in the morning with a dutch pot sealed with flour tortilla dough and cooked for almost 10-12 hours is to die for; she uses bay leaves, chile ancho sauce and oregano and other spices.

I am game but you are too far away.

[Markbo]

I'll try anything once. But I believe Ill pass on stinkbugs.

[44man]

My friends ex ate shrimp with the shells on them. Razor blades at the butt!

[Markbo]

I do too. They're pretty soft after they're boiled. Still a nice crunch though.

[Markbo]

Just talking about Grizz, you have GOT to see this
http://mashable.com/2016/01/08/giant.../#PW_ZmYsUCuqF

[Fishman]

Which ones would those be. I can name not a one.

A more correct statement would be that there are lots of native fish that look like carp but aren't. Examples would be the buffaloes, carpsuckers, and sucker species. The difference is that they are all catastomids, whereas carp are cyprinids, otherwise known as the minnow family.

Lots of people lump them all as "carp" because they don't know any different. Just like folks calling the various sunfish species "perch".

Funniest example I ever saw of all this was the guy I talked to at a local power plant lake boat ramp. He was proud of the redfish he caught and when I went to measure them (I was collecting data), he had a livewell full of common carp. As there were many other anglers around and I didn't want to embarrass him, I just shut the lid and thanked him for the info. I always wondered how those turned out in the blackening skillet.

[OnHoPr]

A buck is still a deer too. I want one for the table with those little knobs on the head. When you tag, they are called antlerless, never seen ball less. .

Back about 25 years ago I was bow hunting early December. Two deer came on the pile. One was about a 10" spike and the other a doe (or so it looked like, even at 15 yd). I had a bow tag and a gun tag. The gun tag had to have horns and muzzleloader season was in about a week. So, I elected to take the doe. After about a 100 yd track at dark back into the cedar swamp along the Au Sable I found it. So, I got my knife and grabbed some legs. I opened them up and didn't see a scrotum, but seen a male part. It was a full grown deer of over 100 lbs. So, I said to myself, WHAT, and I went to look at the head. Sure enough, it had horns, about the size of golf tees laid back and down with the head hair. Hard to see even with a flashlight and only 3' away. The buck had undescended testicles. It ended up being venison table fodder just like and other 1 1/2 year old deer.

[grizz41]

I have no experience with bear. Based on the wide range of comments I'd guess it goes about like my experience with all of Nebraska game. It's how you process & prepare that determines if it's good or not. I don't eat meat eaters or organs, just my personal preference.

All the deer I shoot big, small, young, old, male, or female all taste the same with the only exceptions being a wounded or diseased animal. They are all at the same tenderness level and their diet doesn't matter the meat tastes the same. That wasn't always the case for me. It took much reading and experience to turn my deer in to a consistent prized treat. Same goes for our harvest of other game be it big, small, upland, or waterfowl. Once I learned how to handle it properly and found recipes that work for us it became a sought after delicacy rather than a nightmare. I laugh at the "tough deer" stories same as folks in the lgs with expert knowledge. If that's your experience thus far, it's not your fault. They don't teach this stuff in school but, it doesn't have to be that way. I have shot big stinky tough deer however, you couldn't tell a difference in the steak when everything was handled properly.

I don't care much for carp although, I can make it taste good. If it not handled & prepped right it can be like eating a muddy sock just like everything else.

I've read accounts of folks eating coyote and other unconventional animals. Seems the same holds true in their experiences too. With predators I usually take the fur & skull mother nature gets the rest.

have eaten 400+# black bear with purple innards from living on blue berries... excellent! In early 60's got a large muley that weighed 247# with no hide, hooves, or head... again excellent and so tender we could cut it with a fork. He had the Missouri River on one side and a grain field on the other side of his mountain. Sage brush muleys always had to cut all the fat and bones off em before eating. my partner trapped a nice coyote one winter & we decided to try a steak or two, however, when we opened the gut cavity and smelled him, we decided we weren't nearly hungry enough to even think of tasting it! Different environment, health, food, and care all play a part in how they taste. Im new at this so I hope I put it in the right spot. enjoyed hearing of all the different experiences you fellers have had! Grizz41

[BAGTIC]

As in most cooking it is the cook as much as the ingredients that determines the outcome.

[Lonegun1894]

As in most cooking it is the cook as much as the ingredients that determines the outcome.

I won't argue there!

[Victor N TN]

I've personally had BLACK BEAR on several dozen occasions. Most of the time it was great when slow cooked as a roast, after being para-boiled through 3 waters. That gets the blood and fat out of the meat and makes it more palatable. Without those steps most bear will be tough, stringy and have a real rough "gamey" flavor.

I'm not sure about the differences between black, polar or grizzly bears as far as taste goes. But I do believe that if prepared correctly, it would at least be edible.

Enjoy the food.
Victor

[RugerFan]

I've eaten the meat from several black bear taken in Alaska. Most were from the interior, but that last one was taken off the coast near Homer. All of the meat tasted fine without any special treatment and wasn't tough at all.

[youngda9]

This just confirms my feeling on never wanting to shoot a bear...unless it is an aggressive or nuisance bear that needs shootin.

[BAGTIC]

Jack O'Connor wrote that the second best meat he had ever eaten was puma (mountain lion). His first best was spring bighorn sheep. The carnivore/herbivore rule does not seem to apply here.

[BAGTIC]

Male cattle are not castrated primarily for taste. In many countries bulls are not routinely castrated. When males and females are kept together it makes a difference because males continually on the prowl for accessible females will work off all their fat and develop tougher texture. Such an animal can come as close as possible to zero per cent fat and produce ground meat from which it is impossible to render enough fat to produce a smear in the bottom of a skillet. This has been my personal experience as a hobby 'rancher' that has a small herd of about 50 head. That herd bull meat is perfect for jerky as it is as rancidity immune as any I have ever made.