[Sca-cooks] Cooking Bear

[John Kemker]

Well, considering the other posts concerning trichinosis, I'd say deep
freezing it is definitely a good first step.  Should kill quite a few (if
not all) of the little nasties.  Proper cooking afterwards should finish
them off completely.

Treat like pork for the same reasons, temperature-wise.  Braising, stewing
and other moist heat methods should do wonders.  Perhaps a sugar-cure of
some sort?  (Sugar in a dry-cure or a brine helps retain moisture in the
meat.  You get more of a "soft-cure" as opposed to a "hard-cure" to the
meat.)  Use much less salt than you would for a full-out cure and pack the
meat in a sugar/salt/spice mixture for about 1 hour per inch thickness.  If
you use about a 75/25 ratio of sugar to salt, it should keep it from tasting
too salty.  Also, be sure to rinse the cure off the meat and DRY it
thoroughly before cooking if you're going to smoke it.  Any external wet
portions of the meat will get a sooty, nasty flavor to it if you smoke it.

If you decide to smoke it, I'd try some of the sweeter woods, such as Apple
or Cherry.  Hickory is a bit sharp and not particularly period.  (Something
in the back of my mind tells me that Hickory is a New World wood.)
Beechwood may be period for the Prussia/Bavaria region, possibly for most of
Europe.  (The "rauchbiers" or "smoked beers" of Germany use Beechwood for
smoking the malts.  This, alone, is not sufficient evidence to label
Beechwood as period, but indicates it's worth looking into.)  If you decide
to smoke, you might want to consider some sort of sauce to go along with it
to moisten the meat when served.  In any case, make sure you get the
internal temperature up to 170F to kill the nasties.

fra niccolo has done some period smoking before, perhaps he can recommend a
good wood to use for bear?


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----- Original Message -----
From: "Jane Massey" <dylansmom at cox.net>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2003 11:25 PM
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Cooking Bear


> This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
> --
> [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
> Howdy,
> I have been offered some bear meat by a fellow scadian, but I am not sure
how to prep or cook the dang thing. Not really into having "Smokey" for
dinner but I am thinking of deep freezing it and serving it at high table in
March. Are there any period recipes for bear meat.  I know that Le Menagier
de Paris has a brief passage on "How to make Beef taste like Bear" but
that's the extent of anything I have seen on the subject. Any suggestions?
>
>
> Lavender
> --
>
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