Have any folks here tried, or make their own, smoked black bear?

An excellent way to fix black bear (as long as they have not been on a diet of fish!), is to smoke the meat in small pieces or the hams themselves, just as you would a hog/a ham. Now a non-fish eating, meaning a berry bear, grizz is sort of ok this way, but a black bear I find more desirable.

Use whatever curing mixtures/seasonings you like, just as you would with a hog/ham, being smoked. Even with none but the basic seasonings, it comes out very fine eating/tasty.

When properly smoked, you will claim it's not bear, but that you're eating Canadian bacon, it is that good!
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Hopefully those who harvest a black bear will utilize the meat, for properly prepared it does not have to come out as tuff as some folks say it always does.
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And by all means save and render the fat in to grease! Expecially the pure white intestinal fat - almost like candy when eaten fresh, once you get use to it!

Now what to do with the rendered fat/grease?
Use it instead of Crisco, for making pastry dough/crusts> It makes some of the lightest/fluffy pie crusts you'll ever have. If it stays around too long in not being used, and goes rancid on you, the use it for boot leather grease.

ESPECIALLY use it fresh for making donuts (aka: bear tracks, as many call them!)
It will make a donut so light, that you'll have to put a rock on it to keep it on the plate!
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As many may be aware of, a bear is a distant relative of the pig family, and therefore should be cooked accordingly, primarily well done/thoroughly cooked through, because of the possibility of trichinosis.

Good post outsidebear. When I was bear hunting (Black Bear) I had a friend whom ran a wild game cutting business and he always smoked the hams for me. They were excellent. For pure taste I much preferred the fall bears that had been fattening up all fall before going into hibernation. Bear meat that's taken care of is as good as wild game meat as you can eat.

Yeah, Bob - that's what the vaquero's said when I skinned out the mountain lion and gave them the carcass for their use. I traded them the lion for my share of the work branding and cutting the range calves in the stone laden ground of the corral. They didn't mind the work and I saved my tender buns for another day! :D

Was told that lion steaks were some of the best eating meat you could stuff in your mouth. I'll take their word for it! :p

Yeah, Bob - that's what the vaquero's said when I skinned out the mountain lion and gave them the carcass for their use. I traded them the lion for my share of the work branding and cutting the range calves in the stone laden ground of the corral. They didn't mind the work and I saved my tender buns for another day! :D

Was told that lion steaks were some of the best eating meat you could stuff in your mouth. I'll take their word for it! :p

The only lion I've eaten was at one of the big game feeds given a few years ago. I can only remember it wasn't bad at all. Some folks won't eat the meat eating predators, but it's just meat same as we all pack around.

I've had some of those sage eating salmon river mule deer bucks with a big swelled up neck that even my dog wouldn't eat so you shoots and sometimes takes your chances. Mostly mine have been good.

I know I tried a coyote when I was younger and it was very stringy and not very good. Never tried another one. It's not always how well you take care of it sometimes, but that certainly helps.

Mountain lion can be mighty tasty if fixed right.
It is a white meat, so again trichinosis comes in to the cooking factor/process.

Mountain lion steaks I've cooked up in the ol' iron skillet atop the wood stove, tend to take on the appearance and some texture, like that of a pork chop. There's not a lot of flavor, it's rather bland, but good just the same.

The fat may also be rendered/used, same as bear fat...

Some folks would scoff or turn their noses up at eating cat, but when across the pond/far east, in the late 60's, you never saw a stray dog or cat around any of the villages in the jungles there, or in towns as well.

How many out there remember the Paul Newman movie, "Hombre". Early in the movie a lady commented about how disgusting eating dog was. Then later on the same lady is tied out in the sun for many hours, and is begging for help. Newman's comment then was, "Ask her if she'll eat dog now?"

faucettb, as you state: "Some folks won't eat the meat eating predators, but it's just meat same as we all pack around."

Indeed, some folks take that view...yet they will set down to a pan of fresh cutthroat trout and gorge until their eyes bulge out.
What does a cutthroat trout eat? Is it not a carnivore predator?
Now isn't that interesting...

I don't remember which one, but it was either Lewis or Clark that liked Dog very much on their trip to the coast. One liked it and the other just tolerated it. They stopped just a few miles from where I live and bought a pile of puppies from the Nez Pierce Indians here in Idaho.

Puppy burgers? Puppy-Ka-Bob? Bar-B-Q Puppy? Puppy Stroganoff? Maybe just plain old Puppy sandwhiches? The possibilities are endless. :)

You fellers probably printed out the recipe for smoked crow. No canine or feline in my diet. I won't eat horse either. To much intellegence in their eyes.

If I "had to" to survive the day, maybe? Otherwise, NO THANK YOU!

Cheezywan

I'm in your camp on this Cheezy.

Back in the late 1960's, while in the military, and would be around the Philippines from time to time on R&R, there were street vendors with their barbecue carts (like chestnut roasting carts on the streets of New York City), selling their wares/food items. Some of their food was what we called 'mystery food', but as long as others were eating it, we'd eat some as well.

Now they had strips of meat, like beef jerky strips, skewered through with them lil' round kabob sticks. No matter how many times you'd ask them what the meat was, ya usually just got the run-a-round. The meat was usually either monkey or dog or "chef's surprise"? After awhile we just referred to it as : dog-on-a-log , and let it go at that. It really was pretty good, well ok, most of the time it was pretty good!

PS: the printed out recipe for smoked crow is right here on the desk, next to my new Martha Stewart cookbook! LOL