ground black bear meat/fat ratio

[welkin]

Tried searching, didn't find this already discussed. What ratio of meat to fat are people grinding with their black bears? Are you using pork or beef fat, have you tried grinding with the bear fat? How much fascia and ligament are you cutting out? Any other tips for this project, thanks.

 

[solostalker]

Bear meat itself has a higher fat content than say deer or elk. For that reason I typically do a 90/10 meat to fat ratio for burger and ground sausage.

I used to do pork fat but have since switch to beef fat on all my game burger and much prefer it.

Edit: I have never tried grinding with the actual bear fat but would be cautious doing so. Many claim that wild game fat goes rancid rather quickly even in the freezer.

I like to trim all my bear fat, cut it into pieces and throw it into the crock pot on low and render it into to tallow. Very good for cooking oil.

 

[knale87]

I don’t use any fat in any ground wild game, including bear.

 

[Quicksilver]

I’ve done up to 20% pork, clean meat with no silver skin. Definitely wouldn’t notice if I used less fat but we had a bunch of leftover to use.

 

[Taudisio]

Back to back bears went to the butcher with no outside animal fat added, just the fat that came with the bear. Both batches have been fantastic.

 

[Binz17]

When I processed my only bear a few years ago, he was so fat, I just ground it straight. It looked more fatty than my 90/10 venison grind. Burgers were good.

 

[Tbone26]

I don’t use any fat in any ground wild game, including bear.

I'm with this guy, no fat or pork in any of my wild game ground meat. Summer sausage, hot sticks, etc is a different story. Then I usually use 25% clean pork trimmings (not to fatty).

 

[Soj51hopeful]

I do about a 85 / 15 meat to fat ratio. Usually use pork fat but I used bear fat on a particularly good tasting bear and it was outstanding! We used it all up in about 8 months, the last few packages were starting to change in taste. If you use bear fat use it up in 6 months and you’ll be good.

 

[welkin]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Started processing the bear today, decided not to add any fat. The meat is excellent.

 

[brancher147]

I always use pork butt with bear or venison. Usually about 80/20 with each but the last few bears I killed were all pretty lean. I wouldn’t like straight bear meat but that’s just me.

 

[Hollow Point]

The only black bear I shot was in NW Maine mid September of '24. Bear was shot early in our trip so I brought is to a suggested butcher shop to have it processed. I had it cut into roast, stew meat, steaks and the backstrap cut into sections. Butcher removed the fat from all the processed meat mentioned. All meats mentioned are great cooked different ways.

I asked the butcher to put all the remaining meat removed from the bone to ground meat. Very little fat content was in the packaged ground meat. All meats were packaged in 1lb vacuum packs.

When I returned home to SW Louisiana, I took 2lbs of ground bear meat and made hamburgers. For me and my family it was very dry, and tasted horrible.

I defrosted the remaining packs of ground bear meat, weighed the total, went to my local butcher shop and purchased the required weight of deboned pork meat/fat to complete a 60/40 ratio. Same ration I use to process my own deer for ground meat and smoked sausage.

I ran my pork and fat through my grinder then combined it with the lean already ground bear and mixed thoroughly in a tub.

The results for us were a 100% improvement and the ground bear/pork has been used for hamburgers, spaghettis, jambalaya, and everything else with great complements from people I have cooked for.