Smoked Pulled Bone-In Black Bear Shoulder

[SteveAndTheCrigBoys]

I have a bone in black bear shoulder from a small sow we got this year. Was thinking about smoking it pulled pork style. Any other suggestions or tips?

 

[Drenalin]

That’s exactly what you should do with it

 

[mparks270]

That would be awesome! "Pulled bear" is fantastic even in the crock pot.

 

[SteveAndTheCrigBoys]

Finally getting around to doing this. Seasoned last night so it's ready to go. Thinking about the following times:

Uncovered at 225 in the smoker for 5 hours
Wrapped at 275 for 2-3 hours until it hits 205* or so.

 

[SteveAndTheCrigBoys]

Timing above ended up being pretty accurate. Hit 165 after 5ish hours, wrapped in foil and carried to 205. Rested for an hour. Didn't shred quite like pork, but easy enough to do by hand. Put too much pepper on the rub though.

Pre-wrap




Post-wrap



Pulled

 

[LongWayAround]

How do you feel it turned out over all? The shredded meat looks really good.

Anything you would do differently? Aside from using less pepper?

Most of my game meat on the smoker adventures end in some level of disappointment or it's a short smoke followed by a braise. I find that the lack of internal fat marbling often results in a very dry final product.

 

[Jason Snyder]

Looks good. What kind of sauce did you add?

Look up Memphis Dust for a rub. It works really well on pork and bear.

 

[SteveAndTheCrigBoys]

How do you feel it turned out over all? The shredded meat looks really good.

Anything you would do differently? Aside from using less pepper?

Most of my game meat on the smoker adventures end in some level of disappointment or it's a short smoke followed by a braise. I find that the lack of internal fat marbling often results in a very dry final product.

I'm pretty impressed. It's not tough, dry or stringy at all. I imagine the bone-in aspect helped with moisture. I wouldn't try this same thing with a boneless cut.

I'd maybe brine or inject it just to experiment with stuff. Maybe use some rendered bear fat instead of butter in the wrap. And definitely add brown sugar to the wrap. Didn't have any so it was just butter.

Looks good. What kind of sauce did you add?

Look up Memphis Dust for a rub. It works really well on pork and bear.

Haven't added any sauce to it other than some Kinders Mild BBQ on a sandwich last night. Just kept all the juices from the wrap in the pan there.

Memphis Dust looks like a sugar-y rub, I can definitely see where that would work. I had some Meat Church Holy Cow on hand for this.

 

[Jason Snyder]

If the meat is ending up dry, add a couple
Tablespoons of Dr Pepper in the foil before you braise it.

 

[Big_wals]

That looks awesome! One of my favorite ways to eat bear.