Bear Cut up your bear as you would a hog. You can salt cure the hams and shoulders the same also. You can cook your bear the same as you cook venison and elk, or you can parboil your bear meat in water with several large apples, when the apples fall apart the bear meat is ready to be seasoned and baked as you wish. This is from the Foxfire books. My dad always thought bear meat was on the greasy side and it wasn't one of his favorites meats. We ate it when I was a young girl.
I like to cook my bear on a open grill and in the first 15 mins I smoke it with a pan of wood chips then finish on the grill. It negates the fat issue by allowing it to drip off and bear fat doesn't smell the best while cooking either .,outside is the best for cooking.
Especially if he was a Fall Bear, and had been eating a lot of fish, before going to sleep. The very best Bear, is a Spring Bear, just starting to fatten up on local Greens.....
Our bears down South, don't eat many fish but tend to fatten on berries, roots, nuts, grass, carrion and whatever they can catch. Yogi eats a lot of garbage, when he can find it. I can't say that bear is something that I ever get a craving for. I'll eat it though. Keep in mind that about 5% of black bears have parasites in their muscle tissue and when these worms are ingested by humans they cause severe, sometimes fatal, illness called trychinosis. Even when not fatal this illness causes permanent damage to heart, kidneys and muscles – essentially renders you disabled for life. Illness starts with flu-like symptoms and muscle pains, later kidney or heart failure might follow. Less severe cases (depending of number of worms ingested and general health of affected person) resolve in about 6 months – THERE IS NO CURE!!!! Convalescents will have for life arthritis-like pains and disability – or permanent kidney/heart damage with all the nasty consequences. THERE IS ONLY ONE SAFE WAY TO COOK BEAR MEAT – COOK IT UNTIL IS FALL-OFF-THE BONE TENDER !! No freezing, no marinating, no smoking would make it safe except long and sufficient cooking. So forget those rare steaks, sausages and anything other than fork-tender meat if you want to live normal life span. When I cook bear meat, I boil it in broth in pressure cooker until almost tender and marinade for flavor after – and finish my dish until –fall-of-the bone in oven or barbecue. It is always lean, flavorful, never dry and most of all – 100% SAFE!!!