Bear Meat

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(10-22-2020, 10:59 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: There are a lot of people that won't eat bear, thinking it to be too fatty or too gristly. I find it to be delicious. Bear hams can be done just like a pork ham, even, and tastes a lot like domestic pork just with a tiny bit of wild flavor. The bear fat can be used for all sorts of applications and, while not the healthiest thing, is delicious to cook with.

But I am of the same mind where I don't turn up my nose at any meat. Usually, if someone says a meat tastes bad it is because it was either processed or prepared incorrectly, or the diet of the animal wasn't very good for some reason.

Bingo; most people say no to a specific animal, not because the animal was bad, but because the prep was less-than stellar.

For the diet, also a bingo; a thing I used to say back in elementary school when people questioned why I ate Canada Goose and not Seagull: "you don't eat a or a Seagull because you just don't you idiot do you know what they eat?"

Which also brings up a funny story my dad has recounted for decades now:

When he worked in an office, in the late 80s, he had a woman co-worker that wasn't above him, but acted like it and she was a miserable punt (sub C for P) to everyone... but she knew the boss, so she could get away with things. Her husband was having his 35th birthday or something and knowing that my dad hunted ducks, asked him if he could get one for her, when he went hunting (she wanted to make Duck a L'Orange). Now, my dad is not a petty person, nor does he hold grudges, but this woman was apparently a major cause of stress on not just my dad, but the whole team and she also wasn't willing to pay for ammunition or for the bird itself (again, my dad isn't petty, but to not even offer is an, "actions louder than words," situation, that fit this woman to a T), so that further turned him off.

He goes to his spot on Lake Ontario with our boat (I was either just born or still in my mother's womb, so I can't give a first-hand account of where on the lake or how many), bags a couple of Mallards and a few Teals, then sees a bunch of Cormorants waiting for the sun to get high enough, before starting to feed. He shoots one, retrieves it and heads home for the day. He cleans all the birds and sets the Cormorant aside, for his next day at work (he said it reeked of fish the whole time he was cleaning it ).

He brings it to her and warns her, "It may be a bit gamey for most people's tastes," but she thanks him and puts it in the freezer; of course, he never told her it was a Cormorant . The weekend comes up, she makes the dish and comes back on the Monday to report, face dropped and with grief/sadness:

"Oh it was horrible! My whole house smelled of fish and it's been 2 days and I can't get the smell out! It ruined my husband's dinner and the 20 people we had over were all disappointed!"

It's one of the few times my father has ever shown a vindictive side to him and to this day (he swears and I believe him), it was the only non-eating gamebird he's ever shot at, let alone shot and killed. As the woman was a bit useless, it apparently took a couple of weeks for her house to not smell like fish, since she had no clue on how to clean/air out the place properly.

It's always a fun story to recount; I also don't condone the killing of animals (ESPECIALLY if they aren't edible), but for this story, I'll let it pass