SERVES 4-5 | DIFFICULTY: EASY | PREP TIME: 20min | COOK TIME: 1.5hr

THIS IS A CROWD PLEASER

Bear meat isn’t on top of everyone’s go-to list of meats to have in the freezer. In fact, it is one of the most commonly discarded game meat. They may be afraid of the bear meat taste, but this recipe will be certain to change their minds

Bears are one of the few animals where the entire animal can be utilized. After bear hunting, you can use the fur (for rugs and throws), skull (for display and mounting), fat (rendering into usable lard), the meat (for eating of course), and more recently…the baculum (I’ll let you look that one up).

If more hunters knew how good it was, more bear hunters might eat bear meat and share the good word. Bear has a very similar taste to that of pork, and many pork recipes can be substituted with bear meat.

Wondering what temp to smoke bear meat to?

As with pork, bear meat must be cooked to an internal temperature of 160F to kill any foodborne diseases, more specifically Trichina spiralis.

With that in mind, I decided to introduce my family to a favorite recipe of mine using bear meat instead of pork…..Bear Balls!

INGREDIENTS

2 pounds Ground Bear Meat

1/2 Onion Minced

1/2 cup Bread Crumbs

1 1/2 Tbs of favorite BBQ rub

10-12 Strips of Bacon (Cut in half)

Tooth Picks

INSTRUCTIONS

Startup the smoker, grill, or pellet grill and allow it to come up to 300F.
Mix together the meat, minced onion, bread crumbs, and BBQ rub until combined.
*** Don’t over mix the meat mixture.
Roll into balls. I like to have them about golf ball size. For 2 pounds of meat, you should get a yeild of around 20-24 bear balls.

Carefully wrap each bear ball with a halved slice of bacon, secure with a toothpick, and (optional) dust additional BBQ rub.
Place on the grill/smoker and smoke the bear balls for 45 minutes or until the interior temp hits 160°F.
***Be sure all bear balls reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees F.
After smoking bear meat to 160, brush them with your favorite BBQ sauce and allow the balls to remain on the grill/smoker for an additional 10 min for the sauce to “tack up”.