It is a deep-red gamey, pork-like delicacy that is best when marinated — for a long time — or ground into seasoned sausage, or even sliced into traditional cuts like sirloins, roasts and chop meat.
It’s best when it’s grilled or roasted, and it’s pretty tasty in a stew.
"Bear meat is great cuisine, if done right," said Steve Pappas, the owner of Northern Big Game Butcher Service in Vernon.
With a record number of bear being culled during this year’s hunt, the first in five years, area butchers are being inundated with the hunters’ quarry। Although many are happy to have the additional work, butchers say they’re not big fans of preparing the harvest from this year’s hunt because the meat is soJoe Minorics, a butcher with 57 West Deer Processing in Phillipsburg, said he can only truly be "bribed" to take time away from making venison to cut up a bear.
"It’s a nasty creature," Minorics said of the bear he is now butchering for local hunters. "They’re greasy, and they’re slimy ... It’s so greasy, I don’t want any of it in my deer meat... It’s a trophy animal."
Game Butchers, of Clinton Township, a family-run operation that specializes in processing hundreds of deer each season, is taking in a few select bears to butcher.
On Tuesday afternoon, as taxidermist David Tuttle prepared three bears outside, butchers J.B. Person and Phil Hayden began carving up a 200-pound bear shot near Rockaway on Monday.
First, the skinned bear was sawed into thirds. Choice slices of tenderloin and backstrap were separated from the middle section, which was further carved into smaller bits for bacon and spareribs.
