Baked Black Bear

 

An excerpt from "Lucy's Recipes for Mountain Living" by Eva McCall and Emma Edsall:

 

 

Start with one large black bear, dead.  How to kill the bear is a matter of personal preference, but try to avoid using a shotgun, as it's nigh unto impossible to extract all those little pellets with a dull knife. 

 

Not normally being grain fed, bear tends to be a bit on the strong side, kind of a wild taste, Lucy used to stay.  Generally, she'd soak it in a bit of vinegar to tone it down a mite, and then she'd bake in the oven of that old wood cook stove.  Lucy believed the longer the meat baked, the better.  Helped to tender it up, she said.  I don't remember it being too tender, mostly just dark and stringy, but it was a nice change from the salt-cured pork in the smokehouse. 

 

In Lucy's day, bear hunting was a community activity.  As soon as the bear season opened, the men began to gather at Holman's with musket over should and bear dog in tow.  As they tromped off up the mountain, Lucy knew she wouldn't see them again until they'd killed two or three bears or the season ended. 

 

Bear hunting, like so many other things, has changed.  Men still go hunting but usually not as a community goup.  They'd just as soon not drag a bear home and face the prospect of butchering and cooking it themselves as not too many wives enjoy cooking exotic meats. 

 

"Lucy's Recipes for Mountain Living" is now available via Amazon.  Click here to purchase.