Bear meat changed taste

[Evolution]

I ground most of my bears into hamburger. At first they tasted great, so I decided to forget about making sausage out of them. Now they have been vacuum packed and frozen for about 3 weeks, the meat seems to taste gamier and has a stronger smell than at first. Is this normal? Last night when I walked into my house after work, my wife was cooking some of it with hamburger helper and it smelled like shit cooking. Can I use the remainder (120+ lbs) of ground meat for sausage with out having such a strong flavor? Its too bad cause when it was fresh it was great eating.

[arcadia]

It's the hamburger helper that stinks. How could anyone eat that crap?

[tomahawk]

I ground most of my bears into hamburger. At first they tasted great, so I decided to forget about making sausage out of them. Now they have been vacuum packed and frozen for about 3 weeks, the meat seems to taste gamier and has a stronger smell than at first. Is this normal? Last night when I walked into my house after work, my wife was cooking some of it with hamburger helper and it smelled like shit cooking. Can I use the remainder (120+ lbs) of ground meat for sausage with out having such a strong flavor? Its too bad cause when it was fresh it was great eating.

The meat has not changed flavour unless something was introduced to it since the first time you tried it. I don't know but maybe you didn't notice the bad taste at first as you were pumped about it? As for the sausage, you'll be taking a chance on that flavour being in the sausage as well if you get make it with poor quality meat.

[tracker]

Had the same thing a few years back, had a couple roasts at first which was good and then after a month or so when you took them out of the wrapping paper it smelt like someone pissed on the meat..... I was told the fat goes bad on bears fast.. So the leaner cuts you can make the better, same goes for alot of wild game,get that fat off...[except elk mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm good fat }

[eastkoot]

Oh boy, bear meat !!!!! I'm thinking you were too excited and didn't notice the taste originally !!!

[winchester284]

Had the same thing a few years back, had a couple roasts at first which was good and then after a month or so when you took them out of the wrapping paper it smelt like someone pissed on the meat..... I was told the fat goes bad on bears fast.. So the leaner cuts you can make the better, same goes for alot of wild game,get that fat off...[except elk mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm good fat }

X2
If it's ground up into hamburger you may need to use a lot of hot sauce and spices.....

Of course there's always hamburger helper... :idea:

[sobirch]

I ground most of my bears into hamburger. At first they tasted great, so I decided to forget about making sausage out of them. Now they have been vacuum packed and frozen for about 3 weeks, the meat seems to taste gamier and has a stronger smell than at first. Is this normal? Last night when I walked into my house after work, my wife was cooking some of it with hamburger helper and it smelled like shit cooking. Can I use the remainder (120+ lbs) of ground meat for sausage with out having such a strong flavor? Its too bad cause when it was fresh it was great eating.


Hmmmmm, you haven't forgotten an anniversary or anything foolish like that have you. LOL

[Barracuda]

i always grind my bear useing the same care i would cutting chops or roast. No lymphnodes, scraps or questionable blood shot meat.

I know that many consider hamburger as scrap but i figure that a person would want to enjoy it so it should be treated like all the other cuts.

[Evolution]

I dont see how anything could have contaminated it. It went straight from the grinder into the vacuum packer, then into the freezer. I personally trimmed every lick of fat and tendon out of it. I processed it on a cool day, no more than 15 degrees Celsius out, and every thing was clean and sanitary. The bloodshot was all in the ribs, which I completely discarded. I agree hamburger helper aint the best and perhaps thats what it may have been. I made some hamburgers last Friday for a few of my buddies and no one complained, in fact they were all impressed by it. I think maybe Im going to thaw another pack and cook it all by itself and try eating it with no artificial flavouring. One way or another I feel morally bound to consume it as I am certain it is perfectly safe to eat. Maybe it tastes better off the bar b que than the frying pan. I know beef always tastes better grilled.

[betteroffishing]

instead of cooking it naked , maybe try it with a mild tomato sauce. i dont like the flavor of unseasoned ground beef , never mind unseasoned ground bear. id bet dollars to dimes it was the " helper " . that sh-t is the most vile non food item to ever be integrated into our diet .

[Steeleco]

I've seen plenty of bears hanging in the shed, only one was bad and we knew it right from the start. As you say, try some more and see how it goes. It may be that the package in question was from a different part of the animal and it somehow tastes different?

Should you find it has gone south, there's some folks on the island that feed their dogs wild meat, they may take it off your hands and that way it's not a total waste.

[Barracuda]

sounds like lymph nodes to me .

its hound food if it has big ol lymphnodes ground into the mix.

i chuck beef burger if the butcher has been stupid enough to grind in the mix.
nasty nasty nasty:icon_frow

[mgnm300]

[quote=Barracuda;471437]sounds like lymph nodes to me .

might be a stupid question but where would you find them??
my daughter got her bear this spring and due to financial reasons we decided to debone the bear and bag it ourselves. we figured we would get the meat turned into sausage at a later date.

[wolverine]

Is it just the burger that doesn't taste good or do the other cuts stink as well? Any meat, game or otherwise, can have a funky flavor to the burger. It's apparently the bacteria that forms in the burger that makes it stink. Still safe to eat but it stinks and it doesn't taste really good. If you do go the sausage route, get the butcher to grind in plenty of pork with it and it should help tame some of that game taste for you. Also remember to get all the fat off the bear that you can before the meat is in final process. Makes a huge difference. I get what I can at intial dressing and then go back the next day and remove all that I can. Never had a gamey bear. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[budismyhorse]

if wild game of any kind if giong to smell, it will when you cook it well done, which is typically the case when frying for HH (reminds me of university....). My guess is if the burgers you ate were fried like crazy in a pan where the drippings can't escape and cooked INDOORS...they would have smelled the same. cooking indoors bottles up the nasty smells from cooking well done.

sounds like you should just stick to burgers.....

I have also added a few squeezes of lemon juice to some rank mule deer and it really cut the wild flavour......and past inspection at diner.

[Gateholio]

Vac packing can give the meat a rank odour until it's been exposed to the air and/or washed off.

The blood gets funky smelling:lol:

[The Hermit]

Vac packing can give the meat a rank odour until it's been exposed to the air and/or washed off.

The blood gets funky smelling:lol:

Hummm didn't know that! Learn something new everyday!

[wolverine]

Vac packing can give the meat a rank odour until it's been exposed to the air and/or washed off.

The blood gets funky smelling:lol:


Yeah, that's right. That's what the butcher told me when I complained about the smell of some of the burger that came out of one of those tubes of hamburger. Said it's still okay to eat, just doesn't smell too good.

[Evolution]

Ate some more tonight from the "bottom" of the box and it tasted fine. Maybe it was just that one pack that had a funky smell. Oh well thanks for replying.

[arcadia]

I dont see how anything could have contaminated it. It went straight from the grinder into the vacuum packer, then into the freezer. I personally trimmed every lick of fat and tendon out of it. I processed it on a cool day, no more than 15 degrees Celsius out, and every thing was clean and sanitary. The bloodshot was all in the ribs, which I completely discarded. I agree hamburger helper aint the best and perhaps thats what it may have been. I made some hamburgers last Friday for a few of my buddies and no one complained, in fact they were all impressed by it. I think maybe Im going to thaw another pack and cook it all by itself and try eating it with no artificial flavouring. One way or another I feel morally bound to consume it as I am certain it is perfectly safe to eat. Maybe it tastes better off the bar b que than the frying pan. I know beef always tastes better grilled.
Sorry about the hambuger helper insult. I was bit rude. But I used to love it as a teenager and I tried it awhile ago and maybe it was "off" but it made the hamburger taste terrible. I don't waste food ever but I had to chuck out that stuff and have never had hamburger helper since.