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Bear,fat, lard and oil

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I looked at a fine post on rendering bear some time ago and I thought it was here :idunno: but I am having no luck searching.

It went over the making of both lard and oil.

:confused: can you make bear tallow??? Do bear have that kidney fat?

Anyway my hunt next month there is a chance at Bear (they have a great service berry crop & the scrub oak are full of acorns) and I would like to read through the process for both oil and lard again.

Anyone remember from whence this post came? Or know of another that will walk me through it all?
 
Cut the fat into small pieces and render them over a low flame. Scoop out the "cracklins" and add fresh fat. Collect the rendered grease.

You can purify the grease by boiling it in water, letting it set and discarding the water. Bear grease is soft, so letting it harden in the fridge/freezer will allow you to remove the crud that collects on the bottom of the grease puck. Repeat the purification a few times and the fat will be nearly white and relatively odorless. (The process thus far works very well for making deer tallow. Deer tallow is waxy and will set fairly solid at room temperature)

Let the grease sit and the oil will eventually rise to the top where it can be collected.

I remember someone once saying that rendering at a higher heat yielded more oil than grease, but I have no way to confirm or deny. Rendering at a higher heat takes the chance of scorching and the rendered material is darker.
 
Worth every bit of effort to do this. Just had hare browned in bear fat and last week a pie with bear lard. Makes you feel like a human!
 
:thumbsup:

1st though I have to get the bear, and as there is no baiting, or hounds aloud here, and I have the worst luck seeing bears :( in all my years I have only seen 3 wild bear and only looked at 1 over a rifle. But I could not judge his size and let him walk.

I hope I have the problem of how to make the oil, but making meat is the first problem. :grin:
 
Sean, I am no expert generally rely on perseverance, luck and the mistakes made by critters to get meat.

Here are a couple thoughts.

Bears are lazy and hungry. They will visit what they know. Find something a bear is eating and he will come by again. i.e a greened up spot, berry patch etc.

Keep in mind that one rock hard obviously weeks old bear track in the mud might be all that guy leaves in the area despite tramping around there daily. Do not dismiss any sign.

Once you find that one track that tells you that you are in the nieghbourhood you'll also know his size.

There might be one or three guys out there that can judge a bear over a rifle. Most people cannot. If he "skips" when he runs he is little. If his ears are on the top of his head and look mickey mousish he is little. If his tracks are small so is he. If he is truly a 'monster' he got that way by being smarter then 90% of bears and you probabley wont ever see him :wink: Be satisfied with a mature, meat bear.

You might get a bear to show himself using a fawn bleat call.



All the above is simply what I believe and is worth not much to any one else.

Here is the one thing that is ROCK SOLID info though and ignore it at your peril. Do no shoot that bear when he is facing you at an angle and when he is perfectly broad side wait till his front leg is stretched out forward. If your super lucky he will stand quartering away.

Look at some of those diagrams published by departments etc. You will see the bone structure that gets in the way.

bear meat is the best fare in the forest. Marbled fat and tastes just a tad better then grass fed beef.
 
Sean - since this is about getting the bear here's a bit of advice from an old bear hunter. During the 1970's I spent most of my life living in the Pacific Northwest, mostly Washington state, and when I first moved there some of the lumber companies had bounties on black bears since they would tear up there tree plantations.
During that time I hunted black bears a lot, taking several from small (125 pounds) to large (450 pounds) all taken with various muzzle loaders in calibers from .450 Rigby Express to an 11 gauge Potsdam musket.
Anyway ddoyle pretty much has it right although I'd disagree somewhat.
Do no shoot that bear when he is facing you at an angle
Yep this makes for a less than optimum shot, but with the right caliber and load it's not a bad shot per se.

bear meat is the best fare in the forest. Marbled fat and tastes just a tad better then grass fed beef.
Yep it can be finest "pork" you've ever eaten, but that depends on what they've been eating. Had one bear that had gorged on dead and half-dead salmon when they were run and it was nasty - sort of like tuna that's gone off. Another one had apparently been eating nothing but huckle berries and it was soooo sweet it was inedible.
Anyway good luck.....
 
LONG STORY. Once came out of the woods after a 3 week hunt in the Selway. Truck loaded with gear, horns and meat down the street and me standing on the street in Missoula. A young lady approached and said "I see you did ok". I was dressed in plaid wool shirt Filson logger pants and big hat with 3 week beard . How do you know I asked. "well you are the closest to the truck with horns on top, and Virginia tags". You got me I said, where you from? From North Carolina, my hubby and I moved here a couple of years ago. He is attending the university. Did you get a bear she asked, bear lard makes the best pie crust of all. No bears this time but tell me, how long has it been since you had a mess of grits I asked. I'll have you know I had my grits this morning she said, I have em shipped in from NC. Later I enjoyed moose steaks over charcoal before driving back to VA and home.
 
When rendering bear fat, the difference between getting oil and getting lard will depend on the temperature at which the fat is rendered. The higher the temperature, the larger the fat molecules will be and the thicker the product will be. Lower temperatures will yield oil which has shorter molecules than lard. One of the best ways to get oil is to put the fat in some water in a slow cooker and slowly render it out. If you want grease from the fat, simply cut the fat into bite size pieces and fry them until they become "cracklin's". The rendered fat will solidify upon cooling. It will be ready for cooking, however, it will not be clean enough to use to grease your guns because of the bits of cracklin's and salt left in it. To clean it up for use on metal, you will need to filter it through some folded cheese cloth to remove the bits of cracklin's. Then you will need to remove the natural salt by boiling the grease in water. After boiling the lard in water, let it cool until it solidifies and then skim it off. Replace the water and boil it again. Three or four boilings are required to remove all of the salt and make a nice white lard that can be safely used on metal surfaces.
 
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