# Bear jerky?



## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

If you smoke bear meat at 160 degrees for a while will it kill Trichinosis?


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

longbow said:


> If you smoke bear meat at 160 degrees for a while will it kill Trichinosis?


Depends. Do you mean smoker temp or meat temp?

I'm sure you know that bear meat should reach a temperature of 160° to be safe. That would be hard to do, take a long time, if the smoker temp was only 160°.

I don't do bear jerky but will make some bear summer sausage once in awhile. I try to cook bear summer sausage, or salami, to 162°.

Be careful man.

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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

I heard if you freeze bear meat it will kill Trichanelia. Any truth to that? Wives tale?


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## Packout (Nov 20, 2007)

Freezing does not make pork safe.


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

longbow said:


> I heard if you freeze bear meat it will kill Trichanelia. Any truth to that? Wives tale?


Wives tale. Freezing wild game may not kill all the parasites.Some are freeze resistance.On another note the US pork industry has almost wiped out the parasite in domestic raised hogs.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Packout said:


> Freezing does not make pork safe.


Freezing pork is still an acceptable method to kill trich parasites in pork. Almost all sausage making cookbooks have guidelines, "the chart", for freezing pork to avoid trichinosis. These guidelines set pork preparation rules for cooked and uncooked (cured) pork products found in The Dept of Agriculture's CFR318.10. see: http://cfr.vlex.com/vid/prescribed-pork-destroy-trichinae-19611287 Note that these rules are not applicable to wild or feral hogs.

I use to freeze my pork for uncooked sausage and cured pork meat varieties but I don't anymore. I don't like the texture of thawed-out pork and like Dunkem said, trich is not a problem in store-bought pork anymore. In the old days you could get "certified" pork, pork frozen per the rules. I don't see certified pork these days. I suppose they still offer certified pork though; Dunkem would know, if not maybe he could look in the butcher's meat catalog(s) for us. 

Like Dunkem said, there are different kinds of parasites in wild game versus what's found in pigs and some of the parasites found in wild game are resistant to cold temperatures. So freezing is not acceptable, not entirely safe, for wild game. Also, there's different kinds of trich parasites found in big game versus what's found in bear.

There's a lot of misconceptions about avoiding trich in cooked and uncooked meats, especially cured meats. If you follow the guidelines for curing meat set forth in CFR318.10 uncooked, but cured, pork products will be trich free. I eat a lot of raw meat, especially pork, and in some recipes there's big game meat mixed in with the pork that doesn't see "temperature". I'm OK with the big game I guess, but I always cook bear, lion, and raccoon meat to at least 162° and I wouldn't feel comfortable making jerky from bear, lion or ****.....at least making bear jerky and giving it to someone else. 

Also see the Center for Disease Control guidelines for freezing pork: http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/trichinellosis/prevent.html

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## Mr Muleskinner (Feb 14, 2012)

Not to say that I wouldn't bear jerky but the thing for me is that is makes such good sausage and easily the best chili grind of any meat. No better chili than that made with bear meat IMO.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Mr Muleskinner said:


> Not to say that I wouldn't bear jerky but the thing for me is that is makes such good sausage and easily the best chili grind of any meat. No better chili than that made with bear meat IMO.


Yep.

I was just thinking about all the black bear I've cooked. Back in the 70s my friends and I went up to Ontario every year for the spring bear hunt. There was a dozen or so of us and we usually got 6 bears. I was kinda the designated group chef and had a hog cooker...so I ended up cooking a lot of bear, usually whole or half of a bear cooked all night on a spit. It involved a lot of alcohol (not in the bear, in me). I really don't remember using any meat thermometers....uh really don't remember too much of anything. I wrapped the meat in layers of foil and just cooked it until it fell off the bones. Anyway, it's a wonder a bunch of people didn't get trich or worms or something. :smile:

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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

We can buy some pork products frozen,but I havent seen an actual certified program on frozen pork in years.Something else the pigs raised for retail sale are mostly grain fed,no slop fedor garbage fed.Also anything fed has to be cooked,nothing raw.


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

wyogoob said:


> Yep.
> 
> I was just thinking about all the black bear I've cooked. Back in the 70s I hung with a bunch that went up to Ontario every year for the spring bear hunt. There was a dozen or so of us and we usually got 6 bears. I was kinda the designated group chef and had a hog cooker...so I ended up cooking a lot of bear, usually whole or half of a bear cooked all night on a spit. It involved a lot of alcohol (not in the bear, in me). I really don't remember any thermometers....uh really don't remember too much of anything. I wrapped the meat in layers of foil and just cooked it until it fell off the bones. Anyway, it's a wonder a bunch of people didn't get trich or worms.
> 
> .


It was all the alcohol:mrgreen:


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Shoot guys, I really wanted to make some bear jerky and send it to my son in Utah but better safe than sorry I guess.
I bottled some of my friend's brown bear from two years ago and it was horrid. I cooked some from my bear last year and it was pretty good, for a salmony fall bear. The bear Randy got this year smells really good so I think I'll butcher it into cubes for stew and save a roast or two.
I'll let you know how it turns out. Chuck.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Dunkem said:


> We can buy some pork products frozen,but I havent seen an actual certified program on frozen pork in years.Something else the pigs raised for retail sale are mostly grain fed,no slop fedor garbage fed.Also anything fed has to be cooked,nothing raw.


Pigs are like bears, nasty, and they'll eat anything. Pigs love poop; cattle poop and raccoon poop for sure. Our spring pigs spent a lot of time in the feedlot under the butts of cows waiting for a meal. The late hogs were put out in the picked corn fields to eat the grain that didn't make the wagon and would spend some time out in the timber to "pig" out on acorns.....and raccoon poop; lots of seeds (and parasites) in raccoon poop. 

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## Jmgardner (Sep 17, 2014)

I finally feel like I can be useful on this site for once! My bachelor's degree was in meat science and I'm currently working on a master's in food science with an emphasis in meat.

160 degrees internal temperature is pretty much the golden rule for killing pathogens in meat. however, certain sausages and other processed meats like jerky don't cook to that temperature. the USDA has an appendix that outlines the length of team that a temperature has to be reached before pathogens are killed. ill attach the link below. simply put, that means that if your meat hits 160 degrees at all, your safe, and if you only go to, say, 145, you may have to keep it that hot for 4 minutes or so. read the chart, its pretty self explanatory. hope that helps.

also, whoever mentioned that bear makes good summer sausage, i have to agree! i had most of my bear done in summer sausage and it was incredible!

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal...e-minimum-internal-temperature-chart/ct_index

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FRPubs/95-033F/95-033F_Appendix_A.htm


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Jmgardner said:


> I finally feel like I can be useful on this site for once! My bachelor's degree was in meat science and I'm currently working on a master's in food science with an emphasis in meat.
> 
> 160 degrees internal temperature is pretty much the golden rule for killing pathogens in meat. however, certain sausages and other processed meats like jerky don't cook to that temperature. the USDA has an appendix that outlines the length of team that a temperature has to be reached before pathogens are killed. ill attach the link below. simply put, that means that if your meat hits 160 degrees at all, your safe, and if you only go to, say, 145, you may have to keep it that hot for 4 minutes or so. read the chart, its pretty self explanatory. hope that helps.
> 
> ...


That's all great for domestic livestock but not the rule for wild game especially bear, cougar, and raccoon. The trich parasite (spiralis-something or other) in pigs is seldom the same trich parasite(s) found in these wild animals so say the experts. Check out my link from the CDC.

Every state has it's own "FDA" thingie. There's a wealth of info from some of these state, and provincial, agencies in bear states like PA, WI, MN, MI, NJ, ID....I think PA has the best info on parasites.

"Meat science huh? That's really neat. Are you the pesky prion guy here?

Did you guys go over raccoon in school? Man, raccoons are worse than bears. I've been trying to get sick eating raccoon for over 50 years. :grin:

just curious

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## Jmgardner (Sep 17, 2014)

im not sure I've ever used the word prion before. at the end of the day, I'm still a simple farm boy from alabama so even using "pathogen" is fancier than i like. we've never discussed racoon before. that's something that "academics" unfortunately have no interest in haha. ill check out those sites, but i just know 160 is the temp we normally use for everything but poultry. and that is why beef is better than chicken. eat beef!


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Jmgardner said:


> ................................
> 
> 160 degrees internal temperature is pretty much the golden rule for killing pathogens in meat. however, certain sausages and other processed meats like jerky don't cook to that temperature. the USDA has an appendix that outlines the length of team that a temperature has to be reached before pathogens are killed. ill attach the link below. simply put, that means that if your meat hits 160 degrees at all, your safe, and if you only go to, say, 145, you may have to keep it that hot for 4 minutes or so. read the chart, its pretty self explanatory. hope that helps.
> 
> ...


This is the same "chart" and link I alluded to in post #6. So goes most threads here. We only read the most recent page, the page we're on. 
That's one of the reasons it's important to be on "the top of the page". :neutral:

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