Black Bear Terrine

[RETREVR]

I am making a black bear terrine for a customer. I would like any insight as to the characteristics of bear meat.
I am thinking of doing a country pate with the use of pork and just substituting the bear for part of the pork.
I am also making a wild pheasant terrine. I am thinking I will confit the dark meat and make a mousseline from the white meat. Then I can layer the mousseline with the pulled confit.
Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated

[nowIamone]

My experience with bear (I'm in Alaska) does not lend itself to Terrines, but I can see the possibilities. I have done old fashion headcheese, which is close I suppose. The meat can be stringy, greasy, (like dark pork meat) and the flavour can vary by what the bear has been feeding on. It can have a sweet winey taste; a bit pine/grass like; or possibly a little fishy. Depending where the bear came from, there may be other flavors to consider; i.e. like mint where available, as the bear was feeding on game that was into the mint. You should be able to smell the meat and get a faint aroma from the meat, just like with wine.

Lots of bay leaves, peppercorns, garlic, onion, and juniper berries if available, for marinating or cooking. I think wine is a must for bear, heavy fruity red if I sense a winey/berry essence; a fruity white for pine, grass; a neutral white for fishy with lots of lemon slices and lemon thyme (if you sense, this just go heavy for a citrus/type flavour, like steamed fish; it your only salvation.)

Due consider a heavy fruity sauce for an accent. Port, balsamic with dried cranberries. I have a wonderful old book that had some very elegant wild game recipes in it, but am not sure if I lost it in the house fire a few years ago, I'll look in the old barn when I'm there this afternoon.

[RETREVR]

Thanks. I was planning on doing a crabapple jelly with the pheasant. Maybe I should do a cranberry-juniper with the bear. I just picked up a used copy of a D'Artagnan's book. They won't have a recipe but, I might get some ideas for flavor. Thank you for the insight. It gives me a better starting point and expectation of what I am dealing with.

[piracer]

i thot black bears are like endangered..hmmm

[nowIamone]

Not in my part of the world..............can I send you few of the pests?

[Sjaakie]

my experience with bear it that it smell and taste as piss after heating
some time.
so first try a bit before you use all

[RETREVR]

Black bear has a hunting season. You won't see it on a menu because you cannot sell wild game. It is legal to process it though.

I made the terrine as a country style pate. I took the trim and made a glace, to which I added a bit of gelatine. I then coated the terrin with the glace.
I tasted the beat meat after browning it for the glace. It was really mild. Almost too mild. The overall mix could have used a bit stronger bear flavor.

The pheasant was made into a smooth mousse-like pate using pheasant liver, duck liver, chicken liver, and pheasant meat. I covered it with a pheasant glace aspic. The glace had a great flavor, and the pate had good flavor but did not taste a whole lot different than a chicken or duck pate.


Overall I think they turned-out well. If I were going to develop these as a product(which I don't intend to do), I would like to find a way to get a truer flavor from the bear and pheasant that would distinguish it from their more common counteroparts.