Last weekend I went bear hunting. The experience was incredible. So incredible, in fact, that now I feel like the bear energy is inside me!
To summarize, I am someone who advocates nature, who encourages people to eat grass-fed beef, organic products… so I told myself that if I was going to hunt, I would do it in a way that would not harm the animal.
So I was lucky because I went hunting with Stéphane Monette. (For those who don't know him, Stéphane is a true encyclopedia of nature; he can talk about butterflies, mushrooms, leaves, or trees, all with great ease. It's also with him that BBQ Québec worked on the BBQ Québec x La ferme Monette dry marinades , truly great products that give nobility to woodland meat as well as beef, chicken or turkey, for example.) Stéphane, a great connoisseur in the field, explained the steps to me and mentally prepared me to hunt (he also explained to me, among other things, that bear hunting was a good thing because they don't really have any natural predators). So I was very happy when I saw that I had managed to shoot the bear and that it had died instantly; I didn't want him to be hurt.
Anyway, now that all that is over, I'm on a huge high and I couldn't wait to share with you a recipe using bear (which, by the way, is considered by all hunters to be the best meat because of its fat and tenderness)!
So here is an excellent way to prepare bear backstrap , also considered the “fillet mignon” of this beautiful beast:
(To see the recipe live , click here .)
Required tools:
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Thermometer (if you are working with bear meat, you should definitely use a thermometer when cooking, because the bear may have bacteria, so make sure to remove them)
Ingredients :
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100 ml bear fat (or butter), melted
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Bear Backstrap , Complete
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Dry marinade Yukon BBQ Québec x La ferme Monette (or Montréal BBQ Québec )*, to taste
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Appalaches BBQ Québec x La ferme Monette dry marinade , to taste
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Dry marinade L'aube BBQ Québec x La ferme Monette , to taste
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Quebec Bourbon Maple BBQ Sauce , to taste (optional)
Preparation :
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Preheat BBQ to 225°F. (In the live video I preheated my BBQ to 275°F, but after finishing the recipe I realized that 225°F would give a better result.)
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“Pull” melted bear fat (or butter) into the injector syringe and inject it into every inch of the backstrap until it is nicely inflated**.
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Sprinkle Yukon (or Montreal) dry rub over the entire piece of meat (as if it were a steak) and rub it on all sides.
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Sprinkle both sides of the piece of meat with Appalaches dry marinade, then a little L'aube dry marinade on the fatty parts (still on both sides).
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Place the piece of meat in the indirect cooking zone of the BBQ and cook until it reaches an internal temperature of at least 170°F***.
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When the meat has reached the right temperature, increase the heat to maximum and grill it on both sides to give it a nice caramelization.
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Brush the backstrap with Bourbon Maple sauce at the end of cooking to give it a little sweetness (optional).
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Serve, then savor every bite!
* If you don't have Yukon BBQ Québec x La ferme Monette dry rub, which is designed for bear meat, then Montreal dry rub is a good replacement because it was actually used as a base to create Yukon dry rub.
** For an even tastier result, Appalaches dry marinade can also be added to the fat.
*** This can be time consuming, so a WIFI BBQ, like the Camp Chef Smokepro SG 24 , is very convenient because it allows you to know the internal temperature of the meat at all times, right on your smartphone. So there is no need to stay next to it the entire time it is cooking. Otherwise, I recommend cooking the meat until it has an internal temperature between 170 and 200 °F. A temperature of 170 °F gives a tender result reminiscent of a steak, then 200 °F is ideal for shredding the meat.
Happy BBQ!
