Pelmeni and the Eating of Bears
Nov 19th, 2010 | By Hank Shaw | Category: Northern European, Recipe, Wild Game | Comments | 30 Comments |
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
I finally ate bear last night, and it was good.
For some of you, the fact that bear can be good eating is no great surprise: The hunting and eating of bears has been going on long before we out-competed the horrific (and thankfully extinct) cave bear for the best places to shelter ourselves from the rigors of the Ice Age. Bear hunting has been part of American life since we arrived in the 17th century, and roast bear has been on the menu for more than a few state dinners during our nation’s youth.
Bear regularly made its way to market before the sale of wild game was outlawed in the early 1900s, and it retained a place in the American palate right through the late 1950s. One of the best-selling cookbooks of all time, Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking (first written in 1947) includes a section on bear with helpful butchering tips, such as how to remove the scent glands behind the animal’s hind legs.
Even more telling is that the 1957 edition of the Gourmet Cookbook includes three recipes for bear. Gourmet magazine has never catered to the redneck hunter crowd: Putting bear in their cookbook means it was a legitimate facet of haute cuisine.
So why have I (and, I daresay, many of you) always felt ambivalent about eating bears? Was it watching Grizzly Adams as a kid? Winnie the Pooh? Maybe it was because I clutched a teddy bear every night when I was tucked into bed as a toddler. Hard to say.
My personal experiences with black bears have been fleeting, and mostly annoying; they routinely pillaged my father’s garbage when he lived in the Watchung hills of New Jersey. When I’ve seen them, which is rare, bear have been an ink spot looking at me from a distant meadow, or a fading crash through the underbrush as the beast ran from my approach. I have never seen a grizzly bear.
Photo by Steve Hillebrand, US Fish & Wildlife Service
But something else is at work here, a cloudy notion that bears are somehow different from deer or ducks or upland birds. Bears manage to be cute and cruel all at once — most of us balance, uneasily, the mental image of the fuzzy, huggy bear of childhood with the knowledge that at least some bears will happily tear you apart and eat you alive, if given the chance. It’s worth noting that the only land animal that routinely hunts and eats humans isn’t the lion, or the alligator, or the tiger: It’s the polar bear.
Then there is the biological fact that bears a) are omnivores like us, and b) look disturbingly like people when skinned. The American Indians put bears in a different spiritual place in part for this reason. Of all the things humans eat with any regularity, bears come closest to being us.
Finally, there is the practical consideration reported by most modern bear hunters that bear meat is insanely variable. Eat a bear that had been dining on berries and manzanita and you are in for a feast. Eat a bear that had gorged on salmon and it’ll taste like low tide on a hot day. Ew. This fact alone has thus far stopped me from buying a bear tag.
All of this stuff swirled through my head earlier this year when California went though a round-and-round over whether to expand the number of counties where we can hunt bear. All I heard during the debate was “trophy bear” this and “trophy bear” that. Holly, who is more active in hunting politics than I am, started asking every bear hunter she could find if they did in fact eat the bears they shot. “Of course,” was the answer. No one shoots a 150-pound bear (normal for California) for the rug; it’s too small. Most of our bears are “eaters.”
I decided then to buy a bear tag and hunt one for the first time. Sadly, life intervened and I never did get around to it. But my colleague Cork Graham did shoot a bear last week, and was kind enough to offer me some bear stew meat and a half-pound bear flat roast; the roast has a meat grain like a brisket, only much smaller.
My first impression is that bear looks like lamb. Very red, but far lighter than venison and darker than most pork. Closest match would be the darkest part of a high-quality pork shoulder. I put my nose up to the meat and inhaled. Surprisingly, there was no smell. Everything I’d heard about bear was that it was smelly. Cork must have dressed and cared for the meat very well.
What to do with this meat? In the kitchen, the most important thing you need to know about bear is that it is the single biggest vector for trichinosis in North America. No one gets trichinosis from domestic hogs anymore, but they sure do from wild boar, bear and, oddly, walrus.
To kill trichinae parasites you need to hit at least 135 degrees and hold it there for a long time, at least an hour. Safer to get the meat up to 145-150 degrees, which is medium — still pink, by the way. Ignore the old warnings about 180 degrees and such. I do plan a bear dish cooked medium, but that’s another post. I thought I’d start with something traditional.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Behold Siberian pelmeni, pretty dumplings widely eaten all over Russia. To me, no culture screams “bear” more than Russia. A look through the 1935 edition of The Derrydale Game Cookbook turns up Bear Steak Czar Alexandre, Breast of Bear in Sour Cream, Russian Braised Bear Liver, and the memorably named Fillet of Bear a la Zinoff. Unfortunately, none of these dishes would work with what Cork gave me. But then I started reading about pelmeni, sourdough dumplings filled with all sorts of things.
Like bear meat. Apparently the oldest pelmeni were made with onions and bear meat (or venison) and frozen outside in the snow to be eaten on the trail by, you guessed it, bear hunters. Perfect!
I used this recipe as a guide, although lacking whey I used buttermilk instead to make the dough. I also used a mixture of King Arthur white-wheat flour and spelt flour because I wanted a rustic, rough-hewn look to the dumplings. I mixed the flour and buttermilk, covered it and let it sit on the counter for 48 hours. It could have probably sat for another day, but it was reasonably sour nonetheless.
As for my pelmeni filling, I ground two pounds of the bear meat, mixed it with a pound of my basic bacon, added pepper, a little salt, a little garlic and lots of onion. Onion seems to be a constant in pelmeni filling.
The dumplings are traditionally made by rolling the dough into a snake, then cutting off a walnut-sized piece and rolling it flat with a pin. Uh, no? I used my pasta maker instead, rolling the dough just midway — it’s supposed to be about 1/16 of an inch thick. Way easier.
I cut 2-inch circles from the dough with a cutter and in went a scant tablespoon of the filling. You fold the circle over into a fat half-moon, then pinch the edges to make a gigantic tortelloni.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Since the bear was raw I boiled the dumplings for a good 6-7 minutes, which was plenty. Sometimes they are served in broth, but apparently the Siberians think this is in poor taste. Sometimes they are fried after boiling, but most often pelmeni are simply served boiled with sour cream; I added lots of dill to mine.
First bite? Juicy, rich, earthy and savory, with a twang of something that said, “I Am Not Beef.” Holly and I thought it reminded us of the wonderful yak meat momos we’d eaten at a Tibetan restaurant in Minnesota years ago. No strong odor, no off taste. This was some damn good bear.
A few dumplings cannot wash away a lifetime of ambivalence, but I feel differently about bear now. We all hold food prejudices — I won’t be eating dogs or cats anytime soon — and most are based on culture, not flavor. Some people lump bears into the dog-and-cat category, but growing up I’d read so many stories about early Americans eating bear that it seemed more antiquated than obscene; in my mind, bear had always teetered on the edge of acceptability.
These dumplings pushed it over the edge for me. Eating the last dumpling, I thought of one of my favorite Swahili sayings: Wanyama ni nyama tu. All meat is meat. Even bears.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
pelmeni, Russian Bear Dumplings
Pelmeni originated in Siberia, where the original fillings were most likely venison and bear. I made these with bear meat, but you could use the more modern Russian mixture of beef and pork. Any meat will do, really. You will need a lot of onion to go with it, as this is a defining feature of these dumplings.
Traditionally pelmeni are made with sourdough, started with whey. If you can get your hands on whey, substitute it for the buttermilk in the recipe. If you can’t find buttermilk, use regular milk. If you want to make a sourdough, you make a sponge with egg yolks and some of the flour and the why/buttermilk/milk and let it sit on the counter for a few days. make sure your eggs are of the highest quality before you do this.
Alternatively, you can just make the flour the day you serve the dumplings. This is what most modern Russian cooks do.
How to serve? Most people just boil their pelmeni and eat with something like sour cream and dill, but you could serve the dumplings in a broth, or your could boil them and then dry the pelmeni for a snack.
This recipe makes a lot of dumplings, but they freeze really well. Don’t worry: You’ll eat them up fast!
Makes 50-60 dumplings.
Prep Time: 3 hours
Cook Time: 8 minutes
FILLING
- 2 pounds bear, wild boar, pork or beef
- 3/4 pound pancetta, unsmoked bacon or salt pork
- Salt
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons black pepper
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, lard or butter
- 1 large onion, chopped
DOUGH
- 2 cups spelt flour, whole wheat flour or farro flour
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk or whey (or regular milk)
- 6 egg yolks
- If you are making the sourdough version, start 3 days in advance. Mix the spelt flour and salt with egg yolks and the buttermilk or whey into a batter, cover with plastic wrap and leave on the counter. Every day add 1/2 to 1 cup of regular flour, mixing well. Keep the dough covered.
- To make the filling, slice the bear and bacon into 1-inch chunks, making sure to remove all silverskin from the meat. Toss with the black pepper and garlic. If you are using uncured pork, like pork fat or pork shoulder, add 2 tablespoons kosher salt. If you are using bacon, salt pork or pancetta, add a teaspoon. Put the mixture in the freezer.
- Heat the oil or butter over medium-high heat and saute the onion until it just begins to brown, about 5-6 minutes. Move the onion to a sheet pan or large plate to cool.
- While the onion is cooling, you can make the quick dough or finish the sourdough. Mix the remaining flour with the rest of the dough ingredients and knead well. If you are doing a sourdough, you will need to punch the dough down before kneading. Add enough regular flour while kneading to make sure the dough is no longer sticky. Knead at least 5 minutes.
- Coat the dough with a little oil and cover with plastic wrap. leave it for at least an hour.
- Take the meat and fat mixture from the freezer and mix it with the cooled onions. Grind everything through a meat grinder fitted with the fine die. Alternatively, pulse everything fine in a food processor. Do not make a paste. Mix the meat well with your (very clean) hands and set in the fridge. Clean up before proceeding.
- There are two ways to roll out the dough. Traditionally, you roll the dough into a long snake the diameter of a walnut. Cut off pieces and roll them flat with a rolling pin; you want them to be 1/16 of an inch thick. Or, is you have a pasta maker, roll the dough out to a medium setting. My Atlas’ thinnest setting is No. 9, so I went to No. 5. Cut out 2-inch circles with a cutter or wineglass.
- Fill each dumpling with a scant tablespoon of filling. Fold over the circle into a half-moon and, if you want, pinch the ends of the half-moon together to make a circular dumpling that has a rim.
- Boil the dumplings for 6-8 minutes to make sure the bear or pork has fully cooked. Serve with sour cream mixed with dill and black pepper.
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Interesting stuff indeed! I remember reading somewhere about trichinosis in bears, and that turned me off the idea a bit. The dumplings look fantastic mate – love the idea of sour cream with them, and in broth I bet they would be fantastic too.
What are your plans for the bear meat?
[...] Upcoming Hank Shaw Bear Recipe: For an excellent recipe from friend and food writer, Hank Shaw, who I gave a sampling of frozen meat from this bear at our pheasant opener last Saturday, check out his bear pelmeni recipe: Hunter Angler Gardner Cook. [...]
Makes me want to get a bunch of new books, Hank–great take on American tastes and bear!
Winnie the Pooh and the Teddy Bear did it for me. But, once I tasted bear for the first time, and considering how much the CA bear population has exploded, even taking over ancient brown bear areas, I can’t get enough!
On the topic of meat care, you betcha! I had that bear gutted within 15 minutes of the kill, and skinned within an hour, and its quarters cool to the touch within two hours of the shot. If everyone treated their game like a fine butcher treats a freshly killed steer, game table horror stories would be a thing of the past!
Those look delicious. I can understand that ambivalence towards eating bear. I’m not quite sure what it is. Maybe people saying that it’s not very good? Maybe the fact that they do eat meat, but then so do pigs and I’m not against eating them. Who knows?
I have nothing against eating bear from a sentimental standpoint, but my dad always warned against it, saying the meat was oily. I take it this wasn’t the case for you! I suppose it depends on the bear and the cook.
I have had bear before. It was when I was a teenager and my then boyfriend went Moose and Bear hunting. The Moose I don’t remember eating but the bear I do. I don’t think I liked it but then again my taste over decades have matured. I do have to say that reading Cork Graham’s Bear Bourginon recipe really hit my funny bone. I now want to try that recipe. Anyone know where I can get a few pounds of Bear stew meat? :—)
My only rule for meat is that I won’t eat anything that’s endangered. I don’t want to contribute to the end of a species. So I wouldn’t eat polar bear, but black bear, no problem. To that end, I’ve enjoyed a dog soup in South Korea.
All meat is meat. Including dogs:
http://indirectheat.blogspot.com/2010/06/korean-dog-soup.html
Wow, you really did your homework on that dish. I have family from Khabarovsk, so I’ve had the pleasure of making these a couple times. Though your dough isn’t like what I’ve experienced, I can see why you chose do do it that way.
I made the mistake once of claiming that the dough was similar to a Chinese potsticker, to which I was met with a scowl and told that it was certainly not!! Apparently the Southern Siberian Russians have had some bad territorial disputes with the Chinese. Whoops!
I’ve never had pelmeni in broth, so maybe you’re right about the “poor taste” comment? But, I can certainly attest that mayonnaise and/or butter were always present.
I’ve eaten a lot of pelmenyi in the place that claims them as their own: Udmurtia, just on the European side of the Urals. Never, ever heard that they’d been made with bear once upon a time. Did hear that the filling should be nothing but meat and raw onion. Not that I can state for sure that the Udmurts didn’t once make them with bear. I did get the chance to make some from scratch while I was there. The dough was not like eggy pasta sheets. There was one egg, but mixed with a fair bit of water into the flour. These days they like a mixture of beef and pork for the filling. I only ever had them served boiled, with either smetana (infinitely better than our sour cream) or vinegar, the latter of which was fun because of the pronunciation in Russian: “SOOK-soos-am.” I preferred them with smetana. Some people put chopped scallions on top too. Lots of people over there buy 50-pound bags of pelmenyi and leave them out on their balconies all through the Russian winter. Zero chance of spoilage.
Nice. I’ve still never tried the stuff, although the guys that take me hunting have as the odd one has made a move into their moose camp over the years. I do want to give it a go. That and cougar, which apparently yields wicked lard for pastry dough.
[...] Bear as an alternative to pork or lamb. [Hunter Angler Gardener Cook] // [...]
This is a fabulous alternative to my usual bear stew. Will have to try. Thanks!
I thought freezing meat for several days at 0F would kill the larval worms too. You did not mentioned that in your post, and that made me curious. So of course I “googled”. Apparently freezing only works for pork, not other meat, as the Trichinella in game meat is much more resistant to freezing. Now I know if my husband comes back with bear (season started today) – freezing not good enough!
http://www.everestongrand.com/
Everest on Grand is a wonderful restaurant, and I’m wondering if it is the one you are referring to. The yak momos are really good!
Well, Hank, I have no sentimental attachement to bears, but I have to admit the idea of eating one grosses me out a bit. I cannot explain it. Now, if I was invited to your house and you cooked those dumplings, then I’d be happy to try them. I’m just not going to seek one out I guess. Same is true of racoon, armadillo, beaver, I’m just not eating them if I have a choice. They had several of these on cookingissues.com a few months back actually and racoon and beaver just did not seem that appetizing to put it mildly.
Having hunted black bear in northern NH once before, I can tell you that it is pure adrenaline with a good deal of fear and apprehension folded in. You are in their element. Kind of like surfing in shark-infested waters. They know you are there. They can smell you. They know their environment well, and every sound or smell will spook them. I spent 20 hours in a bear stand and never pulled a trigger. I can’t wait to get back up there and try it again.
There is not much better meat grilled than black bear. It is every bit as good as sirloin steak tips. I tried it a few years ago at a wild game dinner while at a decoy show in Jersey. Darn tasty critter! The meat we had was marinated for two days in a smoky wild berry chipotle sauce. Man was it good.
Best,
Nate
We have a weird similar thing here in Australia with Kangaroos. But the truth of the matter is that Kangaroo have a minimal impact on the environment compared to introduced sheep and cattle and the meat is on of the leanest red meats available. It’s because they are cute and bouncy. But they have been providing a regular source of meat for Aborigines for 40,000+ years. So what’s changed?
Lowrah: Yep, it was indeed Everest on Grand! Nice catch.
E. Nassar: I saw that same thread on Cooking Issues. Raccoon looked gnarly. I would have portioned it out.
Rohan: Never eaten kangaroo before. Is it like rabbit? Or is it dark meat?
Living in a place that has a larger brown bear population than people (SE Alaska), I tend to be on the side of not eating bears, with the idea that they’ll see me as “friendly” and return the favor.
With black and brown bears in the neighborhood many folks hunt brownies just for sport/trophy and do not utilize the meat (I’ve heard reasons ranging from “too fishy” to too much “trichinosis”, if that is possible….), while black bears usually end up as sausage or roast. Love the recipe above, as well as the historical texts researched for ideas.
[...] there is some form of consensus regarding online food writing, it should be that the author of Hunter Angler Gardner Cook is among the best writers we have. Tales of eating wild duck foie gras or even bear dumplings are [...]
Your dumplings look much too pretty to be pelmeni! My favorite are khinkali though. Larger in size and better spiced. I’ve never heard of bear meat filling before either, but I stand corrected. A restaurant in Berlin offers them with bear
http://www.restaurant-bogus.de/empfehlung.php
Your choice of moose, reindeer or boar as well. (Despite the name they seem to exist: http://www.eat-out.net/restaurant-berlin/wr363636-bogus )
I miss meat choices in German restaurants. Lots of game, sometimes provided by a local hunter, but often farmed I think. Not everyone should need to get a gun and buy a tag just to sample a new kind of meat!
[...] Hank Shaw’s Pelmeni Recipe made with black bear [...]
I definitely respect your right to eat bear meat, game in general, etc…. and respect the longtime history of killing bears for the sustenance they provide! However, some strange longheld aversion must be at play for me regarding bear meat. Somehow, I just feel differently about bear and horse, than about pig and cow. I suspect that pushing myself on this front might cause me to actually give up pork and beef, not swing out more in the other direction.
But I can’t wait to try the dumplings – with perhaps a different (tentatively onion and cheese) filling!
And, I loved the history you provided too though -fascinating.
I have eaten bear only once and that over 60 years ago, one my boss shot as it was trying to wrestle a sow out of her pen on a ranch east of Redding. Can’t rmember how it tasted except that it had a sweeter flavor than usual meats.
In the biography my grandmother wrote about my grandfather William Kent, who was a very avid hunter and outdoorsman, she mentions that he always kept bear fat for cooking because it could be heated far beyond other fats without flaming.
[...] a bear yet, but a friend of ours did last fall, and he shared some of the meat with us. These bear pelmeni that Hank made with the meat were [...]
[...] a bear yet, but a friend of ours did last fall, and he shared some of the meat with us. These bear pelmeni that Hank made with the meat were [...]
[...] · Hank Shaw’s Bear Pelmeni [...]
Nothing wrong with bear!
The two spring hunted bears I have eaten here in Alberta were very good. In fact after hearing how bad it could be I found the meat to have less taste than deer. Most of my non-hunting friends relish it and I have made them umpteen bear meatballs and burgers. I have also used it quite a bit in Bolognaise and Vindaloo.
I normally grind it, only because even in a slow-cooked Vindloo I cant seem to get it tender – its always tough.
However, edible it certainly is (I have heard coastal bears in the fall that eat salmon, can be foul tasting).
Very Interesting. Like the idea of the dish, perhaps with boar or venison. I’m afraid I’m a sentimental Brit, so I can’t quite get my head around bear or even dog meat. Additional to that, possibly a little difficult to get my mits on some bear. Look forward to more of the russian bear recipes, that I perhaps can try with what I do have available…..( though I do have to dispute the plar bear as the worst land born maneater, plenty more deaths due to lion attacks in Africa per annum, many perhaps going unreported….)
You say that traditionally Siberian pelmeni are made with sourdough. I have lived in Siberia and done food research there—and I’ve never seen pelmeni made with sourdough. Could you please tell me where you got that information? I am currently doing research on pelmeni and would like to know more about the sourdough angle. Thanks!