Savory Smoked Black Bear Ham on the Pellet Grill

One of our favorite things to do with bear is to cure an entire shoulder or hindquarter into a ham, and this bear ham recipe is our absolute favorite Ham can be used for many different recipes from breakfast all the way to dinner. Please note, similar instructions also work for smoked bear roast.

When you prepare the bear meat, if you have plenty of time you can leave a quarter that size soaking in the curing brine for up to a month to ensure the cure works its way all the way into the meat. I don’t have that kind of patience, so I use a marinade injector to pump the brine into the meat and let it soak for about 10 days to 2 weeks.

SERVES 4-8 | DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM | PREP TIME: 10-14 Days | COOK TIME: 6-7 Hours

---



(1) 12-15 pound bone-in bear shoulder or ham, or you can debone and roll the ham if you prefer a boneless cut.

Brine

5 gallons of water

4 cups of brown sugar

4 cups of kosher salt

5 tablespoons Instacure #1(Prague Powder, or Pink Curing Salt)

2 tablespoons pickling spice blend

Glaze

1 cup Honey

½ cup soy sauce

1 Tps *SPG (Salt, Pepper, Garlic)

*Best all-around seasoning (1/3 Cup Kosier Salt, 1/3 Cup Coarse Pepper, 1/3 Cup Granulated Garlic)

1. Mix the cure ingredients in a large plastic or glass container. A food-grade five-gallon bucket works in a pinch. Trim most of the fat from the outside of the ham. A thick layer of fat slows down the intake of the curing brine.

2. Submerge the bear ham in the curing brine. Using a marinade injector, pump the ham full of the brine. Pay particular attention to the center of the ham and the areas along the bone. Inject the ham in several places. While you can’t pump to much brine into the meat, you can definitely pump to little. I keep injecting the meat until I see brine push out of the injection holes around the probe as I pump more into the meat.

3. Allow the ham to remain in the brine for 10-14 days, turning once daily so that all of the ham is exposed equally. If your ham floats, use a glass bowl or container to weight it down so that it is fully submerged.

4. Once the ham has cured, remove it from the brine and rinse the surface with cold, warm or hot water. Place the ham on a wire rack in a large pan or directly on the refrigerator shelf overnight to allow the surface to dry and a pellicle to form.

Smoke the ham at 225 degrees. If you are using a Grilla Grill, use Mode 2 for the first 4 hours for extra flavor. After 4 hours at the lower temperature, increase the temperature of your grill to 325 degrees. Mix the glaze ingredients and brush the glaze over the surface of the ham. Continue cooking at 325 degrees for 2-3 more hours or until the center of the ham reaches 165 degrees. Brush remaining glaze over the ham every 30 minutes for the remaining cook time. After, you can let the bear ham rest for best flavor.

Note when cooking with bear meat, you can save the bear fat to cook with many other recipes! From boneless bear roast to savory bear ham, you can’t go wrong with smoked bear meat.