Until I read a biography of Daniel Boone a few years ago, I had no desire to hunt bears. But after reading about bear bacon, how it was made, and how it was the preferred game meat during the days of westward expansion, my interest was piqued. I delved into the characteristics of bear meat and along the way, found a lot of information about bear fat. 

From what I read, bear fat was (and still is, in come circles) THE fat to have available in the kitchen. I had to try for myself.

I set out for my first bear hunt last season, during the early firearms season in the George Washington National Forest. Long story short, my hunt was unsuccessful (I’ll get into that another time), but the desire to cook with bear fat and meat became even more pressing.

We have experimented with the wild fats available to us in many recipes, but when we mentioned that we hadn’t tried bear lard on an instagram post, Michael Vialpando contacted us, and sent us some bear fat to try out.

The rendered fat arrived at our house in a format I imagine it has been in for a century- a mason jar, with a handwritten label: “Colorado Bear Fat.”

I had a lot of ideas, actually, pages of ideas, of all the things I wanted to try and cook with bear fat if and when we ever killed a bear. But since this jar was a finite resource, I didn't want to squander it without giving it the best chance to meet my expectations.

It just so happened that we had foraged some wild blackberries at a local WMA recently. A bear fat cobbler seemed appropriate.

This was our first taste of bear fat, and it lived up to the positive hype. Bear fat seems to fall somewhere between butter and shortening in texture. Mildly flavored, we can see this fat being used in just about any application. 

I can't thank Michael enough for the opportunity to try out this ingredient, I owe you one.

Wild Berry & Bear Fat Cobbler Recipe

Prep: 15 minutes

Cook time: 45-55 minutes

We used wild blackberries here, but try it with any fruit local to your area.

Ingredients:

for the berries:

6-8 cups berries

2 tbsp yuzu or lemon juice

¼ cup sugar

3 tbsp cornstarch

for the crust:

1 ½ cups flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

¼ cup sugar

6 tbsp bear fat, chilled and diced (substitute butter or beaver lard)

¾ cup milk

Method

Preheat oven to 350F

Toss berries, ¼ cup sugar, yuzu juice, and cornstarch in a mixing bowl, set aside.

Mix flour, ¼ cup sugar, and baking powder. Add cold bear fat, and use a fork to cut in until the mixture is crumbly looking, like wet sand. Add milk into flour mixture and stir until a soft dough forms.

Pour berry mixture into a deep sided 9x9 baking pan. Spoon the dough over berry mixture. Don't worry about getting it evenly distributed, the variation in thickness will add texture.

Bake for 45-55 minutes until golden brown and skewer inserted into dough comes out clean.