Expert: Keith Patton - 10/13/2008

Question
A family member received a Black Bear Heart & Liver, some people say we should not eat them. Some people said freeze them for 14 days (it is frozen now) and then we can fry and eat them like treats in very small portions. Can we eat them and do you have any cooking tips.

Answer
Lynn:

My best advice to you is to check with your local state game agency to see if there are any advisories out against eating it.

This is why.  Organ meats especially the liver, which is the bodies main filter, can concentrate pesticides, herbicides and metals.  If the range of the bear includes areas with lots of agricultural spraying or other pathways of contamination the liver might contain lots of bad stuff you don't want to eat.  In Montana one year I was hunting, they state issued a warning against eating the goose livers for that reason.  They fed in the grain field off of waste grain that dropped during harvesting.  For some reason they got high levels of herbicides and it was recommended against eating them.

I don't know what state the bear was taken in, but knowing how reclusive bears are, I would not think it was taken in an area of concern but I just don't know.  The state agency should.

Now organ meats in general are high in cholesterol and for some can be hard to digest.  I had dishes of nothing but organ meats in Bolivia and Argentina and loved it, even the cow udder, kidney etc.
Anyway, it is pretty much up to the individual pallet.  I would recommend slicing the liver and serving like any other, with fried apples and onions.  The heart you could simmer till tender then grill or cut into smaller pieces and serve japanese style in a rumaki bowl, with sweatened soy sauce (available in oriental food store as Kekap Manis (where our word ketchup comes from...it means sauce) it is thickened soysauce.  You can make it yourself with soy sauce and molasses and some sugar.  Simmer till thickened cook some oriental veggies or just carrots, celery, green beans (they should still be somewhat crisp) and onions, the cut heart should be simmered till tender the serve it over rice with the veggies and topped with the sweetened sauce.