The Bear Dance from George Catlin’s North American Indian Portfolio. (London: Chatto & Windus. Vincent, Brooks, lithographer, ca. 1875).
"Bears' paws were long reckoned a great delicacy in Germany, for some authors tell us, that after being salted and smoked, they were reserved for the tables of princes. In North America, bears' flesh was formerly considered equal to pork, the meat having a flavor between beef and pork; and the young cubs were accounted the finest eating in the world. Dr. Brook, in his Natural History, adds--' Most of the planters prefer bears' flesh to beef, veal, pork and mutton. The fat is as white as snow, and extremely sweet and wholesome, for if a man drinks a quart of it at a time, when melted, it will never rise on his stomach! It is of very great use for the frying of fish and other things, and is greatly preferred to butter.'
Tastes have naturally altered since this was written, nearly a century ago, and it would be somewhat difficult to carry on the sport of bear hunting on the extensive scale than practiced, when we are told 500 bears were killed in two of the counties in Virginia in one winter. The Indians seem to have shared largely in the sport and the spoils of the chase for at their subsequent meat, the largest bear was served up as the first course, and they 'roasted him whole, entrails, skin and all, in the same manner as they would barbecue a hog.'
As the paws of the bear were held to be the most delicious morsels about him, so the head was thought to be the worst, and always thrown away; but the tongue and hams are still in repute. The white bear [Polar bear] is eaten by the Esquimaux [Eskimo] and the Danes of Greenland; and when young, and cooked after the manner of beef steaks, is by no means to be despised, although rather insipid; the fat, however, ought to be avoided, as unpleasant to the palate."
The Curiosities of Food, Peter Lund Simmonds, facsimile 1859 edition with an Introduction by Alan Davidson [Ten Speed Press:Berkeley CA] 2001
