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I’m a big fan of Outside Magazine and Outsideonline.com. I recently subscribed again to the magazine (for free of course).

(I used some of my free FREE Spirit miles from their 1,000,000,000 miles giveaway over the summer. Check out my post about Spirit’s State of the Hate Report and find out a little about the promo. If you didn’t claim your share of the miles, you can still do so- a link where to go is in the post.)

Outside is great because they talk about all different interesting things- travel, sports, gear reviews, news and other topics related to the outdoors…

The newest article that I came across was related to animals, food and New Jersey. Talk about an interesting combination.

The article I am referring to is aptly titled “New Jersey to Hunters: Have Your Bear and Eat It, Too“.

According to the article, NJ does not give out cookbooks to hunters that kill bears. (That is what a New York Times article reported.)

But they do give out recipes!

Outside includes a quote from Lawrence Hajna, spokeswoman for the NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection that “It’s just a couple of Xeroxed recipes, and it’s not new, we’ve given it out for the last few years”. Definitely odd, no?!

The NJ Black Bear Recipe Guide includes such handy tips like how to butcher and safely cook bear meat. Some recipes include Bear Steak & Beer, Big Bear Pot Roast, Bear Burgers (not to be confused with the chain Bareburger in the NYC area), Bear Satay on a Stick and more.

So why is NJ providing bear recipes?

Outside writes that they want to get more people to shoot bears. The state “introduced an annual bear hunt in 2010 after nuisance complaints rose 133 percent over five years”. The other goal is to teach people that bear meat can taste good…

Would you be interested in trying bear meat? I would.

I actually kind of did while in Estonia back in 2007. While dining at medieval restaurant Olde Hansa, I ordered a plate of mixed sausages made of bear, boar and elk. (I checked their website and the dish is still on the menu!) They also offer a bear dish but it was quite expensive in comparison.

Find out more about New Jersey’s bear situation from Outside Magazine here.