venison burger

[blue_healer_guy]

I could have an opportunity to harvest a couple deer this year, have a son with a license. Question, I've done burger before but found it was really dry and not much flavor. Any tips on how to make it taste more like beef? I have all the gear to make it, just need to make it better. I make a mean breakfast sausage, but the mix is 50-50 with pork, not really interested in that combo.

[Jim Almquist]

You may want to try adding some beef fat to make it a little bit moist and add some flavor.

[Harmonica Bear]

Are you looking to make hamburgers on the grill? If so, with out adding/cutting it with fat, marinades etc., hamburgers are tough to do. I use ground venison in darn near everything I cook that calls for ground beef and find it just wonderful as it is. The venison hamburger on the grill thing however, I find hard to do unless you cut it with something, because venison is so lean there is a fine and delicate line between cooked and overcooked/very dry.

[Deitz Dittrich]

My wife and I dont buy much burger thought the year... we go mostly veni... however, to make my veni last longer .. when I grind it, I mix it about 60/40 Veni to hamburger... at times I'll even mix a little ground pork with it too... I then vacume pack it and freeze it.

[ruster]

My simple recipe is 15lbs venison to 5 lbs beef. I look for the cheap 5 lb tubes of burger, the 75/25 stuff. This provides enough fat to the finished burger without diminishing the venison flavor. With all the available tags the last few years we just don't buy beef anymore, venison is the primary red meat in our home. Also, vacuum packing is the way to go, no freezer burn even after 1 year. i may have to invest in a new one mine is about wore out.

[LABS4ME]

My buddies do a 60/40 veni to beef mixture. We usually buy cheap chuck steak when it's on sale and grind it with the venison.

Another friend uses 1 tube of Jimmy Dean sausage to 5 lbs of venison... uses that in all his cooking.

I make a mean burger mix every fall.

4lbs lean venison

1lb pepper bacon

1/2 white onion

1 pack of lipton onion soup mix

little garlic powder

Grind the venison, bacon and onion sprinkle the soup mix and garlic powder on top and mix evenly. Add a little water if necessary to help when mixing it (1/4 - 1/3 cup).

We use a patty press and put 4 to a pack with patty paper in between. Wonderful on the grill or fried. Fantastic when out icefishing! Even used it to make meatballs a couple times...

Good Luck!

Ken

[Dark Cloud]

Either go with adding ground chuck in the 60/40 to 70/30 range. Or I add good beef fat while double grinding the meat. I used to work at a butcher shop and still have access to the "lip" fat off a whole rib-eye. 15% fat makes a good burger for anything - stuffed peppers, halupki, meatloaf, chili, burgers on the grill. When I had my own restaurant we saved fat trimmings and froze it in small batches till we needed it...

[blue_healer_guy]

Thanks for the reply's. Labs, do you freeze that mix or is that just before cooking?

[LABS4ME]

We freeze it. Last year most of the guys on sausage weekend, made 5-10 pounds each for themselves. It is TASTY! My wife won't eat ground venison and she likes these! I bought a patty press a few years ago, I set it for a quarter pound and make patties... Vacuum pack or freezer wrap 4 to a pack and you are good to go!

I'm thinking of trying out a new idea this year... Adding a good BBQ sauce to the mix and some high temp cheddar cheese cubes. That way when you go ice fishing, all you need is the package of meat and buns! No package of cheese or condiments...

Good Luck!

Ken

[Jorgie]

As said before, I think overcooking them is something to watch for. I made some this summer and they were good, but dry.

[Freewheeler]

Heres one you might want to try. We call it our Venison Bacon burger. When you are grinding up your burger add in some CloverDale Bacon[Vacumn packed ends and pieces] it is quite reasonable to buy and you grind it in up to as much as 50% if you want to[usually less % will do nicely] When you grill these all you'll need is a slice of cheese and you've got one tasty bacon cheese burger. Been doing some this way for years and its always been an asked for favorite.

[LABS4ME]

Yep, can't overcook veni.... or they become the dog's treat!

Good Luck!

Ken

[BLACKJACK]

Quote:

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Any tips on how to make it taste more like beef?

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The smarta$$ answer would be for you to go buy a 1/4 of beef if you don't like the taste of venison. I personally like the taste of venison. When it comes to burgers I just pat them out and sprinkle with a little McCormicks seasoning, very good burgers but as others have said don't overcook!!!!

I just took a deer into the butcher last week and they asked me if I wanted to add pork to it, I declined. Why add fat to a lean product? I like the fact that when I brown a pound of it, I don't have to render/pour off the fat.

Now I will fess up and say that I have high cholesterol so I'm watching fat intake, if I wasn't I'd probably throw a bunch of bacon with it - bacon could make anything taste good!!!

[mskyfshntchr]

Go to a butcher shop and ask them for some tallow. If you give them a few weeks heads up it is usually not a problem and we get ours free. Ask for the best they have- which is from around the kidneys. Clean up your scraps of venison and the tallow before you grind it. The whiter the tallow- the better. We cube the tallow into about 1" squares- depends on your grinder. Mix the meat and tallow as you grind it. We grind it in a 7:1 ratio of burger to tallow. Mix it up really good after grinding and enjoy!! The burgers hold together when cooking and they are not dry at all!

[ripstick]

Got turned on to some hamburger no beef or pork added. Was told to make burgers on the grill. Funny thing was the didnt crumble up. Found out it was ground med first the ground fine with a tiny bit of water. A litle seasoning on them and they were great.

[DeanoB]

there are some really good ideas on here, what i do to keep the burger together before throwing on the grill, is mix in 1 egg per lb of ground, stays together nice, and cuts the venison taste a little.

[Ebiz]

I usually grind up beef suet and mix around 8:1 with venison. Used to used pork but I like my veni burgers rare and the idea of eating rare pork kinda scares me.

Does anyone have any tips to make the suet grind easier? I always have a sticky mess doing that part.

[LABS4ME]

Grind it when it's frozen... When I grind my bacon, it's frozen also.

Good Luck!

Ken

[New Yankee]

Agree completely with the frozen fat - grinds much easier. I also stick my meat in the freezer for about an hour for the same reason prior to the grind, makes it alot easier and cleaner. Trick I've used in clean up was from the Food Channel - run a few pieces of old bread through when you're done with the grinding and it'll take alot of the mess with it before you wash.

[Whoaru99]

Last year we had 1/3 ground beef added to ours. That works pretty good.

However, I've also had pure ground venison and don't really have a problem with dryness - but you gotta be able to take it a bit red (which I like) if you don't want to doctor it up a bunch.

[Hotspotter]

I'm kind of in the same boat as Blackjack, and while it doesn't answer the original question, you can really improve the taste of straight venison burger by how you process your deer. We've had many folks compliment our venison burger, esp. when used in recipes saying they can't taste the difference. Even with hamburgers, a little bit of seasoning, and there's no "off" taste.

Depending on how you butcher, start by rethinking how you do it, and how much you really use your steaks, roasts, and jerky meat. Everybody says they use them, but many of my buddies that "need" their roasts have freezerburned versions from years past. The more of that you can "sacrifice" to hamburger, the better off you'll be.

We usually process 6-8 deer at a time, so roasts from larger bucks and even big does get put to burger to give you the best bang for your buck. Only roasts from smaller does are kept for eating as a roast. Even if you don't have that luxury, think about halving the number of these premium cuts and putting the other half to burger. Even a small amount of the good stuff can dramtically impact the flavor of your burger.

Next step is to get pickier with what you put into burger, realizing the addage "garbage-in, garbage-out" applies doubly here. No deer fat/tallow is the number one rule! Follow this by taking out as much tendon as you can. Obviously there are some areas (front legs/shoulders) where this is tough, but do your best. Finally, be picky around clotted or shot-up areas......sure, it grinds up and you don't know the difference, that is, until you eat it.

We have never added beef/pork/fat of any kind to our burger and have never had a problem with it. Like Ken said though, with any venison, overcook it a tinge and it's dogfood.

I hear all the time from guys about how they can do a deer in an hour and a half. Great. I can too. But I won't like the results when I'm done with it. A big doe takes us 3 hours with two guys, not including the grinding. That said, 6 deer takes us 6 hours for 6 guys.

Joel

[sparcebag]

Pork fat works better than beef tallow,I'll buy pork shoulders (BUTTS) and just fat mix it 20% 23% pork too deer. Try a small amount you may like it! 13% fat the other 7-10% butts

[eyes']

We add a little of the cheapest bacon you can buy, onion, fresh hot peppers and pepper jack cheese and grind it all up. Mix well and that press out 1/4 lb. burgers... Try it you won't be disappointed!!! You can pan fry or just grill... Haven't found anyone yet that doesn't like them and we have been making them this way for about 5 years...

[Hammer Handle]

Exactly! Add bacon, jalapenos, and whatever. Sometimes cheese, onions...whatever. Do this all when grinding.

Makes great burgers! The peppers do not make them "hot", but just get rid of some of the wild taste. The whole family loves them.

Or, make them into brats. Last year we made over 100 pounds of brats...and none survived for the summer grilling season as they were all eaten up.

We always process our own deer. My father is a pro, and we can do 10 deer a day including grinding. Make sure you take all the tallow off the deer, for that gives the meat that "paste" taste.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Hammer Handle-care to share your brat recipe?