doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT: Grinding venison

What is your preferred fat to add? I hear bacon, butter, sausage, 70/30 burger, chuck roast, and on and on. I've never tried anything other than cow and pig trimmings before. It's an elk -if that makes any difference.

Thanks.

In my humble opinion, whether to add fat at all depends on how you plan to cook the ground venison. If used in chili, meatloaf, spaghetti, shepherd's pie, etc., I think it is best not to add any fat at all. If it is going to be grilled as burgers, then fat helps it stay together and not dry out. Since I use nearly all of my ground venison in the former way, I don't add any fat, so I can't answer the question about which type fat, but I do think that that the aforementioned uses benefit greatly from lean ground venison as opposed to ground beef with its inherent fat.
Nice problem to have, congrats on your elk.

I use pork fat for sausage.
Nothing for most recipes

Never add anything to elk. It’s too good to adulterate.
Afaic, venison is a term reserved for deer. Grazer vs browser.
JR

When I use anything, I prefer Boston butt. One butt per deer's worth of trimmings (after taking our roasts and cubed steaks.
Mike

My choice is lamb. The fat is digestible and really compliments venison.

Another vote for lamb. Perfect with antelope and elk as well. Works well if you happen to like things on the raw side of rare.

5 # box of bacon ends

Im headed out here shortly for both elk and deer. My primary grind is 3 to 1 (even 2 to 1 works well) well-cleaned elk with beef chuck. The beef extends your yield and adds just enough fat to the mix (still 96% lean) to keep it together for grilling. The resulting burgers are exceptional, as is the meatloaf and whatever else we use it for. I call it my primary grind because from there we make Summer and Breakfast sausage with it too.

I buy pork fat at the local CARNICERIA .