doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - OT: making burger out of game.

A question for the cognoscenti here: if you do it yourself, how do you process your game animals? I have outsourced it in the past and have never been entirely happy with the results so... is there a general process that folks observe here? Unlike domesticated animals, game animals (deer, elk and antelope) inevitably have little or no fat in their muscle tissue so when making things like sausage or burgers, some form of fat must be added to keep things cohesive when grilled. I've read about adding lard, pork and/or beef fat (I even have an associate who adds olive oil) and there are probably other options I haven't even thought about yet. My solution to-date has been to add just enough ground chuck to achieve about a 94% lean primary grind. Hamburgers stick together nicely, have great flavor and any resulting meatloaf is perfection and comes out with no fat left in the pan. To that primary grind we then add ground pork and spices for breakfast and summer sausages. Italian sausage is made with the usual (fennel and other) spices and it's used for things like spaghettis and lasagna and whatever seems to compliment those traditional flavors.



Who else does this little dance? Not a bad way to spend a dark and snowy January day, btw.

I cannot get my head around my US cousins taking best free range venison and turning it into burger patties. That's for philistines, my wife always makes a wonderful venison meal and creates the sauce from the cooked meat, then again we do use knifes and forks to eat with. Sorry, could not resist it. Happy new year to all.