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

Thanks all. I think I'll try a few different blends and do the America's Test Kitchen thing. I might have to do some searching for lamb...

I started out grinding venison burger with pork fat. It tasted like pork sausage. Imagine that!

Not being a fan of sausage burgers, I switched to using beef suet at about a 10 to 15% ratio, and the results were much tastier for burgers, tacos, meatballs, meatloaf, etc. My kids prefer venison ground with beef suet over good ground chuck, and complained if I didn't kill a deer. Beef suet is the fat that surrounds the kidneys of steers and heifers. It is a little harder to find than the regular beef fat trimmings available at any butchers shop, but well worth the effort. It can be bought from butchers who slaughter beef cattle. And since demand for it is often-times low, it is often much cheaper than less flavorful alternatives like fatty pork.

A local farm raises and sells bison meat. I'd really like to try to buy some bison suet from them to mix with venison.

beef fat works good...

That's thinking outside the box. I'll bet that would be really good. I love bison.

I'm a meat lover and eschew bad carbs. Each Saturday I join some buddies for lunch at a local restaurant for burgers, shrimp or wings. They have a "beast burger" on the menu that consists of 25% (each) bison, elk, Wagyu beef and "wild" hog. It's wonderful. I always get it sans bun. It's great!

Like Keith, it is beef kidney fat. My BinL is a butcher and used to cut up to 200 deer a year for hunter. He says if your going to use it soon adding pork works but if you are going to freeze it beef kidney fat will stay flavorful in the freezer a lot longer. He makes award winning Fresh Brats, he won't give me the recipe.

I skinned for him for a couple years He would have a whole garage stacked full of frozen deer. I'd bring in enough to thaw and skin them so he and my sister could butcher after the store closed, I usually had a dozen or so in various stages of thaw hanging in the basement. I got to sell the hides or got paid by the customer if they wanted the to save the hides or I sent them off to the tannery for them.

Another vote for adding beef fat in one form or another to ground venison. Long ago we used pork & then smartened up & started using beef. Pork is OK if you consume it within couple
of months months but ground venison patties w/beef are (to me) better tasting compared to pork & as others have posted will keep much longer in the freezer than patties made w/ fatty pork.

IMHO, If used only for spaghetti sauce, meatloaf, chili, tacos & etc. well trimmed & ground venison doesn't need anything else added. For burger patties on the grill or pan fried, added beef fat really helps. We use 25% good quality ground chuck as a fat adder & to extend our venison patties.

The chef from a local BBQ joint hooked me up with local small farmer pork. I went with Der Ami's Boston butt recommendation and am very pleased with the results. It kind of seemed less than ideal to mix venison with factory farmed fat. We made a bunch of breakfast sausage and chorizo. 3 more quarters to go. Still hunting for lamb fat.

sounds so good!