My Buck & Deer Burger....

B

bowhunter223

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Shot this guy last weekend near a favorite spot of mine and I think I will grind most of the meat (Except the straps) so the wife and kids will eat more of it.
I'm looking for a good recipe for the grind. Can you guys help me out? I've heard add beef fat, bacon...lots of things. What have you all tried and liked?

Thanks!

-223
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I've never gound up deer burger but when I do grind up elk I make sure to add a little beef fat in with it.

400bull
 
I started grinding and making sausage last year. I'd say its good, but not great yet. The maple breakfast sausage mix turned out great though. I didn't like the Italian too much, but all of it was eaten. It's easier than you think, especially with a little help. You don't have to smoke or cure. There are plenty of good books or websites to help.

To answer the question - for sausage I have used pork, whatever is decent looking but still lower cost. Sometimes bacon trimmings.

Also, I don't know if you are butchering these yourself or not, but there are a couple nice chunks of meat on the hams I would not grind up. They are big enough to easily cut into pieces for chicken frying or Shish Ka Bobs (much healthier). I slice them first and then laying them flat, trim around the outside. I hope this helps some. I probably know just enought to be dangerous.
 
On the cheeper side I would add 20% beef fat, but you will still have a deer taste to it. If you want to spend a little more money and it will taste just like beef burger and the wife and kids will never know the difference. Go to the store and buy the fatest burger you can find (probably around 60/40 or 70/30) and get just as much as you have in deer meat. So you are mixing 50/50 and grind it together, In my opinion you cant tell the difference from regular burger.
 
I use 20% pork (Boston butt or shoulder roasts)cheapest pork with some fat still with the meat usually around $1.99 a pound. My familly eats it like crazy, if you use bacon it smells different then burger and my family didn't like it. Awesome buck too!!!!
 
Nice buck Congrats..

There's 2 large chunks of meat in each rear Quarter that when cut and cooked properly it is damn close as good as the back straps...just something to think about.....

Also I have an awesome recipe for venison shish-kebobs if interested....

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In my humble opinion....I wouldn't add any fat to it. It's the purest healthiest meat on the planet, why add a bunch of crap from a barn yard bottom feeder. I add seasoning at the time of cooking. If the meat is cleaned and properly cooled the flavor shouldn't be an issue. Plus if you are going to make jerky, you won't want any grease in the meat, you'll have to deal with that when drying the jerky.

Olive oil and butter at meal preparationtime is all I ever use.
 
Thanks Guys!! I appreciate the info. I'm doing the butcherung myself, so I will pull the roast off of the rear like suggested. Any and all recipes that you could post, or direct me too, that would be appreciated. I would like to keep the meat as original as possible, but bottom line, it needs to taste good. I personally don't mind a good deer steak, cooked and seasoned properly, but it is a little harder for my wife and girls to "swallow".
Again, thanks on the comments, and good luck to you all in your remaining hunts! Keep the suggestions and recipes coming!!

-223
 
Congratulations on a nice buck!!!

I always mix my ground meat 4:1 with pork trim. Straight deer or elk seems to bee too dry and sticks to the frying pan.

Our family loves the Cabelas brand breakfast sausage mix. Just grind the meat, add the mix, and then we fill quart ziplock freezer bags (1 to 2 lbs each). Pack the ziplck bags flat in the freezer taking up little space. Also when it is time to cook the susage, just peel from the bag and put it right in the pan. the square patties are about 3/4" - 1.25" thick and cook up real nice. just make sure you get all the air out of the bags before freezing. We have tried other methods of freezing ground meat but this seems to be the simplest and most efficient utilization of freezer space. The quart size storage bags work nice for hamburgers as well - just cut the square into four equal pieces and it makes the perfect size burger (except they are square).
 
That's what is so great about venision and elk, it is very lean. I don't add fat to mine. If for some reason one does have a heavy wild taste I'm like stated before. Just add a pound of regular beef burger to a pound of deer burger and you will be fine!!! Just my opinion.
 
Don't add anything. The whole reason we like ground deer is that it is low in fat. Add any spices you want when you cook. Once you have made it into chilli or burgers or anything else requireing ground meat you will never know it is not beef other than it is not greasy. Anyone we have fed it to who doesn't hunt has never known the difference from beef. Being an early season archery deer it will not have any kind of wild taste like they may in the rut. My opinion is add no fat of any kind.
 
The most important thing you can do is take care of the deer when you kill it. Get the hide off and cool it quickly. Make sure to keep it clean.If you are archery hunting and it has taken a while to recover it good luck,it will probably taste like ****. I much prefer venison steaks over ground meat. If you're cutting it yourself trim off anything that is white. If not tell the butcher to do the same. Then take the larger pieces and slice the meat cross grain (thin or thick it's up to you) Put a lb or so in a freezer bag (pt or qt)and wrap it with freezer paper. It will keep for months. When you cook the steaks bread them in a mixture of 1/2 flour 1/2 corn meal with a pinch of oregano. Fry them in bacon grease or butter. (some like olive oil and butter) Add a little salt and pepper and it's wonderful. I like it medium to medium rare, some must have it well done(burned as I call it) I also like the steaks fried in butter with a little garlic powder and salt and pepper. Either way you'll find yourself grinding less and less.
 
Thanks guys for all the recipes and comments!!

And yes....it did take a while to recover. He died in the early evening/night and I recovered him @ 8:30 the next AM. What are your thoughts on the meat??? It did not smell at all bad when I boned him out and it was cool throughout the night he lay dead. Do you think he will still be good eating? I don't know how else you can tell if the meat will be bad without cooking a piece or two up???
Help me out if you know how to tell.
Thanks Again!!
-223
 
"He died in the early evening/night and I recovered him @ 8:30 the next AM. What are your thoughts on the meat??? It did not smell at all bad when I boned him out and it was cool throughout the night he lay dead. Do you think he will still be good eating"

You should have no problems. The meat should be fine.
 
Well....here's a quick report back on the meat. I did the 20% pork ont he grind and it tastes like shiz! I'm a little frustrated because I have 25-30 1.5 lb. pkgs in the freezer along with the backstrap steaks. What can I do guys? I would like to use it. All I can think of now is to jerk it?? I wonder if it could have gone bad? I recovered him early in the AM, like I said, but then it was a 5 hour pack out in the sun and another 1.5 hrs to the freezer...??? I don't know?? All I know is that I have quite a bit of meat, and would like to use it up. Thought/Suggestions/Jerky recipes?

(BTW- I did end up losing the cape becuase it was just out in the heat too long. If the meat followed suit, that may be why?? )

Thanks!

-223
 

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