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ground venison- your preferred type/% for added fat?

thedutchtouch

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Originally I tried to set this up as a poll, but I think it's likely too nuanced and am interested to hear your preferences/ recipies. I ground my first deer today, ended up making half into burger with ~15% pork fat, and half into sausages/brats with~30% pork fat. Do you have a preferred fat/ratio? It's obviously too late for me to change the recipe for this round, but there's always next time. If you want to post up a whole recipe, yes please (and thank you)!
 
For burger I like 10-15% beef tallow added, actually my wife likes it that way. I do like the way it cooks though.
For summer sausage and sticks no more than 20% pork butt.
For brats. I like them fairly greasy. I'll go as steep as 50/50 - venison /pork butt. I like at least 75/25- venison /pork butt.
 
I'd also like to hear/learn about pork fat vs beef fat
forgotto mention this. yes, agreed. have heard (read: read on the internet) that beef fat = beefy venison taaste, pork fat = venison taste, I don't know enough to compare.


I've been known to eat a beef/pork sausage burger before so figured pork fat wouldn't be bad...
 
I’ve always used a 50/50 ratio. Doesn’t matter if it’s sausage with pork butts or burgers with 80% ground beef. My family loves it either way. I grind everything but the tenderloins and back straps. Those cuts get the 5 day marinade in zesty Italian dressing before grilling.
 
I have done my own butchering on the deer I've killed but there is a place up the road I could take the scraps to have ground and the beef fat is 2-3xs more expensive than the pork....I curious if the extra cost is worth it...I don't own any of that equipment so I would take to them vs buy that stuff....maybe if I was more successful more often be worth it to buy that stuff but I'm not there yet
 
I add about 30% pork butt when making breakfast sausage but the rest of my venison burger I don't add anything. Just gotta be a little more careful with them on the grill so they hold together.

Edit: I will on occasion mix the venison burger with about 30% hot sausage and then patty out burgers and grill them. I'll do it for something different but, I'm not sure that I would call it 'better'.
 
I don't add anything in the beginning when actually butchering. I'll add later on once I know what I'm making with each package of ground. Jerky is straight venison, summer sausage is mixed with 20% ground pork butt, etc.
 
I like the big tubes from Walmart which are 70% lean ground beef. I do about 40% beef and 60% deer if it’s just ground together. Tastes just like beef. For brats I do half pork shoulder (or cheapest big pork cut) and half deer. Tastes amazing and cheap
 
For years I used 3-4lb bags of "bacon ends/pieces" per 50lbs of venison for a good lean mix.
A few years ago I mixed venison and wild pig 50/50 and absolutely love it!
Wild pig meat is "fattier/greasier" even without out the visible fat so it works well for burger.
 
Deer burger - straight up deer, nothing added. We use deer burger for chili, casseroles, etc. I use deer burger with my eggs each morning. We rarely just grill burgers. We go through a ton of burger each year.

Sausage - yeah I prefer pork fat since I like it more than beef fat. Here I like the 70/30 ratio
 
I used to grind and mix at the same time. Now, I grind and freeze 100% deer. Depending on what I'm using it for (tacos, burgers, sausage, chili, meatloaf, etc) I'll add whatever it needs before cooking. It makes the process go faster, and you're not stuck with an overabundance of one thing. Sometimes I use beef, sometimes bacon, sometimes pork butt.
 
For most things I do with ground venison, straight deer. I do chilis, taco meat, meatloaf, shepherds pie, meatballs, sloppy joes, etc. It's better than beef for a lot of that stuff because you don't have to drain any fat. Some of those things such as meatloaf and meatballs, if they need a little fat I'll mix in bacon drippings.

For any kind of sausauge I mix in about 20% pork backfat or just go half and half with a fatty pork butt. I don't really notice a difference between the two, so I usually do the 50/50 method just to bulk up the yield a little more. And the pork butt is easier to find.

When I want a good burger I buy 80/20 beef or grind my own chuck roast. I've had some okayish venison burgers and I'll still make a couple every fall when I have fresh venison to work with. But there are better uses for deer meat and beef just makes a much better burger.

Also I don't grind much when I butcher anymore. I cube the meat, vacuum seal the cubed meat in 1 lb packages, then I can do what I want with it and when I grind it months later it stays fresher that way. This time of year is when I am clearing freezer space to get ready for the upcoming season so I start making a lot of "processed foods". I made 5 lbs of venison Cincinnati chili and 5 lbs of venison/pork gyro meat over the weekend. Then I portion those out and freeze them in individual and family servings. I still have a lot of shanks left from last year, so sometime soon I'll do a big batch of shredded meat for tacos/enchiladas, etc that freeze well vac sealed. Stuff like that makes great quick meals for home and deer camp when I get home from hunting late and want to eat well without a big to do.
 
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I started grinding venison using a food processor and it works surprisingly well. I then grind cheap fatty bacon separately and hand mix it with about a 25/75 bacon to deer ratio.

In terms of both texture and taste, this is the best method I've found so far...
 
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