Roasts or Burger?

[cnelk]

There are times when I’m cutting up my deer or elk and have to decide if I want a roast or turn it into burger.

I don’t mind roasts, easy to make and tasty.
Burger has a lot more options in the kitchen

Seems like I tend to make more burger than roasts.

What’s your preference?

 

[Ac338]

We go through a lot of ground due to having five kids so I would say 90% of the time front and hind quarters go to ground. We never grind the neck or shanks as neck roasts and braised shanks are some of the meals we look forward to the most. At least 3-4 deer a year are done just like this. If we end up with a fifth or sixth deer that’s when I’ll break down the quarters into some roasts or save a couple bigger ones for muscle jerky. Ground is just super convenient and vac sealed flat takes next to no time to thaw so that’s where a majority of our venison goes.

 

[wapitibob]

Making more roasts now and saving shanks but haven't tried those yet. 150# of burger takes a while to get thru. Did most of the pronghorn in Italian sausage and saved one bone in shoulder for the bbq. Brought my saw this year for Elk ribs but seems I've forgotten how to kill them so that'll have to wait till next year.

 

[MallardSX2]

We put a half an elk and 2 deer to straight burger and 2 other deer to bacon burger this year. My family goes through a lot of burger in a year.

We cut a few roasts and slice jerky and cube steak the rest.

 

[Geewhiz]

Grind it all. Sacrilege, I know, but more often than not I grind 100%

My family has no problem going through a couple elk and a few deer and/or antelope worth of burger each year.

 

[cnelk]

Can’t go wrong with ground burger.
Easy to make summer sausage out of too.

 

[Firestone]

I usually get a lot of burger anyway so a couple of roasts are nice. A lot of the time we take a roast out and chop it into stew meat

 

[justinspicher]

Grind everything but the backstraps and tenderloins.

 

[Taudisio]

My uncle, who harvests more animals in a year than most, always told me before I had a family, “Get your animals turned into what you will eat the most.” This was after I had cubed stew and cut roasts as much as possible out of a deer. A lot of it got given away because I never cooked that way for myself. The next few deer as a single man, I cut the straps into steaks, and the rest was jerky.
Now I grind everything I don’t cut into steaks because that’s what my wife likes to cook, burgers, tacos, chili mac, and spaghetti. She likes turkey as stew, but deer and elk are either steaks, burger/breakfast sausage, or pressed jerky. Bears go straight into pressed jerky that I literally eat every day (she won’t touch it). Between the two of us, one deer and elk will last us until about July. So it lets me plan hunts accordingly.

 

[LongWayAround]

Rounds become jerky
Bone-in shoulder roasts
Neck roasts
Shanks "roast"
Backstraps and tenders grilled

Grind whatever is left

 

[Danny Hoey]

Cut roasts. Then grind roasts into burger if you don't eat them.

 

[Gbrecka]

We started canning roasts, we like and utilize that more than the roasts. Ready to eat, and use for sandwiches or stews. Also grind a pile of burger.

 

[Dakota Dude]

I burger basically everything except for the tenderloins. My kids don't eat the steaks, so burger it is.

 

[BBob]

Burger. Other than the tenderloins and backstraps Elk is all burger and deer 100% goes to various sausage (mostly chorizo) or snack sticks.

 

[Poser]

I've really moved away from doing whole roasts with game meat with the exception of shanks.
Last couple of years, I'll cut the meat up into stew sized pieces and freeze it in 2 lbs batches. The prime cuts are marked for "grind" and then cuts with more silverskin are marked for "stew". I then thaw and grind before cooking. Some years I cook more stew, other years, I use more ground meat. This way, I'm not committed to either until I'm ready to start cooking.