Venison Burger...what do you do with it?

[WrstMuleHntr]

Personally, I eat it.

Like others have said, anything we do with ground beef, we also do with ground deer. Half our family of 6 likes deer and the other half thinks that they do not. So on ground meat night we pull out 1 lb of each and cook each separately. Patty melts, tacos, meatballs...all prepped and cooked the same whether it is beef or deer. Just cooked venison meatballs for a potluck today!

 

[rookieforever33]

Other than doing stuff like Snack Sticks or Summer sausage I don't care much for the Burger..and I am meaning white tail deer.
I have never really cared for it and it always seems to leave a gamey after taste to me.
Love it in Snack sticks.
But I have probably 40 lbs of burger and I would like to get some other ideas from you all and what you do with it?
I have tried it in Chilli and spaghetti but don't care for it there either.
What do you all do with it? Recipes etc

There is a old german sausage shop an hour or so from me. Same spot, same family since 1903. They take deboned game meat and besides the normal sticks and such they make old world bratwurst, polish, italian, breakfast, keilbasa, and others. I trust them to do what I cant and make my lesser cuts into edible art. I dont even need to grind it first, but they do take ground. Find a shop like that and let them help. Thank you Wurst Kitchen. Salivating thinking about it.

 

[HighUintas]

We don't eat a ton of grind in my house so this is what I usually do with it. Comes out great!

Also a lot of great Mediterranean and middle eastern recipes that call for ground meat that would be great. Kefta kebabs and Greek style meatballs are two of our favorites.

Heck ya. Kofta kabobs from elk, deer, whatever are great. Especially done on a charcoal grill .

 

[HunterGatherer]

Other than doing stuff like Snack Sticks or Summer sausage I don't care much for the Burger..and I am meaning white tail deer.
I have never really cared for it and it always seems to leave a gamey after taste to me.
Love it in Snack sticks.
But I have probably 40 lbs of burger and I would like to get some other ideas from you all and what you do with it?
I have tried it in Chilli and spaghetti but don't care for it there either.
What do you all do with it? Recipes etc

What’s your aging process? How long do you hang it and and what temperature ? Or do you cut it immediately and/or wet age it ?

 

[jcaud]

Like others have said, I usually do whitetail in taco meat, spaghetti, etc., basically anything that has seasoning or sauce that will flavor it so the wife will eat it.

Can’t seem to get her to eat the mule deer I brought back last year, so I’ve been smoking some jerky and that seems to be a good option as well. I prefer that route rather than a dehydrator.

 

[KnightExtreme]

Sloppy Joes, Meatloaf & Chili come to mind as what I have used Venison Burger for over the last 30 plus years.
KE

 

[Harvey_NW]

What does gamey mean? Wild? I hear people all the time say it’s gamey because you don’t take care of it right. I don’t care how well it’s taken care of, deer tastes like deer, not beef. Some more than others. I’ve had mule deer that smelled like a skunk, taken care of perfectly. Dog wouldn’t even eat it until he buried it and it rotted for awhile, we sure as Hell couldn’t. Our Sitka blacktail are as mild a deer as there is, but they still taste like deer, rutting bucks more so.

To me, "gamey" seems to mean it looks like beef but tastes different from beef. That is meaningless in my mind. Beef tastes like beef, elk tastes like elk, pronghorn tastes like pronghorn, and deer tastes like deer. All that red meat looks the same but tastes different depending on the animal it came from. We always process our own animals and never add anything from another animal to the mix. If there is one thing that is different about wild came as compared to commercial beef it is that wild game needs to be cooked less (more rare) to be it's best.

I disagree, once I learned how to properly field process (skin off immediately, gutless, cooled quickly) and butcher animals, all the meat from elk and deer just taste like lean red meat to me. I've shot mule deer from alpine basins in September to sagebrush flats during the November rut in Montana and never noticed a difference.

If you're wondering whether to do 10 or 20% fat, I HIGHLY suggest testing a sample of it the way you intend to use it. I've always gone 10% pork fat, and had great results. Last year I got some fat off farm raised pigs from a buddy and decided to try 20%, because, why not? Terrible idea, WAY too greasy. It was so sticky it was hard to press out burgers, had to drain a 1/2 cup of grease out of taco meat, just irritating to deal with.