Which and How Much Fat for Venison Sausage and Burger

[Voyageur]

Curious what people have to say about adding fat to venison sausage and burger. Specifically, here are my questions:
What percent to add?
I've noticed some venison sausages and sticks have a tacky tallow that coats the inside of your mouth and doesn't taste good while others melt in your mouth and taste excellent. Is this due to the type of fat added? To the point....which type of fat is best to add, beef or pork?
Thanks.

 

[Jbxl20]

For hamburgers, I buy bacon ends, grind them up and add them to my deer burger. About a 70% deer and 30% bacon ends. I usually do 10 lbs at time so 7lb deer 3lb bacon ends. I freeze them into patty’s and when we want burgers I throw them on the traeger with some Montreal steak seasoning. Always a hit, even from my friends/family that aren’t big wild game eaters.

 

[bsnedeker]

There are probably over a dozen threads on this topic on this forum. I'd search those out.

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[davsco]

we never add fat to any deer or elk meat. comes out just fine lean, sorta the benefit / difference vs beef and pork.

 

[journeyman713]

I go two parts clean venison, to one part pork belly, or beef trim. If using pork butt, it’s almost 50 to 50 ratio.

 

[kjw]

This is just me personally, for burger, I usually add just enough beef fat to help it stick together for a patty. Usually ends up around 3%. It usually comes in big chunks from the butcher so when it’s mostly froze I run it through a food processor and it chips it up. I do a second grind on my burger and run it through on the second pass. Seems to help incorporate it better.
For sausage, I will try to find a couple Boston butts on sale a Costco. The percentage on this for me varies. For brats and things of that style I run 10%-20%. But then for some of my breakfast sausage I will sometimes go almost 50/50.
This is the fun part of doing it yourself is you can experiment. One thing I’ve learned to do is before a case it or bag it, I take a small bit and fry it up to make sure it’s what I want. It allows me to add more fat, grind, or seasoning to get the product I want

 

[Laelkhunter]

For burgers, I use1/4 cheap ground beef (plenty of fat) 3/4 venison, and for sausage I use 1/2 venison and 1/2 ground pork butt roast.

 

[Steve from GA]

This is my first year butchering. I went with 20% pork fat for burger and 30% pork fat for breakfast sausage. Both have been fantastic.

 

[svivian]

I only went 10% pork fat on my burger this year for elk and it was perfect. Summer sausage we did 20% pork fat. Beef fat freezes longer but can have a stronger taste while pork fat is more neutral flavor but can sour in the freezer faster. If you are eating all your meat in a year I would use pork fat.

 

[go_deep]

Don't mix anything into elk burger. Sausages all depend, breakfast or itialian sausage 30% pork butt, brat or polish sausage 50% pork butt.

 

[elkguide]

If your getting a tallow taste/feeling eating your venison it sounds like somebody cut into the bones while processing. OK for beef to be processed that way but a big no no for venison. You must bone out your deer and elk before processing.

From my experience with deer and elk, both are very lean and thus you need to add enough fat to keep your burger together. For deer, I use pork fat but 99% of the time I use bacon. If I'm using pork fat, I will use 5-10%. If I am using bacon it tends to be 10-20% depending on how lean the bacon is. For elk, I find that beef fat tends to taste and work better.

Good luck. There is nothing like a good "bacon burger!"

 

[Mike D Texas]

Venison I will usually do 10-15% beef fat or 20% bacon.

I’ve not done sausage other than pork sausage but for pork breakfast sausage I normally add 25-30% pork fat to a pork butt.


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[Azone]

Add about 10 percent beef fat to your burger. Nothing worse than a crumbling patty, by the time you add bread crumbs, eggs or whatever other binder your just making a meatloaf. I know the purity prudes will flame me, go for it.
Sausage shoot for about 25 percent pork or beef fat. I usually go in about 60 percent venison and 40 percent Boston butt. If the butts are running lean I will add additional fat till it looks right. Nothing worse than a lean butt. Sausage is supposed to be good not healthy, that’s what soy burgers are for.
Experiment in small increments till you find your happy place. Think of it like women, what one man scoffs at, another will find her to be a solid 10.
Partially frozen fat is WAY EASIER to deal will as well. Have fun.

 

[AZ_Hunter_2000]

When doing the processing myself…
Did do a batch of brats once that were comprised of 100% wild game. They were good but dense. We now do 20% port fat.

Most of our ground does not get any fat added. But when we do it us 10%; either cow or port depending on what’s available or in the mood for.

 

[rayporter]

just remember that with pork you should cook it well and not rare. with most commercially raised hogs it is probably safe rare. probably.
i prefer no fat but the cook likes about 10% beef fat added, which allows meat to be cooked rare instead of like leather.

 

[hibernation]

I don't cut anything into our burger, and use it for spaghetti, chili, and obviously burgers. Sausage gets about 20% pork fat for most recipes and that seems to turn out well. Pork fatback works the best in my opinion, it's harder and cuts into the sausage real well. Pork belly is an alright second, but the fat is softer and doesn't end up with quite as good a texture. Haven't used tallow before but I'd think the beef flavor would be stronger than I want.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Not a huge sausage guy, but burger and other ground meat is my favorite!

Always process myself and limit tallow into the grinder. You don't need to mix any other meat with elk or venison.

When you're making your patties throw in a raw egg or two depending on how much meat, and a touch of garlic salt/pepper in a big mixing bowl with the ground meat. They hold together perfectly on the grill, in the pan, on the smoker, etc. Usually one egg plus the salt/pepper is enough to bind them up on 2 lbs. This was 4.5 lbs of meat in the photos below from a few nights ago.

I made the patties and then placed them in the fridge for a few hours. Salt both sides and then place in the smoker at 475, 8 minutes per side. Mesquite, Oak, and Apple wood in the smoker.

After the after the flip, add your cheese with about 2-3 minutes left. These were thick cut pepper jack, doubled up so they didn't melt down as much as normal. Rest for about 5 minutes covered while everyone gets their buns and sides ready. Juiciest and most flavorful burgers you'll ever eat!

 

[doc holiday13]

i try to add 8-10% fat.

 

[SuperDUECE22]

For summer sausage, snack sticks, brats & ring bologna we usually add 25-30% pork

 

[joe.cassell.3]

Looks good. I typically add some sort of fat to the Michigan Whitetail. The best meat I've had was Montana Mule Deer. Nothing added. Delicious