Venison Burger

[vortecMax]

I have quite a bit of burger. When I try to make patties they fall apart. Is this because when ground nothing was added, or is their something I can do to make patties stick together? Thanks

 

[Gator89]

Yes, lack of fat in the ground venison. Some folks have fat added.

I just use ground venison for chili, spaghetti, tacos, etc. where I want the meat to crumble.

For meat loaf, I mix venison and ground beef.

For burgers, I use 100% beef.

 

[tinman]

..........what he said..........

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

I haven't had a lot of venison, but moose and caribou, and always add 20% beef suit.

But when we make meat loaf, we go with very low percent fat and add the same amount of pork, which has more fat in it and that works out well. Same when I make Chile, they mix well and you could make patties if you wanted.

 

[GunnyGene]

I have mine ground with bacon - or fat back.

 

[contender]

I do all my own butchering. I never add any fat to any of my grind. When I make burger patties,, I use a george foreman, or a skillet. Not on a normal outdoor grill. I do often add an egg as a bit of a binder when I'm doing it,,, as well as the seasoning.
I don't have any issues.
I prefer my meat to not have "processed" foods added whenever we can. Beef, pork etc fat has to obtained from a grocery store,,, but we still don't know how it was raised & what it was fed. After Miss Penny's cancer surgery,, we have really watched a lot of what we eat.

 

[pisgah]

When I grind venison for burgers I add some fat to the grind in the form of bacon.

Ummmm-ummmm...

 

[vortecMax]

Thank you for the replies.

 

[wheelgun1958]

Mix in an egg

 

[#1rugerman]

I always had the guy who processed the deer that I didn’t do myself add some fat to any meat that he ground up. I always saved a good bit of the less desired cuts that I cut into chunks for stuff like stews , etc.

 

[Mobuck]

IIRC
Mom usually mixed in an egg and some rolled oats. It's been a LONG time since those lean days when most of our meat ran wild and much of it wasn't quite legal. She had to make the burger go as far as possible.
I didn't have anything added to the elk burger last fall and it seems to handle well enough. Pressing the burgers before cooking seems to firm them up.

 

[Selena]

I agree with Mobuck's mom except I tend to use oatmeal. None of my guys really like ground venison so we use very little. I like to use it for meatloaf mixed with ground beef and just a bit of ground pork.

 

[ndcowboy]

When we grind our venison, any that goes into burger gets a liberal dose of bacon "ends" added to the grind. I don't know if they sell the packages of bacon ends everywhere, but here we can buy them in 3 pound packages and they are mostly fat and little meat.

 

[BearBio]

When I had a bunch of elk and wild pig in grad school, I found that it was best NOT to add fat to the grind. It would go rancid eventually. I mixed my ground with cheap hamburger (70/30 if I could get it) ==pound for pound=a little more "fat" for sausage, etc (ground pork), then cook/process it.

 

[pete44ru]

I have mine ground with bacon - or fat back.

Either ground pork or beef fat/suet should be added to game meat, because the game meat is so lean.

I usually make the end mixture about to have about 10%-20% of the contents one of the fats in it - but I grind the fats together with the game meat at the same time, then re-grind the combined mixture to ensure an even distribution of the fats.

Alternatively, a whole egg can be manually mixed into the venison (in a bowl holding enough ground venison for the intended meal) to hold the meat together.


.

 

[Cracker-American]

When pork butt is on sale I buy a couple and grind them. Then freeze in one pound portions. I do the same with wild hog. I then mix in the proportion we like before cooking. You do have to make sure to cook it well.

 

[ndcowboy]

When I had a bunch of elk and wild pig in grad school, I found that it was best NOT to add fat to the grind. It would go rancid eventually. I mixed my ground with cheap hamburger (70/30 if I could get it) ==pound for pound=a little more "fat" for sausage, etc (ground pork), then cook/process it.

How would it go rancid? If you freeze it there should be no way to go bad. We've added pork fat or bacon for years and never had any go bad. I understand if you were to just leave it in the fridge for weeks, but then it would go bad with or without anything added.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Mom usually mixed in an egg and some rolled oats.

Hi,

Mine always did that with just plain ol' regular ground beef. Dunno why it wouldn't work with leaner game meat as well. I've known guys who just added some pork sausage to their venison, too.

Rick C

 

[Mobuck]

A couple of years back when we processes numerous deer, we mixed around 10% by weight of pork shoulder in some of the deer burger and left some 100% deer. Grouch Attack (and myself) prefers 100% deer for taco, chili, pasta sauce use as it is less greasy. The mixed grind makes good burgers especially when grilled. In 2017, we didn't add any pork to the grind.

 

[Naphtali]

I have quite a bit of burger. When I try to make patties they fall apart. Is this because when ground nothing was added, or is their something I can do to make patties stick together? Thanks

I use raw eggs, egg white only if you prefer, to bind ground meat.