19 Ground Venison Recipes | What to Make with Your Deer Meat (2024)

FAQs

What do you mix with ground venison? ›

Pure ground venison cooks up great with a little cooking fat like pork lard. However, many people like to add fattier cuts of meat or pure animal fat to their ground venison to enhance the taste and spread their venison out into more meals.

Beef fat works well with ground venison, and makes the flavor closer to ground beef. Pork fat is lower in saturated fat, has less flavor and will allow the venison flavor to shine.

Cook to a minimum of 160 degrees F. When you grind meat, you spread any bacteria present throughout the entire batch.

Beef fat is the way to go IMHO in fact buy some cheap burger 70/30 and mix it 50/50 with your ground venison, It will make the best burgers you have ever had. I use about 30% fatty pork with ground venison.

Pork belly has a tendency to overpower the flavor of lean cuts, while fatback compliments them. You can also use beef suet, but the texture and flavor aren't as good as pork. Another option is tallow from wild game, although deer fat is very saturated and waxy.

Since deer meat is a leaner meat than beef, you'll more than likely have to add olive oil to the meat when cooking it. This is especially true for browning ground meat. I usually just add onions, garlic, and bell peppers with a little olive oil in the pan while I'm browning the meat.

If you grind it yourself, untrimmed pork shoulder ground together with the venison adds just the right amount of fatty flavor. Also, inexpensive bacon ends and pieces taste great when added to a venison burger patty. Carefully trim venison before grinding.

Large cuts of venison taste best when pot-roasted for several hours. If you have access to a crock pot, use any recipe for beef pot roast and you'll be pleasantly surprised. However, instead of cooking for two to four hours, venison may require substantially longer cooking time for the meat to become tender.

Particularly for medium-rare doneness, venison needs to achieve an internal temperature of 145°F before removing from the heat, whereas ground venison must be cooked at 160°F. Additionally, a casserole dish made from venison including leftover meats must be reheated to 165°F .

Do not leave venison or other wild game in a car trunk where warmer temperatures promote bacterial growth. Use a cooler filled with ice or dry ice to store cut meat. Process venison as soon as possible. Venison will spoil if it hangs without refrigeration in warm weather.

How is deer best cooked? ›

The better cuts of a deer are best cooked quickly with high heat and, because venison is very lean, not past medium-rare. All too often, antlered game hindquarters get ground into sausage, burger and, well, just ground rather than leaving the whole muscles intact.

While venison is slightly higher in cholesterol than other types of meat, it's also lower in calories and saturated fat. Therefore, venison can fit into a well-rounded diet — just remember to enjoy it in moderation and pair it with a variety of other nutrient-dense sources of protein.

Add Fat: Since venison is lean, you can add some fat to the mixture to improve moisture and binding. Consider mixing it with pork fat, bacon, or even ground beef. Aim for a ratio of about 80-85% venison to 15-20% fat.

You don't need to add pork to venison, but it can be a little dry due to being so lean, so cooking it with some bacon adds some fatty flavor to venison. For venison hamburger meat any pork fat will do for getting the lean venison to stick together, and it tastes delicious.

Given that deer are leaner than cows, venison is generally healthier to eat than beef. An average cut of venison, in fact, has around half the calories and a sixth the saturated fats of a similarly sized cut of beef. It also has more proteins, vitamins and minerals than beef.

The CDC also urges hunters to cook their venison more thoroughly. They recommend cooking steaks and other whole cuts to at least 145 degrees at the center and letting it rest three minutes before carving and eating to ensure the heat kills all parasites. Ground venison should be cooked to at least 160 degrees.