Well I have never ground up venison. I have an old hand grinder my mother in law gave to me and want to try it out today. I need some tips on what to place in the grind meat. I want to make some hamburgers and possibly sausage patties...or anything else you all can think of this morning. Thanks for any tips and advice. This is the old meat chopper that was given to me.....
I got one almost identical for Christmas last year. I plan on doing the same thing.............if I ever kill a deer How do you plan on packaging the meat for freezing?
Brett, I grind all of my elk/deer. I make burger and breakfast sausage. Some tips I would share. 1. Get every last bit of deer fat and mesintary off of the meat. You will have no game taste whatsoever then. Even on old bucks 5-9 years old that I have ground all of them taste great. 2. I prefer pork fat over beef to make the burger with. I use Bacon Ends, most grocery store meat departments package these. I like 10-1 ratio ... 10 lbs of venison for every pound of bacon ends. Gives the venison burger great flavor. 3. Breakfast sausage is really easy to make. Just do a 10-3 ratio of venison to the pork and mix in the breakfast sausage mix. I buy my breakfast sausage mix from walmart, sportsmans or cabelas. I run venison and pork through first then work the sausage mix in by hand ...then run it all through the grinder one more time.. another tip, I make sausage patties and package them in the vaccum sealer in pack of 6, freeze and then when your ready to cook 'em you thrown them right in the frying pan, no defrosting needed.. real quick and easy way to have sausage for breakfast. 4. On both of the above run your venison and pork fat through twice. I have an electric grinder so that makes it pretty easy, but it definately mixes it more evenly if you run it through twice. Good luck!
I always wondered where people got their pork fat for mixing. I've used bacon in the past so I guess I wasn't too far off.
Thanks Shed! I am heading off to the store here in a bit to get the ingredients. Jim...I plan on packaging it with freezer bags, doubled up. I don't have the vacuum thing, although it sounds like I need to purchase one.
Years ago we always made our own hamburger. We were really close with Troy's post here on what to do and use. I'd take Troy's advise and use It.
First of all with that hand grinder get ready for a couple of long days. We mix ours with pork butt. Get the roasts at your local butcher. We grind all the venison and all the pork seperately. Then season and mix 8 lbs of Venison to 2 pounds of pork (4:1 ratio). Then it all gets re-ground together. At this point you can also stuff pork casings for sausage etc. Vacume pack and freeze..you can use freezer type zip lock bags, but they don't quite keep as long without freezer burn.
If you are going to run it through the grinder twice, grind it coarse or you will end up with mush meat. You can package it in quart freezer bags also, just squeeze most of the air out of the bag before sealing. Will last 6+ months no problem.
Bob, I hear you on the hand grinder and the effort needed. With the amount of stress in my life right now, it will probably be a good thing that I am laboring away for long periods of time. Teejay--I will pick up some of that freezer paper today.
Ziplock makes a freezer bag with a hand pump. You might want to check it out when you go to the store
I just grind my deer meat with nothing added to it. Then I make whatever I want out of the separate packages. I went through 3 different grinders before I found one that actually worked for a good amount of time. Me and the hand grinder lasted all of about an hour. A good breakfast sausage recipe I've used is 2 pounds of ground deer, 1 pound of bacon (cut to little pieces), and 1/3 cup of maple syrup. It is really good stuff. You can also throw in some sage and hot sauce if you want a little spice.
Jim you can squeeze just about as much air out by packing the bag then rollong it to push the air out. Ground meat packs easy. I so use those bags for birds though.
Grinding isnt all that bad either (if the meat is clean). My two wrestlers can gind a whole deer in a half hour no problem.
Yeah Tj is right about the double grinding, I use the course head on my grinder twice.. not the fine one..
I am about ready to get started. Pork fat, bacon, maple syrup, variety of spices I picked up, some country music, and a sweet glass of wine or two or three.....
Wish I could hit the woods as well, but for a variety of reasons my hunting time has been locked down to a minimal. But last night I just thought about my season so far and it is time to enjoy some of the spoils of my hardwork in the form of venison. It is chow time! I am going to save some work for my kids when they get home from school. They are going to love grinding the bloody meat up!
oh yeah my boys are my big helpers when it comes to processing meat, they love it, Jess my 8 year old feeds the grinder and Tyson my 6 year old helps mom with the vacuum sealer and mixing seasonings.. its a big family affair, good stuff.
