Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation grinding venison

just got a new electric grinder ni the week and will be trying it out this evening-other than grinding the meat while still partially frozen, any other tips? when would one add jalapeno and cheese? or bacon? after the grin or while being in the grinder?

Depends on what kind of meat I'm grinding. Pork shoulder has enough fat for my taste usually but grinding venison I'll add 15%-20% beef or pork fat. I have used bacon sometimes and it makes good burgers but for chili or taco meat I don't care for it. The only sausage I make is breakfast, boudin and andouille so no cheese or jalapeno.

What are you going to do with the meat and jalapeno? If it's going to be burgers, the presumably you're adding either straight fat or fatty mat like pork shoulder. That means a second grind and I would add the jalapeno in the second grind. If it's going to be sausage, then the should be a mix stage and that's when I'd add the jalapeno.

I went to our grocery store and bought fat to grind with my meat this year. It was my first time doing it, but I’m glad I did. The was was ribeye cap fat that they save for that some of us hunters. I think it was $1/lb. The meat I was grinding was a mule deer and part of an elk I got in WY while I was up there for Thanksgiving. I had about 70 pounds to grind and I used 10-15 pounds of fat. I used the biggest plate on the LEM grinder and ground all of the VERY cold meat and fat separately. I’d grind about 10 pounds of meat and then about 1-2 pounds of fat. When that was all done i mixed it together, changed the plate to the smaller one, and ran it all again. This is absolutely the best ground meat I’ve eaten from any wild game. I’ll do this from here on out. I don’t add anything else because that can be done during the prep for what I’m going to cook.

Hell big boy, if do it while grindin, great idea...

I don't do sausage but grind a lot of venison for burger. I grind my own beef on occasion as well. Found a trick with the last batch.I had always cubed my meat. I would then use the pusher to more or less force it through the grinder. Read somewhere to cut your meat into strips up to maybe inch thick and not quite as wide as the grinder neck. Damn what a difference. The meat wraps around the auger and feeds right into the knives. No pushing was needed just drop it in. Cleanup was way easier as well. Grinder neck was not all caked up with meat paste.

As for my venison grind I mix with beef. I buy the fattest chuck roasts I can find and mix 2 parts venison to 1 part beef. Beef seems to add not only the fat venison lacks but also a good amount of moisture.

I like sausage of all kinds a lot. But to me it is a waste of venison. Sausage it going to taste like whatever seasoning you use. You can grind up most anything it is going to taste the same. I like the taste of venison so I use it in ways that I taste the meat.

Did make some sausages out of wild boars my brother shot. Turned out ok. Needed more fat. Also from my research after the fact, I think things got too warm while grinding and stuffing and the fat melted. If I did it again I would try a trick I read about. As your grinding and mixing and stuffing you want to keep things very very cold. You can start with everything cold but it warms up quick. What to do? Get some pelleted dry ice. You just periodically add a bit to the grinder. Add some to the grind after the first grind when you season. It will get everything very cold and not add any extra moisture. As for amounts no real science to it. Add enough to the grinder to keep the neck feeling very cold to the touch same for any container your mixing in. Never tried it but makes sense to me.

I don't add fat or cut the venison with other meats unless its for sausages.

10% BEEF fat for burger.

30% PORK fat for sausage.

The other items go on top of the burger.

I like to double grind. Larger plate first then the smaller plate. Do that for links or bulk

I grind my venison with the coarse plate, run thru a 2nd time adding 1/3 pork butt or Honey Baked Ham scraps. Makes great burgers, summer sausage and breakfast sausage. Most time the burgers or sausage goes in the smoker with alderwood chips.

I usually add some beef fat to mine. But I've also added bacon and that makes one heck of a good hamburger>

I have done the bacon too. A little goes a long way.

Tried the inexpensive bacon ends and it pretty much ruined the meat. I think they had synthetic maple smoke flavor added and that was a deal breaker.
Usually I don't add anything but the sirloin fat is really good for burghers and at 10% still works for spaghetti and lasagna. The baco burgher are good too, just make sure it is a bacon you would want to eat by itself.

I usually kill two lambs a year, save a few pounds of the snow white leaf fat to add to deer meat. Best I've found, no clash, doesn't change the flavor of venison, just kind of goes along with it.

pro tip...

In addition to getting the meat almost frozen before you grind, place the worm, plate gear and all parts you can in the freezer. This will help you with a clean grind and reduce heat.

I work up my own deer. 3 or4 a year. I mix beef fat with my deer. Run it through 1 time alternating lean meat then fat. Then mix it up and run it all back through the grinder again.

We usually get bacon pieces and ends for our fat. We take it out of the packaging and lay it out on cookie sheets and.place in freezer. We usually coarse grind adding about 10% bacon mixed in. I haven't been able to hunt or fish the last 3 years so haven't ground anything lately.

Add the jalapeño , cheese fat after the second grind. I just run the japan eons separately through the fine grind plate. Then mix in with the meat.

In the past, when grinding wild meat, I have added beef fat and pork sausage to the mix...until 5 years ago, when I experienced cardiac arrest and open heart surgery. Since, I have just ground the meat as is, not adding anything. I honestly like it better now. I don't have any problems with the patties holding together and the ground meat when used to make chili, tacos, meat loaf, etc. is superb. My wife is a good hand in the kitchen, though. She could probably make anything taste good. Just a thought.

+10 I don't add anything to it anymore either and just grind 1 time coarse plate. MB