How to Mix Deer Meat & Hamburger

Venison meat is leaner than hamburger meat.

Venison is a lean, healthy meat. When ground, it can be used in many of the recipes where you typically use hamburger meat, including tacos, burgers, meatballs and meatloaf. However, to make your stock of venison last longer, you can mix it with ground beef. Combining venison and hamburger meat not only stretches your venison, but balances out the lean to fat ratio for cooking different dishes.

Things You'll Need

• Venison
• Ground beef
• Marinades (optional)
• Frying pans or meatloaf pans (optional)

Instructions

1. Grind your venison meat. If you hunt and are used to processing your own meat, you can skin the deer and remove the meat from the bones then put the meat through a grinder. If you have been gifted with a leg of venison by a hunting friend and are unused to handling fresh-killed meat, take the meat to a butcher shop to have them do this.

2. Prepare the venison for cooking by thawing out a small package of your frozen meat. If you, or others in your family, dislike the gamey flavor of deer meat, you may wish to soak the meat in salt, vinegar and water before cooking. You can also marinate venison in wine, Italian salad dressing or citrus juice.

3. Decide what dish you want to make and how many people you are going to feed. If you are making a recipe where you want the ground meat to produce some fat for cooking, like hamburgers, use a 50-50 mix of ground beef and venison. If making a recipe where you want less fat, such as meatloaf, use 80 percent venison and 20 percent ground beef.

4. Mix your venison and ground beef in a bowl. Add the usual seasonings you would use for your recipe if making it only with hamburger meat. If you wish to mitigate and slightly disguise the flavor of deer meat, you may want to make the recipe slightly spicier.

5. Cook the meat per the recipe instructions, whether baking a meatloaf or frying hamburgers in a pan on the stove or grilling them outdoors. Serve your guests

References

• Circle of Moms: Recipe Swap, Ground Deer Meat Recipes
• Thrifty Fun: Mixing Ground Meat with Venison
• Bella Online: Venison Recipes