jwin
Button Buck
Posts: 14
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Post by jwin on Jul 4, 2009 14:39:02 GMT -5
For anyone who grinds their own venison. Do you add any type of beef, beef fat, pork, or anything to the venison before freezing? If so, would you give %'s? Thanks jwin
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Post by rossman40 on Jul 4, 2009 15:34:30 GMT -5
I do not add fat for just deerburger. What is the sense in adding fat if your going for low fat. Most of my deerburger is used up in chili, sloppy joes and tacos. It will also store longer frozen with no fat, supposedly the fat will still decompose when frozen although very very slowly at -10 and below or at least that is what a butcher told me long ago.
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Post by tar12 on Jul 5, 2009 8:06:35 GMT -5
I have added beef and pork and found that anything less than a 70/30 mix is a waste of time if added moisture and taste is what you are after.I vacum seal everything.Never had any go bad before we got it used up.There are several breakfast sausage recipes that include pork and seasonings added to ground deer that are pretty good....
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Post by whyohe on Jul 5, 2009 9:55:38 GMT -5
i dont ground my own but i have had an experiance like that of what rossman said. i had a new butcher that some one recomend make me some pepper burger and onion burger. he used pork and after about 3-4 months the stuff got a funny taste and cooked it all up and fed to the dogs. so becareful. when i was growing up we never added any thing to our burger. i only did this formy wife, she prefeers it that way. i went back to my old butcher and he uses beef and i never had that problem again! maybe he does something different?
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Post by tar12 on Jul 5, 2009 14:39:38 GMT -5
I use the BackWoods fresh sausage seasoning mix from LEM.I also use their Chorizo blood sausage seasoning mix with no problems.They must have a preservative in them.I will research that a little further and let you know for sure.
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Post by rossman40 on Jul 5, 2009 15:24:43 GMT -5
Nowadays I vacuum pack and my freezer is at -20 (Fahrenheit for all you northern guys) and I have kept deer for close to 2 years (roast and steaks). Supposedly you can double your time storing at -20 compared to 0 and of course packaging is also a major factor. The butcher told me 2-3 months was about the limit on pork sausage or deer sausage made with pork fat even at -20. If you want sausage after that defrost some deerburger and then mix it up.
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Post by Buckrub on Aug 7, 2009 9:08:53 GMT -5
I never add fat. My grandson is allergic to all beef products and so I'm trying to feed him with a lot of my deer meat. Plus, the butcher charges extra per pound to grind in beef fat.
However, just for taste, a friend of mine has tried everything and he said lately they have discovered that 20% bacon ground in makes it taste great. I haven't tried it.
I have tried several recipes for actual 'deer sausage' (not sausage added to burger, but attempts to make breakfast sausage with deer meat), and it wasn't very good.....not as long as Jimmy Dean is still in business.
Our deer are so fat that even without fat added, if you fry it, you drain off tons of fat/grease.
What I REALLY want to do is get one of those LEM grinders and do my own. I had a cheap grinder one time and it took me all day to grind up one deer. I swore off of that then. But my son has the smallest LEM and grinds his own deer in Georgia and he says there's nothing to it.
If anyone has any info on LEM grinders please PM me, or email. What I really want to know is which size to buy. There are 2-4 of us at camp that have discussed this. I already have a Turbo Pro vacuum packer, just need the grinder. If we were to do 3 deer at at time, say, would the smallest grinder work ok or would we regret not buying one of the bigger ones?
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Post by minst7877 on Aug 7, 2009 13:47:52 GMT -5
Buy the largest grinder that you can afford to. You will never regret getting a large grinder. A friend and I did 110lbs of burger last year in his at one time and it only took about a hour and it went thru the grinder three times. He has one from Cabela's with a 1 3/4 hp motor.
DC
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Post by edge on Aug 10, 2009 12:03:11 GMT -5
For anyone who grinds their own venison. Do you add any type of beef, beef fat, pork, or anything to the venison before freezing? If so, would you give %'s? Thanks jwin I rarely add anything BEFORE freezing, but often add to it depending on the final meal! Hamburger meat I'd add some sausage, eggs, and spices. If you are just making chili then you are just browning it and the extra fat is not needed. edge.
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Post by wilmsmeyer on Aug 11, 2009 5:06:46 GMT -5
Amen on the size of the grinder.
Interesting on the pork not lasting long. We use approximately 30/70 Pork Loin/Venison. Not a lot of white fat but pork has fat in the meat.
For the chili meat and spaghetti sause, I probably don't need it anyway. I'll have to make some bags separetly.
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Post by mike3132 on Aug 11, 2009 17:18:56 GMT -5
I grind all my deer with a #22 head and to that I have a aluminum bag horn attached. I got 1000 1 lbs. plastic meat bags and a tape machine. First I coarse grind the meat and then grind it right into the plastic bags, then twist the top of the bag and push it threw the tape machine which seals the bag. I plug my grinder into a foot switch so I can turn the grinder on/off and gives me both hands to work with. I can put up a lot of burger pretty fast.
I never add any other meat to my deer burger but sometimes I mix it 50/50 with wild boar to make great tasting meatloaf or grilled burgers. Mike
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Post by raf on Aug 11, 2009 22:10:22 GMT -5
I never add anything to deer meat when freezing. Only when I'm making sausage that I add pork, usually 30% and most of that is meat, not just fat. Some of my venison is ground fresh and frozen until it's needed. Some is frozen whole to be used for jerky or ground later for sausage. I wrap all my meat with freezer paper and haven't had a problem. The bag idea sounds good though.
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Post by ozark on Aug 12, 2009 12:20:27 GMT -5
Ground deer makes great chili and spaghetti sauce but IMO it is not a sausage ingredient worth fooling with. We have mixed it with Jimmy Dean Sausage and that mix is about half as good as pure Jimmy Dean sausage. It isn't terrible grilled if seasoned well. Over the years I have found that some cooks can make vension taste great and some can't get it much superior to shoe leather. No Jerky is a horse of a different color because it is usually highly seasoned and goes down pretty good. I don't want beef or other fat mixed with ground vension. But back to chili, it is tops there.
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Post by mike3132 on Aug 12, 2009 13:55:15 GMT -5
Ozark,
The key to cooking any lean game meat is cook it rare - medium rare. If you cook it too much it gets dry and tastes like leather. I have a recipe for venison summer sausage that very easy and makes a great tasting product. Mike
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Post by muddyhole on Sept 5, 2009 15:09:03 GMT -5
i cut my deer burger with bacon. i like the smoked/hickey flavored type. i add one pice per hand full of cubed deer when i grind. it just enough fat that it won't stick when cooking but not enough that you have to drain like normal burger after cooking.
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Post by petev on Sept 19, 2009 20:23:27 GMT -5
For deer burgers I like 30/70 ground pork chops/venison. I use a handgrinder #22 which I think runs about $40 right now. I grind it twice sometimes with a smaller screen the second time.
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Post by DHinMN on Oct 2, 2009 23:17:42 GMT -5
Ours is pure venison. Debone the venison and remove all the fat senew tendon or anything white as much as practicable. Use it in any receipe that calls for hamberger. Makes great meat loaf. The thing is there can be a difference in deer taken in agricultural areas as opposed to pine timber. That can be a factor on how you like your venison burger.
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Post by forester on Oct 30, 2009 9:10:02 GMT -5
I grind 75-100 lbs of deer a year, vacuum pack and freeze it. I double grind it so that the fat gets mixed well, and when I make sausage it goes through a third time to mix those spices in.
I Add 10% beef fat and make a point of trimming up the deer to get as much of the silver skin off as possible, I would rather waste a little bit of meat than leave too much silver skin in it, that's where the gamey taste comes from to me. That is not to say I want to waste any meat, but quantity of deer is not an issue around here, it is the end of bow season, muzzleloader is about to start and I have 2 in the freezer and passed on 4 other easy shots.
Packaged this way I use it for anything from burgers (just ok) to chilli, tacos, meatloaf, stuffed peppers, whatever. I have had a package slip through and be in the freezer for 2 years before with no ill effect on taste.
I will have to find the name again, but I use a commercial sausage mix and add a fair amount of sage and a little extra beef fat and it makes a very good sausage for either patties or for use ground.
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