Grinding deer meat...

[Joey Herring]

My girl just got me a nice meat grinder from Northern Tool. What type of fat do you guys put in your hamburger??
I have heard of using beef fat, bacon (sounds good!!), cheap pork sausage, and even using high fat cheap hamburger meat.
Any tips and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[offshore]

I personally like pork trimmings but beef fat works just as well. We use 10% fat with all our venison. Happy grinding..Mark

[tiggere]

I like 10% pork fat when doing sausage...and 5% beef fat when doing hamburger meat...reason is I find the pork fat ratio just right for making fried sausage patties...and the beef fat ratio works well in sauce type applications (spagetti, chili, etc)...

as for the grinding part...you have to keep that thing cold or it will build up heat and melt the fat...then it won't be distributed evenly...just go slow and put all the metal parts in the freezer for a little while prior to using them...

here is a trick for cleanup...lay out 5 or six slices of bread and let it go stale...then when your done grinding run the stale bread thru...it will clean all the meat out of those "hard to get" spots...you still have to wash it though...I would also store all the metal parts in a bag of rice...this will help keep them from rusting...

As Mark said...happy grinding

[Trojan Joe]

When I was in the meat business, we always used fresh pork trim to mix in with the deer meat. Tiggere has given you a few good pointers as well. Like anything else, you will have fun experimenting with different ingredients.

[worknot]

For hamburger, try not mixing anything at all! We have been doing it this way for years now and have enjoyed every bite! Just cut the extra fat and whitleather ( the clear sticky stuff) away as much as you can. Do not worry about little pieces here and there, put through the grinder and store in a vacuum sealed bag. We have not bought hamburger in yrs and we are a family of 5. Give it a try, I bet you will not regret it.....

[Matuka Fly]

Trim as much of the deer fat away as possible, a little is ok.
I add pork and beef fat not to exceed 10%. Pork gives it flavor and makes for good hamburger patties. The beef fat holds tha pattie meat together. Without the beef fat the hamburger pattie does not stay formed when cooked.

One trick that I use is to put some deer meat in a gallon ziplock bag with the bag being about 1.5" thick when filled. Then after it is frozen I place them into the rest of the meat to get it realy cold and the frozen bags thaw for grinding the next day. This makes for a realy nice grind.

[Buckeye]

I use Pork. Like said above remove the deer fat. I use about 20% pork. Most of the big stores will have pork sholder (we call them pork butts) on sale for New Years usually 99 cents a pound.

[Joey Herring]

Thanks!!!! I'm going to try to mix pork and beef fat in at 10%.

[weekender]

We must like fat cause we use a lot more than you guys. For hamburger, we use beef fat at 6# deer to 1# fat. For sausage, we use pork fat at 3# deer to 1# fat.

[striper101]

For hamburger, try not mixing anything at all! We have been doing it this way for years now and have enjoyed every bite! Just cut the extra fat and whitleather ( the clear sticky stuff) away as much as you can. Do not worry about little pieces here and there, put through the grinder and store in a vacuum sealed bag. We have not bought hamburger in yrs and we are a family of 5. Give it a try, I bet you will not regret it.....

I do it this way also! No fat at all, just straight venison.

You can try it types of ways, till you find one that suits you!