I was thinking of trying this for our hamburger meat and using bacon ends instead of beef fat to do our grind. Anyone done this? For the spaghetti meat I may just grind some beef fat into it since I'm not sure how good bacon spaghetti will turn out.

My brother does that for his everyday burger and swears by it

My uncle used to do that and he made the best burgers ever. It'll be great no matter what you put it in.

Yea I'm thinking it would be hard to go wrong. Did he just do straight bacon/venison and nothing else? This will be my first year doing my own grind.

just pour bacon grease instead of the actual meat

He had an old Griswold grinder mounted on the counter. He ran the meat and bacon through it together and then I cooked it on the grill.

Been a long time since I thought about Uncle Charles. He is my favorite uncle.

Better than Whatabooger? Get outta here!

I buy the boxes of bacon ends and pieces then run it thru the grinder and place in sandwich size freezer bags the freezer....I then use my previously ground venison and/or wild pig and mix in whatever ratio for what I am cooking.

I make chili with 3 lbs of wild pig, 3 lbs of venison, and 1 lb of ground bacon.....Haven't had a complaint yet....

I use the heck out of bacon ends and pieces. For my venison/antelope/or any other lean meat grind for hamburgers I grind 75% venison with 25% bacon. It makes a HUGE difference. I don't add anything to the rest of my ground meat, (normally), until I decide what I'm cooking with it. Yes a little bacon goes great in spaghetti or a sauce piquant!

Oh, this was way before WB but yes they were better.

Opening Day, on this forum, gave me some venison mixed with bacon last year. It was done by Dozers in Fulshear. I gave him some vegetables from my garden. I got the best end of the deal.

I saved it until Cathy came home for Christmas and made spaghetti sauce with it. I had planned to make at least three meals from the batch. Cathy ate the leftovers like they were chili.

Best way to do this is to cook the bacon on its own. Fully cook it, but limp bacon, not crispy. Add that to your grind along with some of the grease.

I've added bacon ends in the past and even ground some with maple bacon. I can smell it when cooking but don't taste the bacon at all.

Most of the time anymore I just grind straight venison unless its a buck I take in for taxi work then I have it ground with beef tallow.

Try this if you can cold smoke the bacon. Smoke it so much that it is too smoky to be good as bacon then grind with your venison 75/25 venison to bacon. The result will be fantastic. Can pan fry or cook on a Foreman grill and think it was cooked over wood coals. Use hickory or pecan for the smoking as that much mesquite gets bitter IMO

Got that tip from Wensel at Wensel's Lone Star Meats in Hamilton. He sells buffalo burger made that way and will process your deer that way. Some of the best bacon burger you will ever have. Works great in other dishes like Chili, and anything else you might use ground beef for.

And yes it is way better than Whataburger or any other burger place I have eaten at. Bought a Master Chef electric smoker with the cold smoker attachment mostly for this but does good smoking other things like link sausage, turkey, Jerky, brisket....

Try this if you can cold smoke the bacon. Smoke it so much that it is too smoky to be good as bacon then grind with your venison 75/25 venison to bacon. The result will be fantastic. Can pan fry or cook on a Foreman grill and think it was cooked over wood coals. Use hickory or pecan for the smoking as that much mesquite gets bitter IMO

Got that tip from Wensel at Wensel's Lone Star Meats in Hamilton. He sells buffalo burger made that way and will process your deer that way. Some of the best bacon burger you will ever have. Works great in other dishes like Chili, and anything else you might use ground beef for.

And yes it is way better than Whataburger or any other burger place I have eaten at. Bought a Master Chef electric smoker with the cold smoker attachment mostly for this but does good smoking other things like link sausage, turkey, Jerky, brisket....

I mix my bacon burger and regular burger together it ends up perfect. Throw on a slice of tomato, pepper jack cheese, mustard and ketchup and it can't be beat.

Alright, made two sample batches. One with 30% bacon and one with 20% brisket trimmings. Made patties out of both. Bacon was spot on, other was good but could go with a little more. Gonna try 30% on the brisket grind tomorrow.

I did 12# of grind with 3# of bacon and 17# of grind with roughly 4# of hard brisket fat (for burger and pan sausage last night.

Gonna try this soon! finishing up doe hunt this coming weekend, theres a old meat market here
in brenham that sells old bacon end and fatty peices for soups and such, may give that a try, remember
they were big cuts of bacon... should add some good flavor there!

thanks.....

hunt safe.....

Been using cheap packages of bacon in my venison burger for years. Just recently made some Italian sausage, snack sticks and some summer sausage using regular ole bacon. Came out excellent!

That sounds interesting, I may have to give that a try.
A guy gave he some bacon/venison grind last year, the burgers were awesome, but I didn't like it for chili at all. I never tried it in anything else.

This sounds like a winner

YES!

for burgers, I do 10% bacon ends & pieces + 20% whole untrimmed chuck roast + 70% venison (+/-)
makes out-of-this world burgers!

for spaghetti ground, I do 60% venison + 40% pork butt or shoulder - I use this in all Italian dishes calling for ground beef or pork. - awesome (no bacon)

breakfast patties - 20% bacon ends & pieces + 20% port butt + 60% venison. fabulous

I prefer the Wright Brand bacon ends & pieces - about $6 for 3 lbs, and very meaty!

I cheat on my venison burger.... 20 pounds of venison trim to a 10 pound chub of 73/27 beef burger. Makes for a great mix abd the wife loves to cook with it!