Going to be my first year making ground venison. What is the preferred venison - beef fat ratio? Will be using for burgers, spaghetti, tacos, etc. I know some people prefer straight venison to keep it strictly wild game but I am not that way and want to add beef fat to cover up some of the "gamey" taste so the family will enjoy it as well.

Added fat will not "cover up gamey taste". To make sure you don't have any gamey taste, make sure to remove all of the deer fat and make sure you don't accidentally drop a gland in the grind. Other than that, I do 10% brisket fat in my deer burger grind.

I don't use beef suet for anything except elk or bison. I grind boneless pork 50/50 with all my deer and it's much better. Just find it on sale cheap, buy and freeze until needed!!

Beef and pork work fat work well with venison. 10% to 20% depending on how dry or juicy you want the meat.

1 fatty brisket to two does worth of grind pile. I keep the back straps and tenderloins and then trim carefully and grind the rest. When we run low on roasts I will save a few of those but make mostly hamburger which we use a lot of. I grind coarse first and then a second time with a finer plate which seems to mix the fat in well.

I use pork shoulders for my fat content. For burger I do 70/30 and for breakfast sausage I do 50/50.

20% beef fat for me. My local supermarket charges 30 cents a pound for fat trimmed from beef rib eye.

A friend of mine uses 3 pounds of Wright bacon ends and pieces per 15 pounds of deer. We cut out silver meat, tendons and fat in any of the cubed up deer before grinding. He has a small processing room that we use, I supply cold beer and my labor.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I bought a grinder & stuffer last year and made roughly 40# smoked jalapeno cheese sausage for the first time. I would rate it a 7/10. Only have a few links of sausage left which works out perfect so I have some freezer space. Going to do ground venison and smoked sausage this year.

Wasn't sure if beef or pork is best to mix with hamburger. Seems like either would be fine from the replies above.

Personally, I prefer beef fat with hamburger meat, and pork fat with sausage. But, either will work in either scenario.

I use pork trimmings I buy from H‑E‑B. They are almost solid fat. I don’t know if they have beef trimmings or not. I mix 20% fat to 80% venison for sausage and 10/90 for ground. Works great for us.

I use trimmed picnic pork (pork trimmngs). 60% venison. Muy bueno & schmeck gute!

The trimmings I get are from Boston butts I believe, it is pretty much the fat cap off of them.

Agreed. For ground venison, 20-25% beef fat works great. I personally find that pork fat works best for sausage, but beef fat can be used as well. For making burgers specifically, 80/10/10% venison, beef fat and bacon ends is pretty good, too.

I've thrown in some strips of bacon and that works great.

However, like others have said on here, if you trim the venison correctly, the meat should not taste gamey. Don't miss that gland in the hind quarters! There is one in each leg. That will make the meat taste terrible no matter what you put in it. You can find a video on YouTube to provide more detail.

Until Wifeypoo developed her beef allergy, we would mix 90% nilgai with 10% brisket. It tasted great and held together just fine. After that we just starting mixing in picnic pork as referenced prior. You couldn't get me to add 25% beef tallow to anything - nothing.

Equal parts of ground venison and breakfast sausage works well. Always made it for my mother and she won a chili cook off with it.

For burger go with 10-15% beef fat, for sausage use pork.
Bacon tastes great in grind but everything you cook with it will taste like bacon, not my choice for things I don't cook with bacon usually.

Suet is pretty cheap at the grocery store or butcher shop. We can get ground suet or straight fat to cut and grind ourselves.

I like 15% very smoky bacon for bacon burger and 10% beef fat for just burger.

For burgers I just chop up about 3 slices of bacon per pound and mix that in.

You have to ask for that at the counter, or is it on display. I've never seen it for sale at my store.

I like 80/20 with pork fat for general purpose. 70/30 for making sausage. I will only use beef fat for burgers. To me, beef fat makes anything taste like beef, while pork is milder and lets the game flavor come through.

^^^ this stuff - you can get it at Walmart (package may look a little different, but good stuff (just like Wright brand bacon!)


For Venison Burgers, I use around 10-15% bacon ends/pieces, 25% chuck roast (beef) and the rest venison. Makes amazing burgers.
For breakfast sausage 25% bacon ends/pieces, 25% porkbutt, 50% venison.
For 'italian' venison sausage 50% pork butt or shoulder & 50% venison.

Each mix gets it's own custom spices, of course!

Lately I've been putting about 1.25 pounds into a gallon Freezer ziploc bag, pressing it flat (about 1/2" thick), and 'scoring' the meat in the bag into 'quarters'/ patties.
Makes it EASY to pull however much you need out of the freezer and instantly thaw/cook right onto skillet or grill. NO time wasted thawing.
The 'scored' patties make it easy to break-off just enough for 1 breakfast or 1 sandwich/hamburger if I'm cooking/eating alone, or I can pull 2 whole bags out and make a pot of chili in a snap!

Occasionally I will come across it priced on shelf at one of our H‑E‑B’s. Most of the time I call the meat department and ask if they can save me some.

I just ask for beef trimming at the meat counter, helps to go earlier in the morning when they are trimming for the day.