Venison Burgers (Dieters Need not Apply)

I have always been a huge fan of venison but could never quite master venison burgers as they always seemed to dry out too fast regardless how little I tried to cook them. I finally found a recipe that I love. Its a little involved and far from healthy, but its worth the effort and extra calories.

Need:
2lb Ground Venison
1 T Worchestershire Sause
Salt and Pepper
1 T Olive Oil
2 T minced garlic
1 Shallot
6 strips bacon
1 egg

Fry up the bacon in a fry pan(important as we want to keep the grease) and set to side. Keep the bacon grease in a heat proof container to cool. In fry pan, add EVOO, minced shallot and garlic. Cook until soft. Set aside too cool.

Mince bacon and add back to bacon grease. To bacon mixture, add shallots, garlic, worchestershire, egg and whisk. Allow to fully cool to room temperature.

Add ground venison and salt and pepper to taste. Place mixture into fridge for at least 30 minutes to cool. Take out of fridge, patty up the burgers and grill to medium rare. Add your favorite cheese if desired and enjoy.

Now that sounds Yummy – i think I have a few package of Ground Venison in the freezer. I will have to pull some out and give this one a try.

You are making me hungry. When we are grinding ours, I make three different batches. the thing that makes ground venison dry out is how lean it is. go to your local butcher shop and ask them for some beef suet and add that to your venison trim and grind it several times together. I also do a batch with some nice bacon and sometimes a 50/50 mix with 80/20 beef. Beware the bacon as that will turn and burn quicker in the freezer so you should eat those packets within a month or so. don’t be afraid to bread your venison bergers either. I’ve used shore lunch cornbread (which is the best stuff ever for fish or anything) and deep fried them and there are never any leftovers.

We use a 3 to 2 mixture of venison to ground pork to make great burgers. From there you add whatever you want to dress them up. I buy a case of pork butts at Sam’s Club, grind it all up, vacuum seal, and freeze in 5# bags. The venison I do the same. So when we are almost out of burgers we thaw the meat, mix, form into patties with a Tupper Ware hamburger press using a 2/3 cup measure, lightly freeze them so they don’t squish when sealed, vacuum seal them, and freeze them. When we want somthing quick to eat we thaw them and put them on a grill similar to a George Foreman grill for 7 minutes. And they are great for tacos, spaghetti, and anything else you would use regular hamburger for. Having said this I will have to try the recipe listed. Sounds great.