Grinding Elk into Burger Questions

[deadwoodbuck]

a good butcher will know what you are talking about.  it is the fat around the kidney area and usually from beef so the elk stays pure.

[wafisherman]

a good butcher will know what you are talking about.  it is the fat around the kidney area and usually from beef so the elk stays pure.

What does it mean to "stay pure"?  Keeping the natural flavor and other properties as much as possible?

I was in a bind with my deer this year and ended up just using bacon.  Worked great.  Cubed up the meat, removed as much white tendon as I could, sliced up 1/2 frozed bacon in small bits, hand mixed in white tub, added flavors\seasoning, chilled in freezer until 1/2 frozen, grinded 2 times.  Made awesome burgers and sausage.

For sausage, I just used some pre-mixed flavoring from Cabelas that I didn't end up caring much for.  Will try something else next time.  For burgers, I just mixed in some worchestire sauce, garlic salt, and black pepper.

Got a meat grider attachment for my wifes heavy duty kitchenaid mixer and spent a few hours griding away (not 2 hours straight grinding - other stuff mixed in...).

Turned out awesome.

Don't have a vacuum sealer yet.  So just put the burger and sausage in freezer zip lock bags.  Other meat was wrapped in butcher paper.  Won't last long in my family of 10, so not worried about freezer burn or anything like that.

[NRA4LIFE]

I like mixing in about about 1 lb of fatty beef to 5 lbs of elk.  That way you can cook your burgers a little rare.

[hornhunter1987]

i mixed 80 pounds elk with 12 pounds pork suet and 8 pounds beef suet. then i use that same burger mix for all my sausage pepperoni breakfast sausage ect

[RadSav]

We course grind the game meat once and fat/pork once, seperate.
Then we hand mix the two and then fine grind for packaging.

That's been my favorite way to do it! 

I prefer beef kidney fat or bear kidney fat if you can find it.  We have three freezers full of game meat each year.  So often some packages can get lost in there or sit for a while.  For that reason I try to stay away from pork.  It just doesn't freeze as nicely as bear or beef.  If we have a banner year our last animals will be course ground and wrapped with no fat at all.  I can then fine grind a few strips of bacon per pound in later.

[Bowgina]

add 15% pork butt... first grind both meats through 1/4 plate then hand mix then grind again 3/116 plate and wala....

[lokidog]

You don't have to add anything....  Just cooked moose burgers last night and not a one fell apart.     Although I did mix in some dried french onion soup mix. 

[wrongway]

I grind twice and add nothing, why add something that is already good for you and tastes great.