Venison burgers for dummies

[Bean Counter]

God has been good to me, but I haven't always been good to my venison.  Ive been fortunate not to need a lot of store bought red meat over the past few years, and somehow I've a managed to negoect learning this basic but important culinary skill.    I think i tried grilling some burgers a few years ago and they fell through the grill     please lay the recipes and instructions on me.

Two specific questions.
1. How do you keep your patties flat?  I hate how homemade burgers have a tendency to become like oversized meatballs. 
2. What if anything do you use for fat? I assume this is necessary to keep the burger from drying out as well as coagulate the meat.  Chop up some raw bacon and mix it in? Bacon grease?

[superdown]

I am sure you will get lots of good advice I chose to grind my whole deer into burger meat did not add a thing for the test patty we always do but for dinner we added one whole egg for two pounds of burger meat and they turned out great off the gas grill.put a little dent in the middle of the patty with your thumb and they will be flatter. P.S. if you make your patty's  on something non stick and throw them in the freezer until you have whatever cooking surface hot that will help too.

[Vulcan]

To keep em flat just but an indentation in the center of the patty.

[splashcaster]

I always add an egg. Adding blue cheese crumbles and bacon bits don't hurt. If it's on the grill, I usually add cheese. If its on the stovetop, I add bacon grease to the pan. I've also had the butcher add 10% beef fat to the grind ahead of time. 

[RadSav]

To keep a good venison burger moist and shapely usually requires additional fat and/or a binder.  Besides the usual 5-10% beef suet we have used Applesauce and Oatmeal, Applewood smoked bacon, Teriyaki and bread crumbs all with good success!  Of course when grilling I have to admit Bacon is King!!

I've tried and tried to use the dimple in the center as you would when making beef burgers.  I must be doing something wrong as I can never get my venison burgers to be perfect in shape this way.  Instead I have two methods that seem to produce good results;

Burger press - I have some cheap square burger press with little corrugated like fins.  I press the burger in it as hard as I can without having all the burger squeeze through the gaps.  Seems to work well and I sort of like the square patties.  I expect one of the nicer spring loaded metal burger presses would work just as well, but I've always been too cheap to order one!

The other method is to use a cast iron skillet plate or if cheap like me an old cast iron pan.  Place it on the grill and let it get good and hot.  I cook the burger what I think is just past 50% done in the pan.  Then I flip them onto the grill for the remainder of the cooking time to get the nice grill marks and add the addition grill flavor we like so much.  When I flip to get the grill marks on the second side I add a pat of Tillamook Sweet Cream butter...Hmmmm Butter

[wafisherman]

I grind bacon into my venison.  I use my hands to press down and flatten between then.  While pressing, I use my thumb to press the sides to prevent splitting.  Press hands, thumbs, release, rotate, repeat until it is as flat as desired, and no split sides.

[KFhunter]

I grind bacon into my venison.  I use my hands to press down and flatten between then.  While pressing, I use my thumb to press the sides to prevent splitting.  Press hands, thumbs, release, rotate, repeat until it is as flat as desired, and no split sides.

Same here - identical process right down to the hand job you give it 

[Bean Counter]

I was going to say something, but this is a family site. 

[Bean Counter]

About how much bacon to venison? Say 1 pack of bacon for 2 or 3 pounds of venison?

[Bean Counter]

Oh yeah I grind my venison pure and put it straight into the vacuum sealer bag. No suet or anything added during processing. Just how I do it.

[RadSav]

I add 5-10% by weight.  On burgers closer to the 10%.  Don't forget you have salt in the bacon so take that into consideration when seasoning.

[Bean Counter]

Ok speaking of that. Next question: what seasonings? I have Lowrys and we love it. Maybe some fresh chopped garlic and onions to boot?

[lokidog]

I used to add one part to four lean pork shoulder to venison.  Now I just use straight venison and have no problems with patties holding together.  If you use a fine grinding plate it will hold better than a more coarse grind.  Another yummy way to make it is to look up Salsbury Steak recipes and then fry or cook on the grill.  Or mix an egg into it.

As far as keeping them from turning into balls, I have never used the dimpling method, I just flatten them to about 2/3 the thickness that I want the final burger to be.

[Bean Counter]

Next topic: Pan frying vs cooking on the grill.....


Aaaaand go!

[RadSav]

That sounds good to me!  I love it when the Vidalia's come into season.  We make a lot of burgers when they are in the stores or friends from GA send us some.  Lately I have been seasoning burgers with a Michael Waddell seasoning called Mac Daddy.  It's pretty dang good without all the pepper in our usual Johnny's.  We also use the poultry Johnny's when we do not want so much pepper.

I'm a big fan of stinky cheeses too.  So blue and gorgonzola are regular additions to our venison burgers.  Especially when the Vidalia and/or Walla Walla's are available.  Other favorites would be chanterelle or portabella mushroom burgers,  Canadian Bacon burgers, and Provolone burgers on French rolls served French Dip style with au jus gravy.