Recipe: How to make deer venison or grass-fed beef burgers
Make Great Venison, Grass-Fed Beef, or Bison Burgers
Looking for a healthy alternative to greasy cheeseburger? Venison burgers, grass-fed beef burgers, and bison burgers are low fat options for delicious natural burgers. This same recipe can be used for any of these meats.
Venison, grass-fed beef, and bison all share an important quality that make it difficult to make them into burgers. They are very lean, and this lack of fat makes it hard for them to hold together in a tight patty, and it leads many people to over cook them. Following this recipe helps prevent both problems. The recipe differs from a traditional hamburger recipe in that it adds fat and binders to the mixture to help prevent the burgers from falling apart on the grill.
Recipe:
Take 1 lb. of venison, grass-fed beef, or bison.
Add 1 or 2 eggs.
1 tsp. of mustard
1 tsp of ketchup
1 tsp. of Worcester sauce
.5 cup of breadcrumbs or crushed crackers
1 tsp of salt
Add pepper to taste.
Mix all ingredients with hands until well mixed. Form into patties and lay onto wax paper.
To form the patty, roll the meat mixture into a ball first. Then, push from the center outward. Leave a depression in the center of the patty because, as the meat shrinks as it cooks, it gathers inward. Leaving the depression will help form a more flat patty in the end.
Cooking note: lean meats should be cooked a lower temperature for LESS time than conventional hamburgers. They will not shrink up the way a fatty burger would. As always make sure the meat is cooked to a safe temperature.
Once the patties are on the grill, let them cook for a few minutes before trying to move them. These burgers will be more delicate than a fatty burger, so handle them with care. Try to time it so they flip just once while they are cooking.
The eggs in the mixture add some necessary fat and binders that hold the meat together and add some richness to the flavor. If you don't want to use eggs you can mix the meat with some ground pork or 85 ground beef.
How to Make Flat Hamburger Patties
If you've ever made your hamburger patties by hand, you know that sometimes they come out rounded over, too thick in the middle. What causes this is shrinkage? Even the most lean meats will shrink some when they cook. They lose water and the tissue tightens. This is why a rare steak is softer than a well done one.
To avoid round hamburger patties, form your patties with an indentation in the center of the patty. As you form the patty, push your thumb into the middle and work your way out from there. This indentation will disappear as you cook and you'll be left with a flatter more even burger.
Venison Chorizo Dip
Some venison processors offer a chorizo variety option. Some people might wonder, what do I do with chorizo venison.
1 lb cooked chorizo venison
1 package Velveeta cheese product
Put these ingredients in a crock pot on low until all is melted. This makes a killer dip for parties and tailgates. Make sure you have some substantial tortilla chips. This dip will break a fragile chip. Fritos or a similarly dense, strong chip is best.
