Hunters Casserole With Ground Venison Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the best meat to add to ground venison? ›

Depending on what you're planning to cook, you may want to add fat to your ground venison. This added fat can be bacon, pork shoulder, pork belly, beef tallow, etc. It's purely personal preference. I always add about 15-20 percent fat if I'm making hamburger or kebabs, which makes the meat juicier and more flavorful.

Use Marinades. Marinade may be used to cover up the 'gamey' flavors in venison. Marinades tenderize (soften muscle fibers) and enhance the flavor of venison. Marinades can add fat and calories to this lean cut of meat.

Sometimes I combine ground venison and ground beef 50-50 to make a better mix for any recipe that calls for ground meat. If you do this, you can buy the cheaper ground beef that is a 75-25 mix of lean to fat, and when you add the leaner ground venison, you still get a pretty lean mix.

Spice it Right: Employing a spice blend similar to those used in beef recipes can also help venison mimic the taste of beef. Spices such as paprika, cumin, and coriander, when used judiciously, can contribute to creating a beef-like flavor profile in venison.

The distinct game flavor of either birds or animals will be milder after soaking the meat overnight in the refrigerator in either a salt or vinegar solution.

As a hunter, you can ask the process to mix in beef fat or pork fat, or none at all; often people will get some with added fat and some without. Beef fat works well with ground venison, and makes the flavor closer to ground beef.

Given that deer are leaner than cows, venison is generally healthier to eat than beef. An average cut of venison, in fact, has around half the calories and a sixth the saturated fats of a similarly sized cut of beef. It also has more proteins, vitamins and minerals than beef.

Color: Fresh venison is a dark, brownish-red in hue, while venison that has gone bad typically has a greenish tint. Texture: Good venison is firm and tough, and it should feel smooth and slick to the touch. If the venison looks loose or has started to break apart, the spoiling process has begun.

For recipes such as meatballs, meatloaf and taco meat, it is okay to cook ground venison all the way through, which is 160 degrees. Most of these recipes will also have other ingredients in them—breadcrumbs, eggs, water, etc. -- to help keep the meat moist.

Why does my deer meat taste bad? ›

First, don't use your dirty field-dressing knife to butcher the animal—clean it or use a different knife altogether. Second, trim your meat aggressively. Deer fat tastes terrible and silverskin is tough and unappetizing, so remove them before you package up the meat.

You can make a good marinade from a bit of oil, red wine, a bit of vinegar, minced garlic and onion, salt and pepper (that's just one simple idea, there are lots of recipes for marinades). But in general, venison does not need to be soaked before cooking.

Hindquarter/Round – Best for Steak, Jerky, Kebabs

The major muscles in the hindquarter are the top round, bottom round, eye of round and sirloin. The top and bottom rounds are large pieces of whole muscle, great for steaks in young deer or aged deer.

When cooking with venison, I always add ground pork or bacon because venison is very lean and can dry out easily. For the best tasting chili remove from heat, let the chili cool completely, then cover and refrigerate it until the next day."

Eggs and bread crumbs generally do very well to bind lean ground meats. (I actually use wheat germ instead of bread crumbs.) From that point, it is really a matter of preference as to how you want it prepared. If you're making burgers, it's generally a good idea to mix in a bit of pork for the fat.