My Annual Deer Grind.......

My favorite day of the year has passed. No it wasn't Christmas Day, it wasn't Friday Night at the American Royal and it was not my birthday. It was the day of our annual deer grind. Our group of five people got together and ground up 190 pounds of venison burger. The grinding and packaging process took us about five hours.

Our crew has been doing this as a group for about six years. My buddy, the deer hunter and I have been doing this for going on 15 years. I have the log records on file for the various amounts we have ground and the amounts of fats we have used to get out recipe for fat to venison mix. We have decided that an 80% venison to 20% fat mix yields a mix that is suitable for grilling burgers or making sausage.

To determine the amount of fat needed, we weigh the total amount of venison by .25 and this gives us the amount of fat we need. For example, if we have 100 pounds of meat, we add 25 pounds of fat. This gives us 125 pounds total with 25 pounds of that weight being fat. Doing the math results in one-fifth of the total weight being fat.

In years past, I would save and freeze the hard pork and beef fat from the previous years trimmings from my contest and catering gigs. I don't compete nor cater like I used to so we had to purchase our beef and pork fat at the local meat processor for $2.00 per pound. I do keep the end trimmings of the sliced bacon I buy throughout the year. The bacon trimmings are also a part of the mix. Once the amount of fat needed is calculated, we break down the ratio of beef, pork and bacon fats to 11% beef, 11% pork, and 3% bacon of the total weight of the venison. Using that earlier mentioned example of 25 pounds of fat to 100 pounds of venison, you would have 11 pounds of beef fat, 11 pounds of pork fat and 3 pounds of bacon fat.

This year, we harvested eight deer resulting 152 pounds of venison to grind. One-quarter of 152 pounds equals 38 pounds of fat that was needed. We went with 17 pounds each of beef and pork fat and a little over 4 pounds of bacon fat. This gave us the 80/20 of venison to fat ration we were trying to achieve.

On Sunday we did the grind. Once the grinding was done, we sampled our work by frying up some burgers. Once they hit 160F they came off the skillet. All of us were happy with the results. The beef fat helps cover up the venison taste, but the venison flavor still comes through. My grinding buddy and I are meticulous about our harvesting and butchering practices prepping the deer. The meat is cooled properly and food safety practices are of the utmost important to us.

Today, I cooked up five burgers that weighed 180 grams each. These were cooked on the top shelf of my 18" WSM directly over the coals with no water pan in between. The burgers hit 160F internal temperature in about 25 minutes. Cooking temperature was about 400F. I weighed each burger after cooking and they weighed between 150 to 155 grams. They lost 14-16% of the original weight during cooking. Our 80/20 meat/fat ration worked out great as the burgers stayed together and this batch cooked over the coals tasted better than the fried. I am going to have the college girl neighbors across the street evaluate them for me later this evening. They were happy with last years batch and I think they will like this years too.

If anyone is interested, I will post more details that went in to prepping for the grind and the actual grinding process. That will be another long post.

Deers to all,

Juggy D Beerman

Terry, I do not have a sausage stuffer. I do have a recipe for venison summer sausage that I have been using for twenty years. I found the recipe on the now defunct bbq-porch web site. The link below will take you to the recipe via the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20030503115956/http://www.bbq-porch.org/recipes/html/R1405.htm

This is the original recipe as it was written:

Summer Sausage

5 pounds deer meat
4 tablespoons Morton's Tender Quick
3/4 teaspoon onion powder
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse ground black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons water

After mixing all ingredients shape into rolls and place in ice-box(refrigerator) 24 to 48 hours to cure. Place rolls on smoker and smoke with low heat (180F) 45 minutes. Turn the logs over and smoke another 45 minutes. Increase heat in smoker to 300F after 45 minutes turn over and cook another 30 minutes. Sausage is now done. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - NOTES : Here is a Summer Sausage recipe we enjoy here. If you would like a sweeter version add 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar to this recipe. You may want to experiment with the Cayenne to suit your taste. ...... K.
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MY NOTES: I use a venison ground mix that is 80% lean or less. You need that fat so the meat will hold together. Anything leaner may not hold together. I like the brown sugar added to the recipe, but I use one-quarter of one-cup instead of the amount of brown sugar called for. You can omit or alter the amount of brown sugar to your taste. Another thing I add 1 tsp of mustard seed for the rub that gets mixed in with the meat. I also make an additional rub for the sausage using the same amount of ingredients listed above, EXCEPT the Tender Quick. Do NOT use Tender Quick in the rub used for the coating the outside of the sausage logs.

The TQ serves two purposes in the recipe. It is a curing agent and it helps the meat bind together. The maximum recommendation for TQ to meat ratio by weight for proper curing is .03%. More than .03% can give you a good belly ache or worse. The TQ to meat ratio in this recipe is .025% so there is enough TQ for our purposes, so the TQ is not needed on the exterior of the sausage log.

So here are my techniques.....

Mix the rub ingredients with that uses the TQ and mix the other rub without the TQ and place them in separate jars. Mix the soy, Worcestershire sauce, and beer/water and place the contents in a container that will allow you to freely sprinkle the liquid on the meat. I like to use 4 Tbsp of a good dark beer instead of the 3 Tbsp of water.

Take a large greased serving tray and flatten the meat onto the tray. Distribute the rub with the TQ evenly across the meat. Sprinkle the liquid mix evenly across the meat. Take gloved hands and work up the meat to help distribute the spices. Make a big meatball and weigh it in grams. (Trust me, the math will be easier.) Divide that total number of grams by seven. Weigh out seven piles to the where they are within a few grams of being even with each other. I have found that seven logs are easier to cook than five. They cook quicker and their shape stays more uniform.

The meats are mixed and it is time to make the logs. After the logs are shaped, cut a large section of Saran wrap and place the formed log on it. Roll the sausage log in the plastic wrap, and twist the ends as tight as you can in order to pack the sausage tight. Once the sausage log has been compacted fairly tight, unroll the wrap and season the log with the rub that does not contain Tender Quick. You may find that you do not need to use all of the second batch of rub. After you have applied the extra rub, re-roll the logs as tight as you can by holding the excess wrap and twisting the ends as the wrap is rolled up. You may have to re-roll the logs again to get them compacted as possible. Let the logs refrigerate overnight but no more than 36 hours.

I don't bother with the various cooking temperature ranges of the original recipe. I just cook at 250ºF until the sausage hits an internal temperature of 160ºF. The cooking time is usually 90 to 150 minutes. You will have to turn the logs every 30 minutes or so in order to keep the shape of the logs in a round form. When the sausage reaches 160, wrap each log in foil to let the sausage rest. Refrigerate and slice when the meat is cold.

My smoking wood of choice for this recipe is pecan. Oak, apple or cherry works just fine too. Not sure whose recipe it is, but I get a lot of rave reviews on it. I will probably be making a batch next week.

I guess I will go ahead and post the story with all the prep work we went through to pull off the big grind as per SmokeOCD's request. Get ready for another long story...........