I’ve always wondered how much perfectly good deer meat gets ground into hamburger. I’m always running into people who are looking for some new ideas about what to do with the 300 pounds of ground deer meat they’ve saved up over the years.

“My wife’s had just about enough deer chili to last her the rest of her life. I’ve tried sneaking it into spaghetti sauce, tacos, you name it. She’s on to me. Got any new recipes?”


Before A large percentage of deer hunters have their processor save the backstraps and tenderloins and grind the rest into burger. Since I usually break down the hindquarters into well-trimmed steaks, I'm not sure why so many people go the burger route. To get a grip on just how much of a deer is ground into burger, I called my good friend Dave Dewey, owner of Chico Locker and Sausage in Chico, California.

Dave estimates that about 20 percent of his customers have the majority of their deer ground into burger. Now, don't get me wrong, what someone else does with their deer is their own business. I'm just not sure what I would do with all that burger. Besides, I'd rather have save the muscles from the hindquarter so that I can turn them into steaks or cut into cubes for stews. I'm guessing that most of the folks who are long on burger don't eat their steaks medium-rare. They've tried overcooked deer steaks and figured anything would be better than that. I can see their point.

Dave Dewey elaborated on how he processes his deer parts into deer burger. First off, he adds either 20 percent fatty beef trim (50 percent fat) or about 10 percent beef fat to the grind. The fat adds flavor and moisture to an otherwise dry ground deer. The reason Dave adds beef fat or trim, rather than pork is because the meat doesn't have to be cooked to a higher temperature or above 160 degrees for safety. Dave, like me, enjoys a good medium-rare burger and prefers not to have to slather it with a cup of mayonnaise to wet it down after it's been overcooked. He also said that many of his deer hunters have the hindquarters processed into jerky. I'd much rather have a mess of good jerky than a freezer full of burger.

When I do make a deer burger, I like to make it interesting. If the Venison, Mushroom and Blue Cheese Burger featured in this week's recipe sounds good to you, the recipe is available here .