Venison Burgers 101

I’m spoiled: I haven’t had to buy beef in a year. This means my grocery budget has had room for things like good wine, organic sugar, real maple syrup, and new spices for me to experiment with. I like that.

I also like the reason I haven’t had to buy beef: I’ve had two organic, free-range, vegetarian-fed (and yes, of course wild) deer in the freezer.

Venison is delicious and good for you, and can be used in any recipe calling for beef. I’ve written about the benefits of cooking with venison here, so I won’t go into the details again in this post. But I do have a great recipe to share with you, and while it’s meant for venison, it works equally great with ground sirloin. So if you’re not blessed, like me, with a hundred pounds of deer meat in your freezer, you can buy a pound of ground sirloin and use it instead.

But before I get to the recipe, I have to tell you the reason I’m posting it now, “now” being the first week of hunting season. It’s not because I’m anticipating more venison coming my way. Oh no – it’s because I already have it. It’s because in the first hour of of bow season, Eli shot a deer. I’m serious. Not just the first day. The first hour.

Two weeks ago, I noted that I had one last package of ground venison in the freezer. That was the same day that I turned my last roast into Chicago-Style Italian “Beef.” I got a little nervous looking at the small stack of round steaks and chops that were left. It wasn’t much, and you can never tell how hunting season will go. There are no guarantees. But then Opening Day arrived.

Eli climbed into his tree stand in the still-dark of early morning, before 7 a.m., all ready to sit and wait…and wait…and wait. Less than an hour later, a group of bucks passed by below. He stood, positioned himself, hoped another would follow. It did. He shot. It ran, taking his arrow with it.

For almost six hours, he tracked the wounded deer, patiently and painstakingly searching for droplets of dried blood on the red and orange leaves of the forest floor, moving forward just a few inches at a time. Twice, he nearly gave up. And then, by luck or chance or God’s grace, he glimpsed it lying amongst the fallen rushes of a marsh, a half mile from where he’d loosed his arrow. The afternoon was warm, and the flies were already gathering, so he rushed to gut it and put the carcass on ice, then make the trip to the processor.

I’m pretty proud of him. Can you tell?

And while he’s thrilled to have achieved his goal of feeding us through another winter, the crowning glory was the rack: 11 points. We’re talking a mounted head, folks.

There’s a lot of good cooking ahead of me this winter, but one of my staples is this recipe for venison burgers. We both like a good burger with some oven fries on the side, and these are as good as any. The leanness of the venison is countered with the addition of a little good olive oil, and some Japanese bread crumbs help hold it together. Seasonings are simple: sea salt, freshly ground pepper, fresh garlic. I’d stake my reputation as a cook on them. I’ve made them for people who swore they’d never touch venison and received rave reviews.

As I said, if you don’t have venison, ground sirloin will yield equally delicious results. My only caution: don’t use fattier meat, or you’ll get a burger that’s too greasy. This is a recipe designed for very lean meat. You can season ground chuck the same way, but the olive oil and bread crumbs will be obsolete. Oh, and a note about the Japanese bread crumbs: don’t substitute regular bread crumbs unless you can’t find the Japanese kind. Japanese bread crumbs have a texture similar to mashed potato flakes and will virtually disappear, while traditional bread crumbs will retain their texture and may leave you with a gritty burger.

Serve on a sweet honey wheat roll with all the basics. Ketchup, mustard, mayo. Crisp lettuce. Fresh tomato if you can get it. A slice of sweet onion. Cheese if you like (add a slice to the burger when you flip it, so that it melts while the underside cooks). Oven fries on the side or, if it’s summer, some homemade potato salad.

Venison Burgers

1 pound ground venison or ground sirloin
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1/2 cup Panko (Japanese bread crumbs, available in the Asian foods aisle of your local market)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed (add more if you like garlic; use less if you’re not a fan)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Place everything in a large bowl. Use your hands to mix, as you would a meatloaf. When fully blended, separate into four equal portions. Shape into patties about the size of your hand and 1/4″ thick – they will shrink a little, but not as much as a fattier burger will.

Cook on a very hot griddle, under the broiler, or on a hot grill for about six minutes, turning halfway through. Keep in mind, though, that the time needed changes depended on the level of heat and how done you want them to be – keep a close eye on them, and turn as soon as they are browned. If you’re unsure how done they are in the center, make a slit with a knife to check.

Recipe can be doubled or tripled easily to feed more people.