Sausages and Ground Meat Dishes

Photo by Holly A. Heyser

This is my catch-all category for sausages as well as dishes like meatballs, burgers or chili. Basic thing you need to know is you will almost always need to add fat to ground wild game. Some people add beef fat, some pork (that would be me), and a few add lamb fat. I prefer pork fat.

Every once in a while, you will get a deer or moose or elk with enough natural fat to make ground meat without added fat — test the fat by frying some up in a pan, and if it smells and tastes good (dip some bread into the hot fat to see), go for it. If you don’t like the flavor, trim the fat off and use domestic.

If you are not a hunter, ground lamb or bison would be closest in flavor to ground venison.

Venison Potstickers

Chinese dumplings filled with ground venison, scallions and ginger, pan seared and steamed. Sooo good…

Venison Chili

This is the best venison chili, and maybe the best chili of any kind, you’ve ever had. I can almost guarantee it.

Venison Burgers with Mushrooms

Venison mushroom burgers, with mushrooms in the patties and mushrooms on top. It’s an umami bomb.

Venison Lasagna

Based off my mother’s recipe for lasagna, you will like this lasagna. Oh yes, you will…

Venison Meat Pies

A Sicilian version of the classic Cornish pasty, these are hand-held meat pies great for lunches.

Swedish Meatballs with Venison

Retro fabulous deliciousness! You will forget about IKEA if you make these.

Sausages

These sausages can be made into links or into patties. I’ve tried to include a selection of different flavors from different countries. In every case you can use any form of venison — deer, elk, moose, antelope, caribou, etc — or you can use lamb or pork, too.

• Fresh Venison Sausages, with Porcini Mushrooms and Sage
• Spanish Longaniza sausage, made with goat or antelope
• Greek loukaniko sausage
• Lamb, Venison or Antelope  Sausage, Greek Style
• Venison Sausages, flavored with Bay Leaves and Garlic
• Catalina Island Venison Sausage, with sage, gin and juniper
• Summertime Vension Sausages with Basil, Lemon and Garlic
• Dry-Cured Venison Landjaeger

More Venison Recipes