Dehydrating Deer Burger

[Josh Calhoun]

i have been dehydrating deer burger. it has almost 0 fat and great protein. i plan on putting a few spoon fulls in most of my meals like mac n cheese noodles and such.

anybody else tried this?

[WingedMonkey]

I use to dry it in granules for my trail chili. Even though it's low in fat, the shelf life seems limited. It could be the handling from kill to kitchen. Plus it was usually previous frozen hams. I kept it in the freezer after drying and only used it for less than week long trips.

It was great in my chili and bean recipes. Maybe I should make some more this season.

[Wise Old Owl]

Here's the rub... it works ... it needs a kikoman Soy sauce at 50 percent and Morton cure the soy kills green mold and the cure prevents rancid issues. mix well and put into a jerky pump and flat line it on the trays .... I mix 25 percent popular BBQ sauces that do not have ANY corn syrup or it will turn out too sticky. A few drops of Chipotle Hot sauce sends it home.... No I am not going to give you the recipe.

[HermesUL]

Zero fat? That's exactly the opposite of what I look for in a backpacking meal.

[FarmerChef]

We rarely eat hamburger in our family so venison is the red meat of choice for backpacking. I don't even bother to rinse it after dehydrating. That said, I have to add back in fat at dinner time. Mostly I use it for creamed hamburger over mashed potatoes, pot pie, chili and other sauce/gravy based trail meals. It works great in all of them. I even prefer it over ground beef.

[OutdoorsMan]

Here's the rub... it works ... it needs a kikoman Soy sauce at 50 percent and Morton cure the soy kills green mold and the cure prevents rancid issues. mix well and put into a jerky pump and flat line it on the trays .... I mix 25 percent popular BBQ sauces that do not have ANY corn syrup or it will turn out too sticky. A few drops of Chipotle Hot sauce sends it home.... No I am not going to give you the recipe.

Good input WOO. I have never used a jerky pump though that probably gives you a uniform thickness. I just try to slice it all the same thickness and it turns out very well. I have given a lot away over the years and am always asked for more. Warning to the consumer - you can injest a lot of meat in a short period of time without realizing it.

[Rasty]

Zero fat? That's exactly the opposite of what I look for in a backpacking meal.

Fat can't be dehydrated so you have to add fat back to the food when cooking.

[nottelling]

I have zero experience with venison, but I dehydrate a lot of ground beef for various trail recipes. To extend the shelf life of your ground deer meat, brown it in a pan then when it's nice and cooked, run a couple of kettles of boiling water over it in a colander to get rid of the residual fat. THEN you can marinate it so long as there are no oils in your marinade. After it's been dehydrated to the point that it will crumble to dust between a thumb and forefinger, you know it's ready. Using the above procedure on ground beef, I've had it last up to 12 months on the pantry shelf in ziplock baggies.

Fat content can be re-added by using shelf-stable cream cheese spread, olive oil, or by cooking up your bolognese, etc. with some fresh salami.

[BigRing]

When you cook the ground venison, add some dry bread crumbs just before you remove it from the heat.....otherwise, it tends to become a little mushy when it is rehydrated.......I like italian seasoned type or panko.
It is done in the dehydrator when it has a dry crunchy snap. It really expands when rehydrating.

Place 6 ounces of dehydrated ground venison into a snack size ziplock, add boiling water, seal the bag shut and place into a cozy for about 10 minutes until the rest of the entree is complete.

I like to cook some dry tortellini, add a chicken cream of soup, then add in the rehydrated venison.