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Ground venison jerky

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I was given a processed deer by a friend. Most of it was ground and I believe it may have some pork fat added. Our family is a big fan of jerky and if I had processed the deer myself I would not have ground much and probably made jerky with our dehydrator.

I just made a batch of jerky combining a couple of elements from recipes I found online. Frankly it did not turn out the best and I ended up putting the jerky on my Traeger smoker for a couple hours and sprinkled on some additional spice. It is better now, but still now as good as our previous batches.

Now the question, do you have a good recipe using ground venison or suggestions? We like a smokey jerky and generally something that is spicy.

I did use tender quick and allowed the meat to cure for a couple of days in the refrigerator.

I still have about 30-40 lbs of ground venison. Brats are also on our list of possible uses.
 
I've never had much luck or cared for jerky from ground meat or the jerky guns. I'd make it into sausage patties or if you have the equipment then make some links. Since you've already cured it you should be good. Just my 2 cents though. Let us know how your final product turns out.
 
After some additional smoking on the smoker and some spices it is better, but it seems to have a bit of an "off" flavor.

We have a sausage stuffer and making sausage or brats is no problem.
 
The pork fat may be screwing it up. You can only use lean muscle to jerk, any fat will do poor . Pemmican is a different story, as you start with dry meat and rendered fat. In general due to its fat content pork dosnt jerk well either. Split hooves and chewing cud are the best for jerking. Bunnies chew the cud but don't have split hoofs, pigs split the hoof but don't chew the cud, fat does nither.
 
Did you ever think that the off taste might be how the deer was handled after shooting or what area in the state the deer lived and what it had to eat? Sometime an important factor when it comes to having good tasting venison.
 
:thumbsup: I have taken venison to work and shared it with people who have never hunted or dislike deer. Wow this dosnt have that wild taste, I've heard that a lot. I think a lot of folks take a deer, drag it out, have a beer talk to friends put it on the truck have another beer drive it to check it drive it home have a beer talk with a friend hang the deer go to bed get up have brecfast call some friends and brag then finely dress the deer, it's taken a step or two to being spoiled before its ever been put in the cooler. Tainted no no that's the wild taste :nono:
 
We fried some of the ground venison for breakfast and that did not have a "wild" taste, it was very mild. I'm guessing the addition of the fat probably will make this a challenge to use to make ground venison. I personally prefer unground meat to make jerky.

Letting the ground stuff cure with tender quick for a couple of days in the fridge may not have helped matters with the fat in the meat. I may also try thawing the meat in the fridge as I did with this batch, but remove any outside meat that is not bright red.

I may try making some pemmican too as I've never done that.
 
I saw he title and thought this thread was about grinding the jerky, after it was jerked. This was and is a common way to make old fashioned, thick jerky edible. Jerky was ground or pounded into the consistency of meal and cooked with water to reconstitute it. Even better if you have some milk instead of water to go with it. Jerky gravy! The stuff I've eaten has been pretty strong on the pepper, which was applied to keep the flies away while it dried naturally, without smoke, but it was edible with plenty of drinking water to cool the mouth and throat.

I don't think they had much pepper back in the day, just a smoky fire to keep the flies away if it was late or early in the season.
 
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