How To Make Venison Burgers Stick Together
It can be a lot of fun to cook with different meats.
If you like to cook outside of the box or perhaps want to stick to more lean meats, you can try something like bison or venison and it’s absolutely delicious when you know how to prepare them.
Venison burgers don’t have a lot of fat on them, which can make it challenging when you’re trying to patty out your meat to make the burgers.
If you’ve ever tried it maybe you’ve experienced the meat just falling to pieces. It can be pretty frustrating!
How do you make venison burgers stick together? You simply need to add some kind of binder. Some people add fat but there are other solutions you can use without adding fat to the meat as well, such as using an egg or even oatmeal to bind the meat together.
In this guide, we will share with you just exactly how you can make your venison burgers stick together better. We actually have a few different options that you can try. This opens the door for you to pick what you feel is best for your home.
Stick with us to learn how to make venison burgers stick together!
Tips to Make Venison Burgers Stick Together
We have several different tips for you to try out or consider here. You can use almost anything that works as a binder. Take a similar approach to what people use for things like meatballs or meatloaf here.
Add Fat
Adding fat to the meat is one option. Most people prefer to avoid this option as they prefer the lean meat and adding fat will defeat the purpose of lean meat. However, we still wanted you to know it is an option.
Adding fat could be something like lard, butter, or another similar type of fat.
Egg
Egg is known to make a great binder. This could be useful for you when you are making venison burgers. You simply need to mix the egg into the meat before you start making your patties.
This works best when the meat is cold but then the egg is activated and will hold your burgers together as you cook it.
We recommend mixing in the egg and then putting your mixture in the fridge for about 30 minutes so it’s nice and cold when you work with it. You can also chill your patties after you prepare them.
Oatmeal
For this purpose, oatmeal makes a really great binder as well. Oatmeal is commonly used in things like meatballs or meatloaf for this very purpose so it stands to reason that it would work with venison burgers as well.
It seems like something so small but it will make a huge difference.
You will want about 1/2 a cup of olive oil as well as 3/4 cup of oatmeal to every 2 pounds of deer meat that you have.
When you combine the oil and the oatmeal and mix it all together, the solution binds and sticks and it holds really well.
We recommend making your patties and then tossing them in the fridge or the freezer for just a bit before you cook them.
You could also use breadcrumbs instead of oatmeal if you wanted to. Some people prefer to use egg with breadcrumbs so keep that in mind as well.
Tapioca Starch
This is an odd one and it’s probably not something you just have laying around in the pantry. However, it works really well for making venison burgers stick together.
Tapioca starch can be a good option because it really has no flavor so it won’t do anything to the flavor or texture of your burgers. Simply mix it in with seasonings and then patty out your burgers.
Again, we recommend chilling the burgers before you cook them for the best results.
Proper Preparations
These are all additives that you can put in your venison to help with them sticking together. At the very least, you will need a little bit of oil mixed in with the meat.
However, you can also have good results by taking a few preparation steps to help your burgers stick together.
The first preparation is to oil your pan or your grill really well to help prevent sticking. A lot of people recommend pan-frying venison burgers as they tend to hold up better this way as well.
As an alternative, you can use any of the methods above but you should chill the meat between steps. Mix your meat and chill it. Then patty your burgers and chill them. The chilling will just help bind them together for you to cook.
Up Next: Can Sourdough Starter Go Bad?
