What's the deal with ground venison?

[DefiantMassRINO]

This city boy is curious.

What's the taste and texture of venison?

Any good ground venison recipes?

Nantucket is feeding ground venison to the poor:

https://nantucketcurrent.com/news/land-banks-new-venison-processing-facility-marks-a-successful-first-month-with-45-deer
Land Bank's New Venison Processing Facility Marks Successful First Month With 45 Deer
JohnCarl McGrady • Jan 08, 2026

As the year’s shotgun deer hunting season wraps up, the Land Bank is reporting a successful first year for its new venison processing facility on Boynton Lane. With the extended winter hunting season still underway, venison processing manager Dean Belanger said that the Land Bank has processed 45 deer so far from 21 donors since the facility opened a little more than one month ago on Dec. 4, 2025. ...

... Those deer became 239 packages of two-pound ground venison, which were distributed to the Nantucket Food Pantry and Nourish Nantucket. All of the meat stayed on Nantucket and went directly to food-insecure island residents. ...

[Smokin Joe]

Use it like extremely lean beef, unless they added some beef tallow for fat content.

[mountaineer]

I'm not a hunter, but have been gifted a pound or two by friends. I like to use it in chili.

[PeteS in CA]

It probably tastes gamey, .

[Cyber Liberty]

Use it like extremely lean beef, unless they added some beef tallow for fat content.

A deer hunter, many years ago, told me to always use tallow for that.  Never use lard!

[Smokin Joe]

It probably tastes gamey, .

It depends most on when it was harvested, and what the animal was doing.
Removing scent (musk) glands asap helps.
Deer in rut, or ones which were/are running tend to taste the gamiest.
Best one I ever had was taken with a neck shot, standing in a sunflower field. It was fat (we had to peel the fat layers off the meat when we butchered it), and in excellent shape. Not gamey at all.

[Bigun]

Mix it 50/50 with ground pork, season with old fashion sausage seasoning, stuff it in pork casings, and smoke it with hickory, oak, or even apple wood. You can thank me later.

[libertybele]

Mix it 50/50 with ground pork, season with old fashion sausage seasoning, stuff it in pork casings, and smoke it with hickory, oak, or even apple wood. You can thank me later.

I'm not a venison lover, but your recipe does sound delicious. (I'd go for the apple wood, maybe even cherry?)

[roamer_1]

It depends most on when it was harvested, and what the animal was doing.
Removing scent (musk) glands asap helps.
Deer in rut, or ones which were/are running tend to taste the gamiest.
Best one I ever had was taken with a neck shot, standing in a sunflower field. It was fat (we had to peel the fat layers off the meat when we butchered it), and in excellent shape. Not gamey at all.

YUP. Best bet is a doe or cow (because elk is the same thing)... Drop it in it's tracks - if it is aware it is dying the adrenaline pump will sour the meat ... Get the hide off it as soon as possible, and be meticulous removing silver skin when butchering. When in doubt, jerky and smoke. 

[Smokin Joe]

YUP. Best bet is a doe or cow (because elk is the same thing)... Drop it in it's tracks - if it is aware it is dying the adrenaline pump will sour the meat ... Get the hide off it as soon as possible, and be meticulous removing silver skin when butchering. When in doubt, jerky and smoke. 

Fast field dressing helps cool the meat, too. I preferred spike bucks that were stocky, but not old enough quite to be tied up in the rut (not enough rack). Never got a chance to take an elk, but they aren't common here.   High neck shots would either take the spine out, the carotids and jugulars or both, or be a clean miss (only once, that). We have moose closer to Canada, but it's still a once in a lifetime tag here, and I'd have to sort some moving parts to make that happen, even if I drew a tag.

[roamer_1]

Fast field dressing helps cool the meat, too. I preferred spike bucks that were stocky, but not old enough quite to be tied up in the rut (not enough rack). Never got a chance to take an elk, but they aren't common here.   High neck shots would either take the spine out, the carotids and jugulars or both, or be a clean miss (only once, that). We have moose closer to Canada, but it's still a once in a lifetime tag here, and I'd have to sort some moving parts to make that happen, even if I drew a tag.

I ain't ever made a local moose tag either. I did bag a nuisance moose once and got to keep half the meat. But most of my moose were Canadian, back when out of country tags weren't so unreasonable. Back then, guide, tags, and the whole show was about $800, and no trouble getting frozen quarters across the border. Then, it was a hella nice vacation. Now it's an expensive heartache. 

[bigheadfred]

I was raised on wild game. I never had much thought about how "gamey" it tasted. We never did grind any growing up. What couldn't be cut into roasts or steaks got canned. Ribs got eaten first. We lived in a place for a few years that had a processor who made large pepperoni and depending on how well the harvest was going a front half got taken there. Later on I figured out a way to make jerky out of ground meat. BTW, if you wait until "hunting season" to fill up you are doing it wrong.   

[roamer_1]

I was raised on wild game. I never had much thought about how "gamey" it tasted. We never did grind any growing up. What couldn't be cut into roasts or steaks got canned. Ribs got eaten first. We lived in a place for a few years that had a processor who made large pepperoni and depending on how well the harvest was going a front half got taken there. Later on I figured out a way to make jerky out of ground meat. BTW, if you wait until "hunting season" to fill up you are doing it wrong.   

We always held off on the grinding. Hunting is always a busy season around here. So we'd cut em up pretty quick (after a fair hang), but we'd wait to see if an elk made it's way home. If we got at least one elk, all the deer got sawed up for jerky and fun sticks. If no elk, well, I guess we're eating deer till we could afford to take a beef. 

[berdie]

I'm not a hunter, but have been gifted a pound or two by friends. I like to use it in chili.

Lucky you! All my huntermen friends are no longer hunting. I would love to have some venison.