Ground venison makes an ideal chili; perfect hamburgers; and great meatloafs. Just keep in mind that it is dryer than beef, so tends to dry out. You usually need to add some kind of oil as well.

One way I like to use it is to mix the venison with baharat (a mideastern spice mix, usually used with lamb), form into small patties, and pan fry. These are used to top steamed-and-glazed sweet potato rounds, and a dollop of minted-aioli dropped on the meat.

For a venison meatloaf, I combine the ground venison with a little ground pork---about 25% pork. Into this I mix some chopped onions, salt, pepper, a handful or two of rolled oats, and a beaten egg. This is formed into a loaf on a baking sheet, topped with barbecue sauce, and baked until done.

A variation on that theme is:

Johnson Deer Loaf

1 lb ground venison
1/2 pound ground lean pork
12 salted crackers, crushed
1/4 cup each catsup and chili sauce
1 egg
1 small onion, grated
Salt & pepper
1 tbls minced green pepper
1/8 tsp celery seed
1/8 tsp garlic salt
2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1/8 tsp crused savory leaf
Dash of curry powder
Parmesan Cheese
2-3 beef or chicken bouillon cubes

Grease loaf pan. combine ingedients, except cheese and bouillon cubers. Pour 1 cup water over them and mix well. Form into loaf. Spr8inkle with cheese. Bake in 350 degree oven 1 3/4 hours. When making gravy use drippings and add the bouillon cubes. Serves 6.

These next make a great appetizer, or serve 'em as part of a buffet:

Venison Meatball Appetizer

1 lb ground venison
1/4 cup milk
1 medium onion, minced
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup soft bread crumbs
1 cup flour
3 tbls butter
1/4 tsp thyme
3 tbls molasses
3 tbls vinegar
3 tbls prepared mustard
1/4 cup catsup

Mix first 5 ingedeents well and shape into about 50 bite-sized meatbals. Flur them lightly. In a skillet melt the butter and brown the meatballs. Remove ;meatballs and stir remaining ingredients into skillet. Bring to a boil, add meatballs, and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In his "the Camp Hero Venison Cookbook," my good friend Mike Bleech has a whole chapter on using ground venison.Among them:

Venison Roll

1 1/2 lb ground venison
2 slices bacon
1 heaping tbls chopped dried onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 heating tbls each chopped red and green bell pepper
Soy sauce, ground ginger, salt, peper to taste.
Bisquick
1/4 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese

Chop the bacon into small pieces, then brown in large skillet. Add the onion, bell peppers and garlic and saute a few minutes. Add venison, crumbling into small chunks as it browns.

Sprinkle on soy sauce, ginger, salt and pepper. Remove from pan, draining off most of the liquid.

Mix Bisquick as per direction on the box and roll about 3/8 inch thick. Spread the venison onto the pastry, and sprinkle with the grated cheese.

Carefully roll into a log. Bake in a 400 degree oven ten mintues, reduce heat to 300 degrees and bake another 20 minutes.

Allow it to cool a few minutes, slice, and serve with spaghetti sauce or gravy.

As far as sausage goes, are you interested in bulk sausage or links? And do you want breakfast sausage recipes, or main dish?

gardenlad, oh, those recipes sound wonderful. Thank you. As for the sausage, any recipes would be great.

Thank you!

gardenlad, I forgot to answer the other part of your question--sorry--the sausage is in links.

Thank you!

Here are a few to get you started:

Poor Man's Salami

2-21/2 lb ground venison
1 cup water
1/2 tsp each garlic powder, onion powder, mustard seed
2 tbls liquid smoke
3 tbls Morton's Tender Quick salt

Combine all the ingredients and form the mixture into two 8-inch long rolls. Wrap in foil with the shiny side next to the meat. Refrigerate for 24 hours.

Pierce the foil in several places on the bottom side of the roll with a toothpick. Place the rolls on the oven rack over a pan containing 1/2 cup water. Bake at 225 derees for about 2 hours.

Venison Breakfast Sausage

4 lbs ground venison
2 lbs ground pork
1/2 Burgundy
1tsp garlic powder
2 onions, liquified in blender
4 tsp basic smoke salt*
4 tsp marjoram
3 tbls mustard with horseradish
1 tbls pepper
2 tsp sage
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 tsp rosemary

Combine all ingredients well. Form into patties and fry. Or stuff casings to make breakfast links.

*Basic Smoke Salt

This is a seasoned salt mixture I devised years ago for smoking meats. It's a great general seasoning salt as well:

1 package table salt (1 lb 10 oz)
1 tbls onion salt
2 tbls celery salt
1 tbls garlic salt
2 tbls paprika
4 tbls white pepper
2 tbls dill salt
4 tbls white sugar

Combine all ingredients and store in an airtight container (canning jars work great)

Spicy Game Sausages

1 3/4 lb venison or other game meat, ground
1 3/4 lb pork, ground
1 tbls smoke salt
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp black pepper
5 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp rubbed sage
1/4 tsp ground allspeice

variations:
1 tbls curry powder
2 tsp cumin seed

Combine all ingredients. Stuff into casings or make into chubs.

For people with dietary restrictions forbidding pork, this next is particularly suitible.

Scott Darrohn's venison sausage

4 lb venison,ground
1 lb beef fat
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne
2 tsp ground sage
1/2 tsp ground allspice

Combine venison, beef fat, and seasonings and pass through meat grinder. With hands, shape; meat into 4-ounce patties. The sausage can be prepared any way you like it, or frozen for later use.

This next is reminescent of Boudin sausages, but actually has a totally different flavor:

Venison & Potato Sausage

10 lbs ground lean venison
10 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
10 lbs ground raw potato
3 lb ground raw onion
Sausage casings

Grind meat, potatoes and onions separately first, then mix all together with salt & pepper and put through meat grinder a second time.

Fill sausage casings by hand or with a sausage stuffer attachment on your meat grinder. Tie off or twist sausage into individual links or leave whole. Do not pack casings too tightly or they will burst when cooked.

Wrap in meal sized packages and freeze. To serve, punch a few holes in the casing to release pressure as the sausage expands while cooking. Put frozen sausage in boiling water and let simmer for 45 minutes.

If preferred you can add up to 3 lbs ground pork to the mixture before stuffing the casings.

BTW, if all you have is ground meat, that's fine. But if you're starting with whole cuts, it's best to spread the herbs and spices on the meat before grinding. Then double grind the meat. This assures that the herbs and spices are evenly distributed throughout.

This is from a friend of mine who hunts and cooks all kinds of game.

(FYI - here is a recent comment from him in a note to me.....
Because I do so much hunting and would not harvest any thing we could not eat, we have alot of different type of meats to prepare. I do my own butchering and packaging of these cuts of meat. For red meats we have Antelope, Bear, Boar, Deer, and Elk. Really the Boar is a white meat (Pork). For the white meats we have Pheasant, Prairie Chicken, Quail, Chukar Partridge, and Wild Turkey. Also, Canadian Geese, all species of Ducks, and Doves. Jeannine and I only eat domestic animales and fowl when we eat out at resturants. All these items are prepared differently from domestic animales or fowl.....

JERRY'S MEATLOAF

We are not big on sausage so don't have any help on that one. We use a lot of ground meat from all critters for hamburgers and chilli. We do have meatloaf and here is how we prepare it:
The ingriedents I add are to each ones' taste, so if you like onions add more like I do. anyhow, put the meat in a bowl, add couple of eggs, crushed crackers, diced onions, diced green peppers,add ketchup to sorta wet all ingredients. Also add about 3 tbs. honey. Mix all this very well. Put in a corning ware dish or open safe pan/dish and shape it like a loaf and top with some brown sugar, ketchup, mustard, and more honey. All these per your taste.
Cook for about 2 hours at 350 degrees.

My husband got a wonderful elk this year and we butchered and processed ourselves. It is alot of work, however it worth it in the end. We ground the meat for "hamburger" and because it is so much drier, we ground up pork and added it 2 parts elk, 1 part pork. We chose not to add spices until we cook it depending on what we were making. I just use it as we would anything you would cook with hamburger. We have made chili, spaghetti, meatloaf, beer soup, minestrone soup.....anything you can think of. One of our favorite dishes for breakfeast or dinner is a scrambled omlet. Cook the meat, add green chilis, some potatoes, onions, mushrooms, cook that, cook scrambled eggs, mix it all together and cover with shredded cheese, whatever kind you like.....very good.

I find most people do not use their imagination, they need a recipe with exact measurements to complete anything....do not be restricted......mix and match all ingredients, you will be amazed, most dishes will be delicious.!!!!!

Ohmigod, Blucy, do I understand you right? You converted an entire elk into chopmeat? All those loins, and roasts, and steaks, and chops and wonderful stewing meat?

Say it isn't so!

I have some ground venison sausage and I am looking for some recipes that are not for breakfast. Thank you for any suggestions!