How to Grind Deer Meat at Home, From Trimmed Cubes to Freezer Packs

To grind deer meat, trim off the deer fat, silver skin and sinew, cut the meat into pieces that drop into the throat, and chill it to 40°F or colder until it is firm but not frozen solid. Grind once through a coarse plate, add pork or beef fat, then grind again through a 3/16-inch (4.5 mm) plate. Package it the same day and cook it to 160°F.

Every step below exists to stop one of two failures. The first is meat that smears into paste instead of leaving the plate in clean strands, which LEM's grinder manual calls "mashing instead of extruding in strings" and blames on warm meat and on a knife or plate that is dull or badly installed. The second is meat that sits warm long enough to matter, which is USDA's concern. Here is the order that avoids both.

Before you start

Deer rules vary by state. Check your state wildlife agency's carcass-transport and chronic wasting disease (CWD) rules before you move or process a deer, and follow Ohio State University Extension's advice to avoid eating meat from deer that look sick or test positive for CWD. If you are breaking the deer down yourself, our guide to processing a deer at home covers the steps before this one.

Know the load. Ohio Division of Wildlife staff averaged 52.19 lb of venison per deer across 115 whitetails. If most of a deer becomes burger, that is just over one 50-lb meat lug per deer (the capacity LEM lists for its heavy-duty lugs), and it sets how many batches you will chill and run.

USDA's fact sheet on ground beef explains why ground meat gets more care than a steak: grinding "allows any bacteria present on the surface to be mixed throughout the meat." USDA goes as far as to caution against grinding beef at home, because whole cuts aren't tested the way a plant's grinding trim is. Venison isn't beef, but the surface-to-center logic is the same, which is why every step here keeps the meat cold and why ground venison is cooked to 160°F.

Step 1: Trim hard

LEM's manual says the meat you feed a grinder should be "free of gristle, sinew, silver skin, and bone." Utah State University Extension adds the deer's own fat to that list: remove it, because venison fat "has a very strong 'game' flavor." That fat is exactly what you will replace with pork or beef fat in Step 4, so trim it without guilt.

Silver skin and sinew are the parts a grinder knife struggles with. They don't disappear in the grind; they collect in the head, which is why LEM's manual has you stop after the first pass and clear out the sinew, fat and gristle that built up. Every minute you spend at the trim table saves one spent unclogging the head, and if yours already jams, our guide to why a meat grinder keeps clogging walks through each cause.

Cut the trimmed meat into strips or cubes that "easily fit into the throat of the grinder head," as LEM puts it. For scale, LEM lists a 2.25-inch opening into the head on its BigBite #12, so smaller grinders want smaller pieces. Keep bone out entirely; LEM's #8 grinder listings say plainly "not for bones."

Step 2: Chill the meat and the grinder

Cold comes up in nearly every piece of maker guidance on grinding. LEM's manual wants the meat at 40°F or colder for grinding, and "well-chilled (28°-32°F)" when you are making sausage. LEM's Grinder Workshop says warm meat leads to mushing and that putting the meat in the freezer until it firms up helps prevent fat smear. Bass Pro's grinding tips suggest about 30 to 45 minutes in the freezer before you start, and putting the grinder's knife, auger and head in there too if you have room.

Don't overshoot. LEM's manual also warns against grinding "deep frozen food." You want the meat firm at the edges, not a block. Work in batches: grind one lug while the next waits in the refrigerator, rather than setting the whole deer out on the bench.

Step 3: Assemble and run the coarse grind

1. Knife on the right way. The knife sits on the square of the auger stud with the sharp blades facing out, flat side against the plate. LEM's Grinder Workshop warns that a backwards knife mushes the meat instead of chopping it.
2. Plate seated. Line up the notch in the plate with the locating pin in the head.
3. Ring hand-tight. LEM's manual says to screw the retaining ring on until hand-tight and not to over-tighten, which causes needless wear on the knife and plate.

For the first pass, use a coarse plate. LEM's plate guide calls its 10 mm (3/8-inch) plate "ideal for the first grind" and its 12 mm (1/2-inch) plate "perfect for the first grind." Kits vary: LEM's MightyBite #8 and BigBite #12 ship with 10 mm and 4.5 mm plates, while Weston's Pro Series ships with 7 mm and 4.5 mm.

Feed slowly and use the stomper, never your fingers. LEM's instruction is simple: "Do not force meat, allow grinder to do the work." When the lug is through, unplug the grinder, take off the coarse plate and clean out the sinew, fat and gristle collected in the head. If the meat has warmed, put it back in the cold before the second pass; LEM's manual says to chill the meat again if you want a finer grind.

Step 4: Add the fat

Venison is lean, and most published guidance adds fat for burger. LEM's manual says "add a minimum of 10% pork fat" when making burger from wild game, and to use beef fat if pork isn't available. Penn State Extension and Ohio State University Extension both suggest one part high-quality pork fat to three or four parts venison "before grinding," which works out to 20-25% of the finished blend. Our venison burger fat ratio guide puts every published ratio side by side with the math per deer.

There are two ways to work the fat in:

• Grind it in from the start. Cube the cold fat, weigh it against the venison, toss the two together and run them through both passes. This follows Penn State's "before grinding" advice.
• Mix after the coarse pass. Utah State Extension's fresh game sausage method grinds the meat coarse, mixes in the other ingredients, then grinds a second time through a fine plate. The second grind does the final blending.

Keep the fat as cold as the meat. Bass Pro's first rule is to keep everything below 40°F, and warm fat is the first thing to smear.

Step 5: The fine grind

LEM's plate guide recommends its 4.5 mm (3/16-inch) plate for "the second grind, coarse Hamburger and regular sausage," and its 3 mm (1/8-inch) plate for "hamburger, bologna, hot dogs and jerky." For burger, 4.5 mm is the maker's pick for the second pass; go to 3 mm when you want a finer texture or plan to shoot ground jerky. Our grinder plate size guide has the full chart.

Bass Pro makes the case for grinding twice at all: starting coarse and finishing fine "helps break down tougher cuts of meat and slices through stringy sinew." Watch what comes out. Strands are right. If it comes out mushed, stop: LEM's manual says to chill the meat to 40°F and check that the plate and knife are installed properly, and that a dull knife or plate causes mashing too.

Step 6: Package, label and freeze

Package the same day. USDA's ground beef guidance is to keep ground meat at 40°F or below and use it within 1 or 2 days, or freeze it. For the freezer, USDA lists heavy-duty plastic wrap, aluminum foil, freezer paper or bags made for freezing, and says to mark every package with the date it went in. Frozen ground beef stays safe indefinitely but, per USDA, is best within 4 months; Utah State Extension puts the quality window for frozen ground venison at 6 to 9 months. Our guide to packaging deer meat for the freezer compares paper and vacuum bags.

When you cook it, cook it to 160°F internal, measured with a food thermometer. USDA and Penn State Extension give the same number for ground meat.

Step 7: Clean up the same day

LEM's manual has a neat trick for the meat left in the head: pass a slice of bread through it. Then unplug the grinder and take the head apart. For LEM's MightyBite #8, the manual says to hand-wash every part in warm soapy water, not to soak them, not to use the dishwasher, to rinse with hot water and hand-dry immediately, and to coat the knife and plates with silicone spray. LEM's processing tips add a brush to reach the nooks. The manual's warning is worth repeating: any part exposed to raw meat can harbor bacteria, so be thorough.

USDA's steps for the rest of the bench: wash your hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds before and after handling ground meat, wash utensils and surfaces that touched raw meat with soap and hot water, and sanitize them with 1 tablespoon of unscented liquid chlorine bleach per gallon of water. Don't reuse packaging materials.

The gear that makes this easier

You need nothing beyond the grinder to follow these steps, but three things take pressure off the cold chain and the cleanup. A spare plate-and-knife set means a sharp knife is always on hand. Stackable meat lugs let you stage trimmed, chilled and coarse-ground batches without crowding the refrigerator. And a hand-crank mixer blends fat and seasoning evenly without warming the meat with your hands.

Still picking the grinder itself? Our best meat grinders for deer ranks them by the season each one can keep up with.