There's a version of wild game cooking I did for years that I'm not proud of. Straight venison, nothing added, cooked through, eaten because I worked hard to kill it. Technically fine. Not great.

Allie D'Andrea (Outdoors Allie) was back on the podcast this week. We spent a solid stretch of the episode on cooking, and I came out of it with a few things I'm changing.

The venison burger fat experiment

Allie ran a side-by-side test: pure venison, pork shoulder fat, bacon, butter, mayo, and egg, all head-to-head on burgers. Pork shoulder fat at 80/20 won by a clear margin. Bacon worked, but wasn't the top choice. Butter wasn't bad. The egg added good flavor but an odd texture. Mayo was the worst one. Don't do it.

The ratio matters depending on what you're cooking. For tacos, 90/10 is probably fine since you'll drain the fat off at 80/20 anyway. For burgers where you want it to hold together and get a good sear, 80/20 is worth it.

Where to actually get fat

Ask the meat counter at any decent grocery store for beef suet or leaf lard from pork. Most are happy to do it. They'll hand you a bag of ground fat. Keep it in the freezer until you need it. It'll go rancid over time, so don't overstock.

On timing: mixing fat in at grind time is more consistent. Pure venison keeps better in the freezer long term, though, so if you've got ground venison already frozen, adding fat at cook time still works.

Bear meat

Allie's approach: grind most of it. Bear has to hit 165°F internally because of the risk of trichinosis, so steaks aren't ideal unless you like them well done. Ground bear sidesteps that and is excellent. It makes better burgers than venison alone because of the fat content. Bear fat is also worth rendering separately. Use it as a cooking oil, or deep-fry fish in it, which apparently comes out with a surprisingly sweet flavor.

Fall PA bears eating acorns and beech nuts are hard to beat for flavor. That matters.

What to do with freezer turkey

Allie made a spicy white turkey chili with last season's ground turkey and said it was the best turkey she'd made. Turkey does well either fried fresh or ground and slow-cooked in something like chili or a meat sauce. Running it through the grinder opens up a lot more options than trying to cook the breast whole and wondering why it dried out.

Ep. 495 is up now wherever you listen. Allie's cookbook, The Butcher's Table, is on Amazon if you want a full wild game cooking reference.