Tuscan Grilled Venison Burgers

[rberg02]

Here are some venison burgers and vegetables which I recently did on the Tuscan grill. I was pleased with the caramelization that I got on the vegetables which were simply drizzled with some good olive oil and seasoned with salt and freshly ground pepper. The burgers were 100 per cent ground venison with no added fat, cooked medium-rare to keep them from drying out.

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Tuscan Grilled Venison Burgers

Those look great, I love venison.

I think now you need to start baking your own buns...

Drake

[CanuckJim]

Re: Tuscan Grilled Venison Burgers

Drake, Erberg,

Agreed on the venison, right up there with moose and caribou in my book. Had an elk burger at a First Nations Pow Wow over the weekend; different again but tasty. Agreed, too, on the buns. Suggest Peter Reinhart's formula for kaisers in The Bread Bakers Apprentice. Cut the bake time in half for a 500F hearth. You'll never buy buns again.

Jim

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Tuscan Grilled Venison Burgers

I use one in Bernard Clayton's Complete bread book...

[Versachi]

Re: Tuscan Grilled Venison Burgers

Nice cooking rberg. Nice to find another Forno Bravo member so close to me here in Thunder Bay. I think Jim was the closest prior to that. Now I have someone who really knows what cold weather is!!

Cheers, Versachi

[rberg02]

Re: Tuscan Grilled Venison Burgers

This is kind of embarrassing. I actually make all of my own breads, except every so often I do buy the soft bakery buns for burgers. Call it a comfort food thing, I suppose. Kind of like for some folks a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich doesn' t taste the same unless it is on Wonder bread (I definitely don't go that far, however!). I have made several breads out of Bernard Clayton's book and agree they are excellent. Thanks for all the comments.

[rberg02]

Re: Tuscan Grilled Venison Burgers

Howdy Versachi, I' live about 7-8 miles from the Canadian border at the end of the Gunflint Trail. If I might ask, what kind of wood fired oven are you running? Mine is a Mugnaini Medio 110 and I've had it up and running since last fall. It comes into the house (into a recently remodeled screen porch made into 4 season) pretty much because of the cold and snow.... Helps heat the room as well as doubles as a fireplace to stare into on long winter nights.
Ron

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Tuscan Grilled Venison Burgers

I understand completely! I use those same buns when I make pulled pork sandwiches...

[Versachi]

Re: Tuscan Grilled Venison Burgers

Sounds like a nice setup. My oven isn't competed yet. It is my summer/fall/late fall project. It has to be all done before the snow flies. My parents have a cottage on Arrow lake which gets its water from Rose lake. We have portaged into Rose and taken the 100 or so log steps to get up to Duncan lake which I believe is in the BWCA. A little scarey in that neck of the woods with the ham lake fire earlier this year.

Cheers, John

[rberg02]

Re: Tuscan Grilled Venison Burgers

The Ham lake fire went right through here on Sunday May 6th and again on Tuesday May 8th. Sunday night was definitely exciting. We arrived home from Duluth just in time to get our wildfire sprinkler system going along with one of our neighbors. Our other neighbor's shoreline was already burning when we arrived (right up to our property line and had already melted the pipes to his sprinkler system). Not more than 30 minutes later the shore across the bay went up in flames taking several cabins with it. Propane tanks were exploding one after the other. We managed to save our neighbor who had lost his sprinkler system with buckets and a fire hose I hooked up to our system. I'd say we were within 30 minutes of losing our place when we arrived here. It was that close. Anyway, we survived and I still have my wood fired oven to play with.