I made some venison meatballs last weekend, and used this recipe: http://www.fieldandstream.com/...sy-venison-meatballs

They were too good not to share. Started by grinding up a couple of random "grind" cuts, about 3 lbs. of venison, and we added maybe a half pound of ground pork later.



Then in went the rest of the ingredients and a lot of hand mixing. I split off some of the batch and added a healthy amount of red pepper flakes to see how they would be (and they were very good, I like some heat now and then). I formed them by hand and put them on a pan to bake at 350 for about a half hour, they easily reached 160 degrees at that point. After the oven I briefly seared them in a hot pan with olive oil so the texture wasn't too soft on the exterior (my preference). My girlfriend made a tomato sauce for them, which was a basic recipe with extra basil and garlic added just because we really like that stuff.



Some linguine, the sauce, a sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese, and red wine (a $10 Syrah recommended by the local wine shop) and we were set.



Had a basic little vinaigrette salad on the side too. My girlfriend said this was one of her favorite venison recipes so far and I had to agree, they were easier to make and better than expected. I finished off the rest last night and they were still great, I think we could pre-make these for parties and stuff. They'd probably be good just put in a crock pot with a sweet/spicy barbecue sauce or whatever you want.

A note on the onions, I cooked them down in a pan over low heat 'til they were just translucent before cooling and adding to the meat mix, and I think that could have been a key to the moisture with such lean meat. The texture was great, there was just enough to keep the balls moist (no hint of dryness) but not be like the meatloaf burgers I accidentally made a couple months ago. I don't think you could add too much garlic, basil, and/or red pepper flakes to these too. They might have been just fine without a quick toss in a hot pan after coming out of the oven but I don't regret it either.

Sounds delicious and looks great, Evan! Nice job on the photography, too! I'd be willing to bet those meatballs and that sauce would make outstanding meatball sandwiches!

Thanks Tas! I agree, man now I gotta get some hoagie rolls and mozzarella.