Venison Meatballs: Your Go-To Recipe for a Terrific Dish

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Meatballs are a classic recipe that provides versatility in the kitchen! Not only can meatballs be served in a variety of ways, but it’s a budget-friendly meal that helps you stretch your grocery dollars. My favorite venison meatballs recipe can be made using 100% ground venison, or mix it with ground pork for added flavor. 

Why Choose Venison?

While any ground meat can be used to create meatballs, venison is our meat of choice. Philip is an avid hunter, working hard every season to ensure we have plenty of red meat to last the year. Wild game is a sustainable natural meat option, free of antibiotics and hormones. Venison is packed with protein but extremely lean, making it a healthy choice for your family. While some people believe that venison has a gamey taste, our meat is delicious, never having any off flavors. 

Since venison is a very lean meat, it can be dry when cooked, especially when overcooked or overhandled. Here at Kowalski Mountain, we process all of our meat from field to fork. We prefer to add fat to our ground venison. Usually we add beef fat, but we also use pork fat.  As we grind our meat, we add 20% fat based on the weight of the meat. While you certainly can cook with and eat 100% ground venison, we prefer to add fat to make the meat more moist and flavorful. If your meat is already ground, you can finely chop up a few pieces of bacon and mix them throughout the ground venison to add a touch of fat.

Why Add Ground Pork?

I like to add ground pork to my meatballs to add extra flavor and to create a more moist product. I have mixed at a 50-50% ratio, but I also have used a 75-25% ratio. Especially if you purchase venison, mixing with ground pork is a great way to stretch your food budget. In this recipe, create a 50/50 mixture by mixing two pounds of venison with two pounds of ground pork. If you prefer a 75-25% ratio, try three pounds of ground venison to one pound of ground pork. 

A Note About Breadcrumbs

For years, I purchased Italian breadcrumbs for convenience’s sake. While I prefer the flavored breadcrumbs to plain breadcrumbs, with any convenience food, preservatives and chemicals are added to staple ingredients to make them last longer. Breadcrumbs are an easy kitchen staple to make. In our house, we aren’t a fan of the heel end of the bread.  Rather than waste these perfectly good pieces of bread, I toss them in the toaster and allow them to dry.  Living life on a homestead means that flies, stink bugs, and asian beetles are frequent unwelcome visitors to our home. Try as I might, they get past me more than I care to admit.  I use the toaster because it’s a great place to keep the bread free from any flying insect that might have found its way inside.

​After a few days, the bread will be sufficiently dry.  I toss it into the food processor and grind the bread to my preferred bread crumb size.

 If I have a lot of bread to dry, say a fallen loaf of bread, or poorly cut slices.  I cut the bread into cubes and dehydrate them.  These cubes make perfect bread crumbs whenever I need some. 

I store my breadcrumbs in an air-tight mason jar, but you can also keep them in the freezer if you use breadcrumbs infrequently. 

Mixing the Perfect Meatballs

One of the secrets to making perfectly cooked meatballs is to never over-handle your meat. In a large mixing bowl, roughly chop up your ground venison and ground pork. Add the remaining ingredients: lightly beaten eggs, breadcrumbs, add Italian seasoning if you prefer, Worcestershire sauce, raw onion, salt, and pepper.   I prefer to use my clean hands to thoroughly mix the ingredients without over handling.  Use your finger tips to break up the ground meat and completely mix the ingredients throughout the meat mixture.

Size Matters

I am a huge fan of serving food in well-balanced food portions.  Not only is this important from a nutrition aspect, but serving food in appropriate portions stretches your food budget. There is nothing worse than seeing food get tossed in the trash because someone’s “eyes were bigger than their stomach”, meaning they took more food than they could eat. By preparing food in appropriate portions, I can cook just what we need to prevent food waste.

Depending on what you are cooking with your meatballs, a 1″ to 2″ meatball may be appropriate. For ease of preparation, I use a tablespoon cookie scoop to portion my meatballs. Simply take a generous scoop of the meatball mixture and roll it into a ball.  One scoop makes a 1″ meatball, using two scoops will make closer to a 2″ meatball. 

Once rolled, place meatballs on a prepared baking sheet or tray. 

​Make-Ahead or Pre-Cooked Meatballs

The nicest thing about this recipe is that it is versatile! Depending on your food preparation goals, you can precook these meatballs, making a quick heat-and-serve addition to any meal.  Or if you prefer, you can freeze the make-ahead meatballs to cook later. Both options work well. 

If you want to freeze the raw meatballs, place them in a single layer on a tray in the freezer for a few hours. Once frozen solid, move meatballs into an airtight container and freeze. When ready to cook, partially defrost the meatballs in the fridge until ready to bake. 

If you prefer to precook the meatballs, you have two options: cook in a skillet over medium heat, turning the meatballs frequently to brown them on all sides. Use your tongs carefully; if you have made meatballs from 100% venison, they will be more likely to break apart than meatballs mixed with pork.  If cooking a small batch, this works well and is easy.

If you are cooking a large batch, I prefer to bake the meatballs in the oven.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. The meatballs should be cooked through with no pinkness to them.  The internal temperature should be 160 degrees. While you can turn the meatballs when baking in the oven, I usually don’t, they cook through easily without needing to be turned halfway through.

Alternative Flavors

Meatballs are such a versatile recipe.  You can easily substitute the ingredients for added flavor. Instead of ground pork, try Italian sausage.  Italian sausage has a delicious flavor especially when made for spaghetti and meatballs. 

Love cheese? You can use grated Parmesan cheese as a substitute for a portion of the breadcrumbs. Just like the breadcrumbs, grated parmesan is a perfect ingredient to help bind the meatballs together and hold their shape. 

The Perfect Sauce

At our house, it’s extremely gratifying when we serve a meal that we’ve grown or raised as much of the meal as possible.  Homegrown tomatoes make the perfect sauce for homemade spaghetti. If you don’t grow tomatoes, or never grow enough like me, homemade spaghetti sauce can be made from canned tomatoes. 

Delicious and Budget-Friendly Home-Made Meal

Venison meatballs are a delicious, budget-friendly, and versatile meal that makes great use of wild game. Whether you mix them with pork for added richness or enjoy them as 100% venison, they’re a fantastic way to bring wholesome, home-cooked meals to your table. From homemade breadcrumbs to a flavorful sauce, every step adds to the satisfaction of a from-scratch, homestead-inspired meal.

Have you tried making venison meatballs before? What’s your favorite way to serve them? Share your experiences in the comments!