A few weekends ago, I made my first venison meatloaf and it turned out incredibly delicious!
I hosted a “Friendsmas” dinner with several friends and made a feast of venison meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole (my personal holiday favorite). Meatloaf was one of my grandma’s specialties and I’ve always liked it. So I was excited to try out this recipe because I hadn’t eaten it in years. It didn’t disappoint!
The feast!
To make the meatloaf, I first needed to grind up some of the venison in my freezer. This meant I got to use my new meat grinder for the first time! I took out a couple packs of stew meat to thaw out so they’d be ready to grind.
I read the manual, it seemed easy enough so I started grinding the stew meat.
I ran it through a coarse grinder plate on the first pass through. Then, I switched it to the fine grinder plate on the second.
When it was all done, I was left with over a pound of venison! So cool and really easy to use. I can’t wait to try out the sausage stuffing setting on there.
Over a pound of ground venison!
For the meatloaf, I followed this recipe. The venison weighed out to around a pound and a quarter, so I increased all the ingredients a bit.
Egg, crushed saltine crackers, barbecue sauce, onion, sage, steak seasoning, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce
Like my grandma always said, the only way to mix meatloaf is to get in there with your hands. I combined all the ingredients together and then filled a small loaf pan. It smelled amazing, but to make it even better you add some bacon strips on top.
Mine took almost twice as long as the recipe said to cook. An instant thermometer was a life saver cooking this one! Make sure the inside temperature is at least 160 degrees. I poured over the BBQ sauce mixture and viola!
Not everyone at the party knew they were eating venison. But they all said it was one of the best meatloafs they’ve had! Definite success!
One delicious venison meatloaf dinner!
I think the next time I make it, I’d form the meat into the rectangle shape on a baking sheet. That way you put full slices of bacon over the top and sides. And the entire meatloaf will be covered in the sauce that everyone said was their favorite part. I think the sage adds a really great flavor to this recipe so don’t skip that ingredient or swap it out!
Writing this post makes me want to cook this again, it was so delicious! This meatloaf is also great the next day between two white slices of bread with mayo. But it’s not likely you’ll have leftovers!
Try it out and let me know what you think!
Country Huntress 
The only thing better than venison meatloaf is how it makes the house smell! Am i right?
I totally agree! It smelled amazing the whole time cooking!
Looks delicious!
Thank you! It was!
I have never heard of adding bacon on top of meatloaf! But it looks amazing- and that green bean casserole does, too! Meatloaf does take a long time to bake.. always. But always worth it! What kind of venison was it? Whitetail from your doe? If you ever get to hunt an Axis, that makes the BEST meatloaf – and i’ll give you my recipe! 😉
On another note: I just created a collective (of sorts) for huntresses who blog! Check it out, and let me know if you want to be added in! 🙂 It would be awesome if you could and we could get others to, too! There is also a realllly cool logo that you can use on your blog! (That I may have paid to produce.. hehe- but I LOVE it!) Let me know!
https://texaninsouthafrica.wordpress.com/huntresses-united/
Adding bacon on anything makes it that much more delicious, right?! It was a great addition! Green bean casserole is my absolute favorite, I really should make it more often than just at holidays! It was blacktail doe venison, really good! Ohh, we don’t have any Axis deer around here. I have a friend down in Texas, maybe I’ll have to go visit her during hunting season and try to get one! I’d love to know your recipe!
That’s a great idea and so cool that you started it up! I definitely wanted to be added in! The logo is really cool, I’m going to be changing things around on my blog so I’ll add it in!
Ah- a Coues Deer- awesome! 🙂 You definitely should- since it isn’t a native species, they don’t have a season! And yes- bacon on top of anything is yummy. 🙂 I even had a lady give me a cupcake with bacon bits on it before- sounds weird, but it was amazing.
WONDERFUL!! I’ll add you in right now! I am so excited!
You are making me hungry!
Try out the recipe! It won’t disappoint!
CANNOT wait to try!! =)
Let me know how you like it! I may have to make it again soon, it was so good! The BBQ sauce you make to pour over the top would also be good on a lot of other meat!
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