Dry Moose Burgers.

by V Bowering
(Campbellton, NL. Canada)

We had some moose burgers made and they are very dry. Can we add some fat pork or something to them now, because I don't want to have to throw away all those burgers. What can I do? V

Hi V,
This is not an uncommon problem when moose burger patties are made by your meat processor. When you ask your butcher to make up moose burgers, they load the patty making machine with moose mince and press them... without additives. At that time however, you could ask your butcher to add ground beef to the mixture.

Typically it is not recommended to add ground pork or pork fat as it does not keep as well as beef.

As I am sure you know most people, when making moose patties at home will add a variety of ingredients including but not limited to: eggs, milk, bread crumbs, oil, onions, barbeque sauce etc. Any of these additions help to add moisture to moose patties.

We have experienced the same situation as you. It is very disappointing to have a case of moose hamburger patties in the freezer that are seemingly uneatable.

There are a couple of things you can do.

• Do not thaw your moose patties before you cook them (we found this helpful)


• Add bacon slices to them IE: make bacon burgers


• Do not over cook - because of the lack of fat in moose meat they do not shrink as much as beef hamburger patties


• If frying, cook in vegetable oil

As a last resort you could thaw all the patties and break them up into a large bowl. Once this has been done and add some beef mince to the bowl and mix well. You can remake patties at this point or package the mixture into one pound packages and refreeze. I know this is a lot of work but it can be done.

Personally, I would opt for the cooking suggestions and use them the way they are. It is VERY important that you do not over cook the patties. If necessary use a temperature probe and cook to the recommended internal temperature as beef.

We do not have our butcher make moose hamburger patties for us any longer, and the recipe we use is the moose hamburgers recipe from our recipe page.

I hope this helps.

Regards, Mark