The Ultimate Guide to Moist Meatloaf, Meatballs, and Burgers...it's all about the mushrooms...

Do you ever make meatloaf, meatballs or burgers with grass-fed beef or wild game (I love me some ground venison meatballs) and because these types of meat have MUCH less fat than grain-fed meats, they come out dry?

You just drown them in sauce, right? Guilty.

Or maybe you throw in an extra egg to try and keep the meat moist? Wait. That doesn’t work?

Unfortunately, the job of the egg (and bread if you use it) is to bind your ingredients together, they don’t add moisture to the mix.

Mushrooms, on the other hand, LOVE to drink up moisture. They are like little sponges!

Have you ever sautéed mushrooms after washing them and they get waterlogged when you cook them? Yeah...check out our blog post on sautéing mushrooms.
...anyway...to add and keep the moisture in your meatballs, meatloaf, and burgers...these little sponges are perfect to get the job done! And they also add great umami and health benefits too!

So... what’s the recipe?

We’re sure most of you have a favorite recipe...elevate that recipe by just adding a few tablespoons of mushroom powder and/or some finely chopped fresh mushrooms to your mix. And voila!

For the meatballs in the picture, we used 1 lb. local ground venison, 1 lb. local ground pork sausage, homegrown garlic (powder), shiitake mushroom powder, panko bread crumbs (it’s what I had at the time), 1 egg, a little sour cream, salt, pepper, finely chopped onion, and 2-3 oz. of finely chopped fresh mushrooms (mostly shiitake).

Mix with your hands! This helps to bind your mix too...seriously.

Bake at 375 degrees until cooked (or grill burgers on the grill) and serve. Yum!

Mushrooms are from our farm (obviously).