Venison Bacon: question on potential modification

[donnylove]

For those of you out there that have made the ground and formed venison bacon, have you ever augmented the seasoning package with something like maple syrup or brown sugar to add an additional sweet flavor. I'm making another batch (seasoning a couple hours, smoking tomorrow) and I'd like to add some maple syrup into part of the batch. Anyone tried this? Any reason I shouldn't?

 

[donnylove]

Bump. About to mix. If I don't get a response, I'm going to try half normal and half with some maple syrup mixed in (though I don't know how much!).

 

[mballi3011]

I have never ground and formed bacon but there is someone here that does it. Have you tried a search for it yet.???

 

[donnylove]

I searched and I PMed MossyMO about it. He said he's thought of it but never tried it (Maple flavoring). Based on a sausage recipe I came across, I went ahead and added 1 cup of grade A maple syrup to half my batch (7.5 lbs). I'll be smoking it later this morning and let everyone know how it turns out. Thanks

 

[praire fire]

We did that to a friend of mines bacon and it turned out great added just enough sweet maple flavor to the bacon.

 

[donnylove]

Well my latest batch of venison bacon is smoked, sealed, and delivered (to the freezer). Nothing remarkable to report, though I did add a cup of pure maple syrup to half of the batch. I only fried up one piece of each when it was done, because I had my wisdom teeth taken out on Friday and I'm not supposed to be eating anything very solid yet (which really sucks by the way since it's Super Bowl Sunday - bad planning on my part).

I could definitely taste a little bit of sweet maple. Not sure which flavor I like better. The original tasted a little smokier. Both good. My wife liked the maple better. Here's a few pics to prove that I'm not just blowin' smoke!

Ready for smoke . . .


Off the smoker and cooling . . .


The slicing table (I don't have a meat slicer, but this stuff slices pretty easy with a decent butcher knife) . . .


The maple batch . . .


The original batch . . .


Just under 15 lbs total. I should be set for a while!