Venison Meatballs with Cranberry Glaze (Wisconsin)

A sweet and tangy homemade cranberry sauce with a bit of a kick makes the perfect glaze for these Venison Meatballs. (You can use it with regular meatballs too). These Cranberry Glazed Venison Meatballs have a deep sweetness from brown sugar, the bright and slightly tart flavour of juicy cranberries, and just a hint of a kick from some cayenne pepper. You could easily use frozen meatballs with this sauce recipe (just skip straight to the instructions for making the sauce). And, you could just as easily swap out some ground beef in the meatball recipe. However, we decided to make our meatballs out of the last of some ground venison we had in the freezer. Making meatballs from scratch isn't difficult (think meatloaf or burgers, but mini). And, it allows you to do fun things like add nutmeg and a bit of black pepper, making these meatballs the perfect complement to the cranberry glaze.

Meatballs:
1 tsp. butter
½ onion, minced
½ lb ground venison or beef, 85% lean
½ tsp. kosher or sea salt
¼ tsp. black pepper, freshly ground
¼ tsp. nutmeg
½ cup breadcrumbs
2 Tbsp. milk
1 egg

Cranberry Sauce:
1 cup water
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
8 oz cranberries (fresh or frozen, thawed)
1 stick cinnamon
1 tsp. prepared yellow mustard
¼ tsp. kosher or sea salt
¼ tsp. cayenne
1/8 tsp. cloves

For the Meatballs:
Heat butter in a medium, non-stick frying pan. Add onions and sauté until golden. Remove from heat.

Mix onions with remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Mix to thoroughly incorporate, but do not over mix.

Return the non-stick frying pan to medium heat.

Shape 1 Tbsp. of meat mixture in a ball, roughly 1" in diameter. As meatballs are shaped, add to hot pan. Heat meatballs until the entire outside is seared. Set aside. (If you were eating the meatballs straight from here, you would want to cook them 7-10 minutes until firm, but since we will be cooking them in the sauce, we just need to lock in the juices and set the shape.)

Continue until all meat mixture has been used.

For the Cranberry Sauce:
In a medium saucepan, bring water and sugars to a boil, stirring often. Simmer 5 minutes.

Add cranberries and stick cinnamon. Simmer 5-7 minutes, until the cranberry skins pop.

Add mustard, kosher or sea salt, cayenne, and cloves. Mix well.

Assembly:
Add meatballs to sauce and simmer 5-10 minutes, until glaze thickens and meatballs are warmed through.

Makes 8-10 servings or 24 (1") meatballs.

Cook's Notes: This dish can be made ahead and reheated or kept warm for the party in a crock pot on low.