Dinner and Dancing
by on 03.17.05
TreeHuggers eat buffalo. No exceptions except for strict vegetarians. If you've an interest in soil and water conservation, biodiversity, keeping family farms around, avoiding possible exposure to Mad Cow disease, energy conservation, and personal health, you owe it to yourself to give it a serious try. And I’m not talking about the pre-formed frozen "Buffalo Burgers" sold by the big grocery chains.
Credit George Catlin, plains 'Painter in Residence' before settlers ended the Bison's reign, for giving me a romantic view of the Buff. But credit critical thinking, a strong desire for sustainability, and my love of cooking for sending me on a TreeHugging Buffalo hunt. The taste, I can report, is its own reward. Romanticism only carries so far.
George Catlin’s painting of the sacred buffalo dance (above) documents what has been reported by European observers as a 'thanksgiving' celebration. I have a hunch it’s a lot deeper than that, but, regardless, we all ought to dance for joy that the American Bison was not driven to extinction. Thanks to Canada and more thanks to Teddy Roosevelt for the rescue.
Let me count the reasons.
Buffalo are twice as efficient as beef cattle at converting wild grass forage into animal protein. Add some more efficiency because they need no “feedlot treatment” of hay, corn, and antibiotics. Buffs are also more drought tolerant and less attracted to natural waterways than are cattle: good for stream quality. Add up the energy, land, and water inputs for a pound of meat and Bison wins by a wide margin.
Bison are very well adapted to cold weather extremes, requiring farmers to expend less energy to keep them warm and sheltered during the depths of winter.
Fat content of all buffalo is substantially less than beef or chicken. Less fat coupled with the generally lower water content of buffalo meat means lower cooking temperatures suffice. This, in turn, saves cooking energy.
Buffalo meat producers tend to be family based. This could be a transitory situiation, but TreeHuggers can have at keeping it that way for a bit longer.
Pricing seems to vary widely so be sure to shop around.
Where to buy: -- In the interest of saving money and energy, as well as supporting a family enterprise, I ordered from a small farm in Northern Minnesota, on the Eastern edge of the Bison’s native range. To locate a supplier near you, you can try this trade organization GIS map, or just do a web search with “buffalo + meat + yourstate”.
Tradeoffs: -- It’s a tradeoff between unit cost, shipping distance, and buying direct from a family producer versus a large scale online retailer. Worth exploring who does the meat processing and freezing. I was unable to find a Native American supplier because of the deluge of web “hits” associated with cultural and political history. Commenters?
TreeHuggers who have been paying attention to the issue of Peak Oil may be interested in what large portions of the Great Plains might look like sometime after 2030: buffalo grazing amongst the wind turbines, rubbing their backs upon the concrete foundations.
by: John Laumer
My wife and I had our caterer serve bison tenderloin at our wedding reception dinner, and people really loved it. But I don't see what you have against "the pre-formed frozen 'Buffalo Burgers' sold by the big grocery chains." If you want a quick and convenient way to make burgers, and your choices are frozen ground bison or frozen ground beef, which would you choose? Most of the time, I choose the bison, although we buy Coleman (natural) beef hamburger patties a lot, too. In fact, I'd rather have a frozen pre-formed bison patty than make my own patty from "fresh" supermarket ground beef that comes from who-knows-where that was raised and butchered in who-knows-what manner.
Google sports a nice list of buffalo suppliers from around the country. You can access it at http://directory.google.com/Top/Shopping/Food/Meat/Exotic/Buffalo/.
I have eaten a lot of Buffalo. My family raise beef but many of our friends and neighbors raise buffalo. I love buffalo meat, especially for outdoor grilling. However, the meat is very low fat and tends to get 'pastey' when over ground. I have tried the preformed patties and they are terrible compared to fresh ground.
Oh and btw, if your are going to mention mad cow disease, at least tell your readers that Buffalo commonly carry TB and Brucilosis.
Will...I concur with your assessment that coarse ground fresh buf is superior. Store ground brands have spices, salt, oil,and sometimes color preservatives (but not all brands). Did I mention how much I hate "food scientists". Its an evil profession.
All mammals are at risk for diseases and parasites. Brucellosis, which as you correctly point out, caninfect bison, does not, however, infect humans at all. It is much feared by cattlement, but to my reading it hardly ever happens that their herds are significantly impacted. I have a gut feeling that cattle industry makes out Brucellosis to be a far worse threat than it really is. Similar approach to spawning fear over returning wolves to the wild. A fair way to evaluate it would be to compare the the economic damage to the cattle industry by brucellosis and wolves to the economic value of tourism in surrounding wild areas. I bet you can guess the outcome.
I have no idea if there is a crossover risk of bison TB to humans but it certainly should be taken into account.
Another one is methane production. To my limited reading the science is still coming in. Seemingly bufs put out less than cows but we'll have to wait for a better answer: important for climate change.
I don't know if this is true in general but I have been able to purchase a variety of buffalo meat products at my local Whole Foods Market (in Madison, WI). I did a blind test about a year ago by substituting buffalo meatballs for ground sirloin in my spaghetti sauce and didn't tell anyone in advance. Everyone commented that the meatballs tasted better than usual, so I now mostly use buffalo. The only problem I have had is that a recipe that I normally make with a beef chuck roast that calls for slow braising did not end up tender like it normally does. I haven't yet figured out what I need to do to make buffalo chuck roast work in this favorite recipe.
Lower the temperature and increase the time in increments of an hour until you hit paydirt..keep moisture levels up.
PS: I'm UW Grad. 1971.