Ingredients

NY strip buffalo about 1 “ thick

How

Preheat oven to 350 degree
Heat oven proof fry pan over medium hig heat
Sprinkle a little Olive oil pan
Sear the steak about 3 minutes
Turn and place pan in oven for about 4 minutes
Remove tent loosely with tin foil let sit for 5-10 minutes – rule of thumb I use is about the same time it took to cook.

Slice against the grain and serve

The Benefits of Eating Buffalo

I like knowing that by buying and eating buffalo I’m supporting one of the last remnants of wild food on the American continent. I like the wild, untamed nature of the animals, their rugged character, and toughness. They stand in stark contrast to the rest of our cultivated diet.

Buffalo, what’s in it for you?
Ounce for ounce buffalo meat contains 69% more iron than beef and slightly more protein than beef. Everyone can benefit from eating bison on regular basis to prevent or rectify iron deficiency anemia. Men, women, children, and former vegetarians and vegans can benefit from is tonifying food. Like beef, bison is a great source of B-vitamins, zinc, and other brain and body-building nutrients that are poorly supplies and poorly absorbed from plant foods.

Photo right by Rachel Albert-Matesz, © Copyright 2009

Cholesterol, a non-issue
Although buffalo is promoted as a lower cholesterol meat, that’s a bit of misnomer. A 100 gram serving (3 1/2 ounces) of buffalo contains approximately 82 milligrams of cholesterol whereas the same size portion of beef (or pork) contains 86 milligrams. The difference of 4 milligrams is hardly signfificant. (That’s 0.0002% of what most bodies produces in a day!)

Now you may be wondering why eat cholesterol if you body can make it? Although your body can manufacture cholesterol, it is actually better to obtain it from dietary sources. Traditional human diets have always contained significant amounts of cholesterol.

According to Nora T. Gedgaudas, CNS,CNT, author of Primal Body––Primal Mind, “Restricting or eliminating its [cholesterol] intake indicates a crisis or famine to the body. The result is the production of a liver enzyme called HMG-COA reductase, that in effect, then overproduces cholesterol from carbohydrates in the diet. Consuming excess carbohydrates while decreasing cholesterol intake guarantees a steady overproduction of cholesterol in the body.”

“The only way to switch this over production off is to consume an adequate amount of dietary cholesterol and back off on the carbs. In other words, the dietary intake of cholesterol stops the internal production of cholesterol. (Schwarzbein, 1999).”

Back to the Buffalo
Buffalo is usually lower in fat than beef. The specific fat content of a particular cut of buffalo will depend on upon the particular animal, its diet age at the time of slaughter, and how much fat is trimmed from the carcass or cut you buy.

The lean of the land?
USDA handbook data includes comparisons showing a 100 gram (3 1/2 ounce) portion of beef at 9.28  to 14 grams of fat and the same size portion of buffalo at 2.42 grams of fat. However, I’ve seen 6 ounce (128 gram) buffalo burgers in gourmet markets boasting 30 grams of fat (ground meat may contain more fat if it’s processed with trim from the rest of the carcass, particularly if it was not 100% grassfed). However, fat isn’t bad.

Eating more fat and protein and less carbohydrate can provide many health benefits.  Still most buffalo on the market, particularly if grassfed, will contain significantly less fat than factory farmed beef.

For the pictures on the right, I used a small buffalo steak from Arizona Buffalo Company, located in Buckeye, Arizona. It turned out really great. Although it was a lean steak, I found it easy to cut and easy to chew.

Buy local whenever you can
When I buy meat, or anything else, I support small local farmer means and help them stay in business. I reduce fuel use because my food doesn’t log thousands of miles to reach me. I cut out the middle man. I usually save money, and have contact with the people who are raising my food. I much prefer this to buying anonymous meat whenever I can, although I’m flexible in this respect. I don’t think it has to be all or nothing.

How to cook a buffalo
Cook it one piece at a time. As with grassfed been and other lean, wild, or game meats, you’ll get the best results cooking steaks, roasts, and burgers, rare or medium rare. Well done will be overdone, tough, dry, and leathery. Reduce the cooking time, the temperature, or both to produce the best results. And don’t rush a roast, long slow cooking is required for certain cuts to make t hem moist and tender. Marinades help with some cuts.

How does it taste?
I like the flavor. You might expect buffalo to taste gamey and have a tough texture, but I find it tender and juicy (as long it’s not overcooked), with a slightly sweet undertone. I like to sear the steaks on both sides and leave them blood red on the inside. You’ll notice buffalo meet has a deeper, darker, redder color than beef. Stay close and remove it from the heat when it’s under done, so you don’t lose all that color in cooking.

Related articles

• Buffalo Meat – A Cut Above The Rest (leccoworkshop.com)