Bison Cooking & Handling Tips

For best results:You will find that you can interchange buffalo meat for many of your favorite beef recipes, just by following a few simple instructions. The taste is many times indistinguishable from beef, although bison has a richer, fuller flavor. Buffalo is not wild or "gamy" tasting. The main thing to remember when cooking buffalo meat is that because there is less fat content, it will cook faster. Because fat is in insulator, heat must first penetrate this insulation before the cooking process can begin. Marbling, which is fat within the muscle, slows down the cooking process. Because buffalo meat lacks marbling, the meat will cook more rapidly, so extra care must be taken to avoid drying it out through overcooking. 

• Buffalo/Bison steaks and burgers are at their very best when done rare or medium (with a pink center).

 

• If you oven broil your buffalo/bison, try moving the oven rack a notch lower than you normally would and check on their progress a few minutes sooner than you normally would. You'll be rewarded with a juicier piece of meat.

 

• If you grill your buffalo/bison, we suggest doing so over medium hot coals at a distance of from four to six inches. Again, a little extra care will reward you with a much juicer meal.

 

• When roasting buffalo/bison, we suggest that you follow the creed "lower and slower." Lower your oven temperature to cook the meat more slowly. It will shrink less, thereby retaining more natural juice. To be sure that it is done to your liking, we suggest using a meat thermometer - it's an inexpensive reusable insurance policy.

 

• The rich red color of the buffalo/bison meat is indicative of the higher levels of iron and the lack of marbling (fat). Both of these are GOOD things and are probably among the reasons that you purchased buffalo/bison meat in the first place.

 

Do you have questions about cooking bison or anything else related to bison?

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