Buffalo
You won't be stalking your own buffalo, but you might lay hands on some of those fifty-five thousand pounds that went to market last year, and have a synthetic cowboy feast over your garden grill. Broil a tender cut like beefsteak. If you draw a tough one, marinate it overnight using the following mixture:
A short note rather than a full recipe: the point being made is that ranched bison behaves like lean beef on a grill, and that the tough cuts want an overnight soak.
- Buffalo means bisonAmerican "buffalo" is Bison bison, sold today by ranches and by some butchers and mail-order suppliers. It is not the water buffalo of Asian and Italian cooking, and it is not game in any legal sense — ranched bison is farmed meat, though it is not subject to the same mandatory inspection as beef.
- Lean meat, shorter cookingBison carries far less intramuscular fat than modern grain-finished beef, so it cooks faster and dries out sooner. Pull a steak at 130-135F internal for medium-rare and let it rest; past 145F it turns dry and livery.
- Which cuts to broil"A tender cut like beefsteak" means ribeye, strip, tenderloin or top sirloin. Chuck, round and flank are the tough ones the note has in mind, and no marinade will make them behave like a ribeye — they are better braised or ground.
- Grill heatUse a hot fire for the sear, then finish over indirect heat. Because the fat is scarce, oil the meat rather than the grate and expect fewer flare-ups than with beef.
- What an overnight marinade actually doesAcid and oil penetrate only a few millimetres, so an overnight soak flavours the surface and tenderises very little. For genuinely tough cuts, mechanical tenderising or slicing thin across the grain does more than any soak.
- Marinating safelyOvernight means in the refrigerator, in a non-reactive dish or bag, not on a counter. Discard the used marinade or boil it before it goes near cooked meat.
- ServingFigure 6-8 oz of boneless steak per person, as you would for beef.