Bison Burger -- No Thanks To Buffalo Bill, It's Back

Sep 27, 1992

John Hinterberger

I WAS NIBBLING AN uncommonly good hamburger at the Bothell Burgermaster the other day and ruminating about meat and health and waste and Buffalo Bill.

If there was any real justice in the old West, Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody) would have been trampled by a runaway herd of American bison and killed before he wasted many more of the animals that became his namesake.

Cody is credited, to his eternal discredit, with the slaughter in 1866 and '67, of 4,280 buffalo while supplying meat for the the construction crews of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. A little contemplation suggests that the feeding of one railroad crew for some 17 months did not require the slaughter of 4,280 animals that weighed up to a ton apiece.

But his legend required it, and as I ate my hamburger, I damned him for it.

The hamburger I was eating was not made of ham, of course. Hamburger's aren't ham. They are made from ground beef. Except this one. It was a "Buffalo Burger," which is itself a bit of a misnomer. The American bison is not a buffalo.

Almost extinct by the turn of the century, the bison was nursed back to existence by the efforts of a few ranchers (among them Samuel Walking Coyote, a Pend d'Oreille Indian in the Mission Valley of Montana in 1873). Most of the estimated 80,000 bison alive and well in America today derived from those early herds.

Thinking about all of this while eating a bison burger in Bothell? In so doing, was I not contributing further to the slaughter of American bison with each appreciative bite?

No, not really. I was supporting a commercial enterprise dedicated to bringing the "buffalo" back. Besides, it was a wonderful burger, much more flavorful than beef, and much better for me.

I also was ruminating over the endorsements offered by David James, the owner and manager of the Bothell Burgermaster, 8002 Bothell Way N.E. "Buffalo is very lean meat," he said. "It is higher in amino acids, iron and protein than regular beef, and it is very low in fat. Our buffalo burgers have a fat content of less than 10 percent; that compares favorably with chicken or turkey."

But what, precisely, does it taste like?

Like beef, except it's a little "beefier." It tastes like a well-aged sirloin steak. It's not gamey and it's not strong, although there is a certain sweetness to the meat. Eating that burger a few days ago made me realize what a terrible thing Bill Cody did.

The American Bison Association is trying to remedy at least part of that. The ABA (which changed its name from the American Buffalo Association a few years ago) now represents more than a thousand ranchers in the U.S. and Canada.

Why is bison meat so good for you compared to most commercially raised beef? It's not just the leanness and low cholesterol levels. Because the animals don't spend extended time in feedlots, there is no need for artificial growth stimulants or antibiotics.

Because of their natures (bison are both unpredictable and enormously strong), the animals are best reared with a minimum of human contact - that is, a home where the buffalo roam (sorry) and little else. They like open grasslands, are highly social, easily provoked and don't like fences:

"They can jump over a fence with the agility of a deer," an advisory from the ABA said. "And if they are on the run, can easily go through (i.e. destroy) seemingly adequate corrals."

So, why bother?

Flavor. About a dozen years ago, the Safeway chain managed to get its corporate hands on several truckloads of grass-fed bison and brought the meat into the Seattle market for a few weeks. I bought some steaks and a couple of roasts.

The steaks were less than wonderful, although the flavor was great. Accidentally overcooked by a couple of minutes, the steaks turned tough. Those that were slightly undercooked or rare and somewhat bloody were fantastic.

THE REAL SUCCESSES, however, were the stews I made from the cubes of lean bison. A Texas-style chili, slow-simmered for three to four hours, was raved over by a houseful of friends. A week later, I tried making the classic French beef-and-wine stew, Boeuf Bourguignon, with bison and was delighted with the results. If cooking bison roasts in the oven, turn the temperature down to 275 degrees from the usual 350. If you are cooking on the stove top, keep the pot temperature to the merest simmer.

"We first put the buffalo burgers on our menu as a special, just for fun," David James said. "We started out with it a year ago. But it caught on with some of our regular customers who were more health conscious."

Bison has less than one-fourth the amount of fat that corn-fed beef has: 1.8 grams per three-ounce serving, compared with 8.9 grams. It has less than two-thirds the fat content of chicken or turkey (three grams), and half the calories of beef per serving.

The Bothell Burgermaster serves its "Buffalo Burger" ($3.95) in quarter-pound patties, without mayonnaise, that is, without adding further fat. You get a considerable sandwich, a large slice of onion and tomato, pickles, lettuce, a dab of ketchup and mustard.

You'll also get the satisfaction of helping bring back the herds that once thundered across the American West. In the words of the fun-loving but now defunct Buffalo Party:

"Get behind the buffalo."

Your cardiologist will love you for it.

John Hinterberger's food columns and restaurant reviews appear Sundays in Pacific and Fridays in Tempo. Tom Reese is a Seattle Times staff photographer.