A bison strip steak almost is indistinguishable from beef, but you’ll notice a lack of marbling. When you bite into it, you’ll experience a sweeter meat flavor that’s cleaner-tasting because there’s so little fat to get in the way of the meat—and it’s more tender, too. Photo by David G. Freund. WHAT IT IS: Organic-raised bison meat—in cuts to please every meat-lover and suit every recipe. WHY IT’S DIFFERENT: Flavorful, healthy, and it’s kosher, too. Just as there are better producers of beef, Blackwing Quality Meats is a top producer of bison. The difference shows in every bite. WHY WE LOVE IT: Bison doesn’t weigh us down the way that beef does. It’s a delight of a red meat, so tasty yet healthy-feeling that it’s an eye-opener. It even “cooks clean”: because there’s so little fat, grilling a steak indoors provides no heavy “meat cooking” odor.

Blackwing Bison: Home On The Range CAPSULE REPORT: If you’re looking for something exciting in red meat, we’ve found it: Blackwing bison. Bison has less fat and fewer calories than skinless, white meat chicken and an exquisitely fresh, clean red meat flavor. For red meat lovers, it’s a diet delight; for people who merely seek delicious food, bison from a top producer is a revelation. From Blackwing Quality Meats, it’s organic and kosher, too. We’ve had bison from other producers and are thrilled to the hoof by how remarkably tender and sweet Blackwing is. Even THE NIBBLE’s executive chef, who has cooked his share of bison, was wowed—he actually wrote a fan letter to the Blackwing folks. We had Blackwing burgers, tenderloin and New York strip steak, all so magnificent that we lamented when the last bites were gone. With numerous cuts from back ribs to flank steak, bison can be slow-cooked. But the tender cuts are for rare-meat lovers. They’re so lean, they can’t be cooked beyond medium-rare or they become dry. Cooked rare, they’re a rare treat indeed. The line is certified USDA Organic and certified glatt kosher by Orthodox Union. Read the full review below. For the difference between buffalo and bison, click here. For more of our favorite meats reviewed in THE NIBBLE online magazine, click here. For the table of contents of the June issue of THE NIBBLE, plus the back issues archive and our most popular articles, click here. All prior issues of the Top Pick Of The Week newsletter are archived here.

Books For Meat-Lovers

The Complete Meat Cookbook, by Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly. A superb reference book, an essential for any kitchen. It includes everything you want to know about meats: where the cuts come from, what cooking method they’re best suited for, how to carve, et al. Click here for more information or to purchase.	How to Cook Meat, by Christopher Schlesinger and John Willoughby. From another great educator, this enjoyable book explores in great detail everything you need to know about beef, veal, lamb and pork: which cuts to buy, what cooking methods suit each, how to judge doneness, and much, much more. Click here for more information or to purchase.	The Healthy Beef Cookbook. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the American Dietetic Association have gotten together to show health-conscious cooks exciting new ways to use lean beef. More than 130 delicious, nutritious recipes that call for one of the 22 cuts of beef that meet government guidelines for lean labeling. Click here for more information or to purchase.

Home On The Range: Blackwing Bison

Bison is a magnificent, healthy red meat with all of the flavor and texture of beef, but none of the heaviness. It is richer in protein, yet far lower in fat, calories and cholesterol. In fact, bison has less calories and fat than skinless chicken or turkey, and even some fish. 

Bison tastes like a cousin of beef, much like farm-raised venison, a cousin from the other side of the family. Think of the difference between red Bordeaux and Burgundy wines. They’re both from the well-bred side of the big French red wine family. If you like one, you’ll probably like the other.

It’s the same with bison and beef. Some say that beef tastes richer, because they consider that the fat adds richness and flavor. We know that fat is a flavor-enhancer, and the heavily marbled cuts of beef are more expensive because they’re tastier. Others will say that bison, on the lean side, puts one’s taste buds closer to the richer, fuller flavor of the meat. The proof is in the tasting, but one thing to clarify up-front is that bison is not in any way gamy. Rather, it is more elegant in flavor and more tender (far less fibrous in texture) than beef; the meat has what many call a “sweeter” taste. We must digress for a moment and state that we are talking about bison from Blackwing Quality Meats, which is the equivalent of discussing beef from Niman Ranch. As with any type of product, there are the great producers and the less great. We have purchased other bison at our local market, and have eaten bison burgers at restaurants, that were not related in any way to the outstanding products produced by Blackwing, whose bison is served in some of America’s finest restaurants.

Our bison burger was so delicious—refreshing and healthy-tasting—that we vowed never to return to beef. We felt the same about our tenderloin and our New York strip steak. Photo by Craig Holmes.

In terms of the flavor of Blackwing bison, we fall into the camp that finds great bison a superior experience to great beef—but we like our meat very rare, and here bison shines. It shines triply in our book because we don’t like fat or chewy meat, either. Thus, we found our rare Blackwing bison to be a practically elevating red meat experience. Our thick tenderloin, seared for just two minutes on each side, was as robust as any hunk of red meat yet with complex flavor nuances, juicy with substantive texture. The strip steak was equally splendid, and the burgers were the best we can remember (we recall murmuring in our tasting ecstasy that we’d never eat anything but Blackwing bison burgers again).

To what do we owe this seductive bison flavor? The bison graze on grass, and they are all raised naturally, without hormones or antibiotics. Blackwing’s herd is also USDA-certified organic, which means, among other things, that no pesticides have been used on the pasture. (Click here for more information about organic certification.) And the meat is very tasty to begin with. The reason we haven’t been eating bison since childhood is that (as every school child learns) the herds were driven to near-extinction at the end of the 19th century. The combined healthy-eating and gourmet-cuisine movements of the last twenty years identified bison as a choice option, and spurred an investment in bison ranching.

Red Meat That’s Lower In Fat & Calories Than White Meat Chicken

Since bison are wild animals (cattle are domesticated), their meat is naturally leaner—that’s why they have so much less fat and calories than a comparable portion of beef or chicken. You can tell just by looking at a cut of bison how lean the meat is. There is no marbling: it looks as rosy red as a slab of sushi-grade tuna (and it tastes just as fresh and clean). In fact, bison has one-fourth the fat content of beef and compares favorably to all other meats: 2.4% fat for bison 6.6% for veal 7.4% fat for skinless white meat chicken 9.3% fat for beef 9.7% fat for pork

Bison is even lower in calories than skinless, white meat chicken. So for red meat lovers, it’s a diet delight. Photo of tenderloin by Otto Groning | IST.

Bison is also one of the most nutritious meats on earth: it is a highly nutrient-dense food because of the proportion of protein and minerals in relation to its caloric value. It also has a high concentration of iron as well as some essential fatty acids. But that’s not the reason we’ve chosen Blackwing bison as a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week. Healthiness is an added-value benefit. The bison was selected because it’s one of the best things we’ve tasted this year.

Permanent Converts

We were so thrilled with our bison, we’re only riled that our local retailers don’t carry Blackwing (interestingly, they do carry Blackwing ostrich). It’s not that we’re strangers to ordering food online—it’s our life—but we live in a small apartment without a large enough freezer to store an inventory. Like the Native Americans before us, we now find bison to be an essential part of our lives. We want to switch and put our fat calories elsewhere—like in the cheese course following the red meat, and in ice cream.

Bison is recommended by the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Association, the American Dietitians Association and the American Diabetic Association, as well as, no doubt, by your physician. The only bison cookbook, Buffalo Is Heart Healthy, a 204-page book with recipes, cooking tips and nutritional information, is produced by the National Bison Association (which, ironically, does not try to explain on the cover that the product is actually called bison). You can click here to purchase a copy.

Blackwing sells both fresh and frozen USDA-inspected bison meat, raised free-range in South Dakota. The company provides technical assistance for preparations, recipes and cooking instructions—although it’s very easy to cook, as we’ve noted above.

The next time people ask, “Where’s the beef?” surprise them with delectable Blackwing bison instead.

—Karen Hochman

FORWARD THIS NIBBLE to anyone who loves red meat, to people who want to give them gifts, and to dieters looking for low-calorie excitement.

BLACKWING QUALITY MEATS Bison In Steaks, Roasts, Ground Meat and Other Cuts Certified USDA Organic Certified Glatt Kosher by Orthodox Union (Kosher cuts are specified on the website) Bison Sample Package 2 8-Ounce Strip Steak, 2 8-Ounce Rib-Eyes, 2 Pounds Bulk Ground Meat, 1 Pound Ground Patties, 1 Pound Sirloin, 1 Pound Flank (Total 6 pounds, regular $61.00 value) $ 55.95 Tenderloin 6-ounce, $9.50 8-ounce, $11.75 All products mentioned in the article are sold individually—visit the company website Purchase online at Blackwing.com or telephone 1.847.838.4888 Read more about Meat in THE NIBBLE Online Magazine: Heritage Meats: The Resurrection of America’s Endangered Breeds Glossary of Beef Terms Organic & Natural Meat The Basics of Barbecue

We were thrilled with the beautiful tenderloins, above, and our New York strip steaks, below. Prices and product availability are verified at publication but are subject to change. Shipping is additional.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, special offers, contests, opinion surveys, THE NIBBLE prior issues archive, product gift-finder and more, visit the home page of TheNibble.com.

ABOUT THE NIBBLE. THE NIBBLE™, Great Food Finds™, is an online magazine about specialty foods and the gourmet life. It is the only consumer publication and website that focuses on reviewing the best specialty foods and beverages, in every category. The magazine also covers tabletop items, gourmet housewares, and other areas of interest to people who love fine food.

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