I wanna be a Cowboy!

Like a lot of other people in the United States, I grew up in a family where "meat" was usually a synonym for beef. I remember my folks being quite concerned with the amount of fat marbling, and the quality of the cut, as well. Of course, we raised and butchered our own beef, chicken, and pork, so the quality of the meat we produced was quite legitimately something of an obsession with the family.

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In the much more health-conscious contemporary diet, though, big thick cuts of prime rib liberally marbled with fat—while still undeniably tasty—are no longer nearly so desirable as part of a regular diet. I find myself looking longingly at those cuts on the menu, but then ordering chicken or fish, instead. Something about heart-disease, coupled with increased rates of various kinds of cancer, serves to diminish the appeal of that thick, medium-rare steak.

So what's the meat-lover to do? Well, grass-fed bison meat provides an excellent alternative to grain-fattened, feedlot beef. In addition to providing leaner, lower-cholesterol meat, bison generally are range-raised—and that quality-of-life difference, for me, makes bison meat a more ethical choice, as well.

See the chart below for a better and more graphic representation of how bison meat fits on the nutritional scale. This stuff is seriously low in fat and cholesterol, but packs a heavy-weight wallop in terms of providing nutrition.

You know those romantic images from westerns of herds of buffalo roaming the wide plains under a cloudless blue sky? These animals are actually essentially raised just like that, only they're lots healthier in the modern version, both as a herd and as individual animals.

When it comes to cooking bison meat, that reduced fat content means you'll need to experiment just a bit. The lower fat calls for some variations in cooking technique. You can slow-roast or grill on a cooler heat, but you'll still need to be especially careful not to dry out roasts, steaks, or chops by overcooking them. One of my favorite ways to use bison meat is in stroganoff, made with bison and plain yogurt substituted out for the traditional beef and sour cream: Still incredibly rich and tasty, much more satisfying than chicken stroganoff, and very much lower in fat and cholesterol than almost any traditional stroganoff recipe. Bison is a tasty and hearty alternative to ground beef, and makes terrific kabobs or stew meat, as well, substituted straight across for the beef a recipe calls for.

Consider creating tasty sauces to baste the meat while it cooks. You can certainly marinate pretty much any cut of bison meat in a bit of herbed olive oil or wine, perhaps with a bit of garlic, then rub thoroughly with sea salt. But if you're like me, you'll need to resist the temptation to simply replace all that fat you're saving by using bison instead of beef. Although, an olive oil-wine-garlic rub is admittedly a lot better for you than the animal fat you find in that same cut from a cow.

You can probably get bison meat at your local grocery meat counter, and almost certainly at one of the local co-op, organic, or whole-foods grocers with a decent meat department. But even if you can't find it on your next shopping trip, there are a number of online outlets that will deliver those steaks right to your door.