So a couple days ago I harvested a water buffalo.

I took the bulk of the meat to the butcher to be processed, but I kept a couple smaller pieces for myself to try out. I assume these are the tenderloins. You know the backstraps? They’re on the back of the spine. These cuts came from the front of the spine, down by the hips. Not very big.

I left them sitting in a pan in the fridge for about a day. The meat is red, very akin to beef. But there’s almost NO fat, no marbling. Maybe saw a dot of white here and there, but it’s mostly all just red meat.

I took the loins (I’m going to assume that’s what they are), cleaned them up, then cut off a couple small pieces (maybe 1/3″ thick?) and threw them into the frying pan. Totally plain. All I wanted to do was taste the pure meat with nothing to season it: no salt, no pepper, no smoke, no nothing. I want to know what this meat tastes like pure and simple, then we have a baseline and can figure from there what to do with it.

Oh Lord. It’s delicious. 🙂

It’s almost beef. I can’t put my finger on just what it is, because it isn’t cow beef. But it’s amazingly close in flavor. I figure if someone didn’t know what they were eating, they’d figure by the flavor they were eating cow beef. I want to say it’s a little richer tasting, a little stronger, but like strong in a good flavorful way… not like strong “gamey” or anything like that. Basically if you like beef, you’ll like this. Nothing to be afraid of.

Texture tho is different. I don’t want to say the meat is tougher than beef because I don’t think that conveys the right impression. It’s tender; sure cooking affects this and in my case it was in a medium heat pan for minute or two on one side then flip and another minute or two, just until you started to see the juices sweating through the flesh on the “up side”. But there’s certainly a little more chew to it than beef. Now, when we cut the loin to make these pieces we just cut. Looks like we ended up cutting with the grain. We made a few more slices against the grain and tried those. Made a fair improvement, but Wife pointed out something. Going against the grain helps on the initial chew, but after a little chewing it’s still the same sort of “chew” feeling in your mouth because the slicing only breaks it down so far… the rest of the breaking down that chewing does well, it’s the same in the end. But don’t let this deter you. It’s really not that bad, just different from beef.

Frankly, I’m stoked! 🙂

So, we’re about to commit heresy in the eyes of some. We’re chicken frying it. 🙂  Slicing up the loins against the grain, about 1/4″ to 1/3″ thick. A little flour, salt, and pepper (no heavy crust, just dusting), then into the pan they’ll go. Should be damn fine eating. Yeah it’s not high class, but I really don’t care. I’m about to wind up with a lot of it in the freezer… I’ll be able to be high-class and low-class and everywhere in between.

I’m certainly curious to see how the rest will turn out. For instance, how will steaks be? How will low and slow cooked roasts be? A beef roast in a crock pot could take 6 hours… would this need 8 or 10? A lot to figure out, but it’ll be fun.