On Monday, November 7, 2005, at 03:09  AM, jeules wrote:

>
> The majority of meat I've been eating has been grass-fed beefalo as I
> find
> that the taste is absolutely incredible.  It tastes sweet/smoked, kind
> of
> like it's already been cooked and coated with some kind of subtle steak
> sauce.  I do eat it all raw and usually somewhat dried.  However, it
> strikes
> me as rather odd to be eating a 'new world animal'.

The American Buffalo is closely related to the European bison. I
believe they are cross-fertile. So it isn't really a 'new world'
animal, not in the sense that the kangaroo is an Aussie animal anyway.

>   " The American Beefalo
> is a cross between the American Bison (Buffalo) and any other breed of
> cattle (Bovine)."
>
> Could there be some sort of weird protein thing involved here?
> Most hybrids are sterile which sounds like a warning sign to me.

Buffalo/cow crosses are fertile. I have a cousin who raised them for a
while, with varying degrees of bison genetics. The market for them is
rather narrow, as they tend not to have as much fat in the meat, so
most people used to eating feedlot beef don't like it.