RED DEER — A recent recipe creation challenge was the first exposure to cooking bison for many of the participating apprentice chefs.
To make it more interesting, the third year Red Deer College students weren’t given a fine rib eye or a New York cut steak to grill.
Instead, they were given their choice of the osso bucco, a chuck roll or an inside round to create a brand new bison recipe.
They aren’t the toughest cuts of meat on the bison, but they’re pretty close and need to be braised, simmered or stewed to preserve their moisture and tenderize the meat.
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“This competition focuses on the less desirable cuts,” said Garnett Schottler, a chef instructor at Red Deer College.
The students were challenged to come up with a recipe that would use the less desirable cuts of bison for the home cook.
It’s also one more way to challenge students to use an alternative meat such as bison in the restaurants where they work, said Schottler.
The top three winners will have their recipe featured on recipe cards where Canadian Rangeland Bison and Elk products are sold.
Armin Mueller, owner of Canadian Rangeland Bison and Elk, said the competition is intended to encourage students to look beyond hamburgers when deciding what to cook.
“This shows what can be done beyond burgers and steak. I’m pumped about this,” said Mueller, whose company provided the meat for the event.
It was the first time Zach Neufeld-King had cooked with bison, and he created a bison and bacon Italian sausage.
Knowing bison has less fat, he marinated the bison in wine and added bacon for moisture, all tricks he learned during his three years as an apprentice chef.
“It’s a great chance to use what I’ve learned to make a lean meat become more moist,” he said.
The meat dried out the first time Jeff Gauthier cooked with bison during the practice round, which forced him to modify his recipe for the final competition to include braising.
“The first few times it was really dry,” said Gauthier, who created a braised bison osso bucco.
“It’s a different product. It has a great flavour and is a lot sweeter than beef. It is different and people want different.”
It was also the first time Sabrina-Marie De Gannes had cooked with bison. Originally from Trinidad-Tobago, she created a candied bison in peach sauce, using the inside round.
“This is good exposure to learn how to cook with different foods,” she said.
Tannis Baker, a judge for the event and a member of the Alberta Culinary Tourism Alliance, said events such as these encourage innovation in the kitchen.
“A lot of people are fearful of bison, and the goal of this is to make recipes that are easy to make at home,” she said.
Baker said bison sales spiked following the bison festival at Elk Island National Park last August, including a demand for bison tongue and heart, which were featured at the event.
“Consumers have gone so far away from the whole animal, and chefs want to go back to cooking with the whole animal,” she said.
“This competition shows what can be done with the less desirable cuts.”
The winner of the recipe competition was Kristen Sherlock with her bison chuck Cuban sandwich with lime cabbage slaw, second place was Kirstyn Moore with her bison scaloppini with cherry basil sauce and barley risotto and third place was Jacob Farley with his Big Rock Traditional Ale braised bison chuck with roasted corn succotash.
Mueller said the success and creativity of the event has inspired him to ensure it becomes an annual event.
“I am very happy they chose bison as the first meat to use,” he said.
“It was here before Angus.”
Contact mary. macarthur@producer.com
