buffalo vs. beef

[Vikram]

Monica's article on India's white revolution makes me think about another little commented on aspect of it: much of the milk that goes into it comes from water buffalos as well as cows (I don't know the proportions, but I could try finding out). I think that has a definite impact on many Indian dairy products, but I don't know enough about the subject to comment on exactly how - can anyone explain?

The even less noted aspect though is that a lot of water buffalos (I'm going to drop the 'water' from now on) must mean a lot of buffalo meat. But you will never find buffalo meat being sold as such. Indian cooks, perhaps correctly, feel that people won't want to eat buffalo meat, so most of what goes as 'beef' in India is really buffalo meat. Just like 'lamb' or 'mutton' is often goat. Vir Sanghvi, the editor of the daily The Hindustan Times, who writes a most excellent food column under the pen name Grand Fromage, noted that in Nepal you can find buffalo billed honestly, if a rather peculiarly, as 'buff steak' but you will never find anything like this in India.

What is really strange about this culinary deception is that there are considerable and real penalties attached to it - not for the deception, but for consuming beef. Barring a few states like Kerala, West Bengal and some of the Northeastern ones, the Hindu religious lobby has ensured that killing a cow is a crime in most of the country. (For those unfamiliar with Hinduism the cow is considered very sacred for various reasons I don't want to get into because the chances of my saying something contentious are quite high [And I'm a Hindu myself]. All I'll say is that if you want an interesting take on it, read the anthropologist Marvin Harris' famous essay on the subject).

The growth in power of Hindu fundamentalists means that cow killing has become an increasingly emotive issue. There is a very strong move now to make killing cows illegal across the whole country. (Apart from trampling on the rights of beef eaters, this will mean millions of starving decrepit cows, but that for some reason if OK, as long as they aren't killed). There have been several horrific cases recently of people being killed on suspicion of killing cows.

And yet a lot of meat is sold and eaten, whether its from buffalos or cows. In my own city of Bombay not far from where I'm typing this I can go and find a number of places serving excellent - and another irony - very cheap beef. 'Mutton' is expensive, presumably because its legal, but beef is cheap which is another reason why its popular. Mmmmm, maybe this might be my dinner solution. Beef kebabs at Baghdadi in Colaba maybe, or beef khichada, a wonderful creamy stew of meat cooked with wheat and pulses, in the lanes of Minara Masjid.

You have to know what to ask though - people are wary on the beef issue now. Only in the hearts of Muslim or Christian neighbourhoods will you find beef being openly sold. In the roadside places serving beef you might be asked "bade ka ya chote ka?" ("the big one or the small one?" where big is obviously beef and small is mutton). In butcher's shops you ask for 'undercut' or specify beef sotto voce. And if you ask an expensive restaurant where they got their steaks from they'll say it came from outside the state, since its illegal to kill cows in the state, but not (yet) to eat them.

This isn't quite true, of course. Some really expensive restaurants do import genuine beef from abroad and some people are presumably shipping dead cows into the city (But from Kerala or W.Bengal, neither of which are near?). The bulk of course comes from illegal abbatoirs in the city and you can just imagine the workpractices there, since its all illegal anyway. And yet, despite all these problems, restaurateurs and butchers still shy away from saying that they are serving - quite legal - buffalo!

I suppose it the unprepossesing muddy black look of the animal, though I rather like their cud chewing placidity as they stand in the middle of roads defying all attempts to move them - 'India's natural speedbreakers' as exasperated drivers call them. Cows can be skittish and will move with a honk, but buffalos will stand there till kingdom, or the kid in nominal charge of them, comes. Anyway, this mail did have a query, before I got carried away, which is this: when it comes to cooking the animals, how much does buffalo meat differ from beef?

I find the meat I get at the butchers pretty tough and I usually have to pressure cook it which is fine for curries, but I guess means no steaks. I'm told restaurants tenderize like crazy. But is buffalo meat really tougher than beef, or is it more a reflection on the way both cows and buffalos are raised in India? Can it be used in almost exactly the same way as beef or should adjustments be made?

And finally, are there other cultures less snobbish about water buffalo meat that have recipes specifically for it? I think I've read in Davidson about it being popular in parts of Southeast (but is it labelled as such, or is 'beef' again used?) What about Italy? What happens to all those mozzarella producers once they're past their producing days? And can anyone give me Italian buffalo recipes? It'll make a nice change the next time I get some 'undercut' from my butcher.

Vikram

[Dave the Cook]

I can't help with your cooking, as the buffalo (actually bison) in the US is a different animal altogether.

But I thank you for a fascinating glimpse into Indian culture.

[Fat Guy]

Interesting stuff.

Water buffalo and bison are both part of the buffalo family (along with cape buffalo), and I've been told by bison farmers that the meat is similar. It's also probably similar to grass-fed beef, albeit a bit leaner.

In any event, just as with beef, different cuts of meat require different cooking methods. The steaks should be quick-cooked, and should be served as rare as possible. The leaner the meat, the less it can tolerate cooking before it dries out. Other cuts should be braised or whatever. In other words, I would treat it as beef but strive for more rareness when cooking the steaks. The ground meat will also be leaner than normal beef hamburger, so again you'd want to go rare or risk dryness. Were I to grind my own hamburger meat from these animals, I'd probably try to get some fat trimmings and mix them in with the pre-ground meat in order to bring the fat content up to a more hamburger-like level.

[Episure]

Dear Vikram,

Thanks for the good dissertation on the Beef scenario in India. Your perception is accurate.

I've found Buff to be more flavoursome than Beef, perhaps as a species the buffalo is wilder( Time Line) than the domesticated cow. If you use undercut from a good supplier( Francois Maison at Kemps Corner, Bombay) and cook it to just done, I think you will be happy with the results. Bear in Mind that this cut is very lean and you can cook it up to medium only.

Come to think of it at only 80 Rs ( 1.80 $ ) a kilo you should use only the middle section, also known as center loin and use the ends for braising.

This is the way I cook it Chateaubriand style:

Trim an entire 2 kg. undercut to a center loin section about 750 - 1000 grams between the tail and the knob. Marinate in 30 ml. worcestershire, 60 ml red wine, 15 ml olive oil(preferably), 2 oxo cubes, some garlic and herbs. Cover and keep chilled for 5-10 hours, turning over in the marinade once in a while.

Drain lightly and tightly wrap in foil to a toffee shape, twisting the ends. Cook in a low- medium hot oven till you feel the meat stiffen to your doneness(about 15 - 25 minutes). This part is completely empirical but a couple of times and you will get it right. There are too many variables here so I can't be exact.

Remove from oven, let it stand for 15 minutes remove from foil and brown the meat ( couple of minutes only) in some butter. Remove and deglaze the pan with the leftover marinade till you get a thick sauce, finish with a dollop of cream. Slice the meat down bread loaf style almost all the way, pour the sauce over it and serve with your choice of accompaniments. Serves two, halve the quantities for one person.

Let me know how it turns out.

Edited July 29, 2003 by Episure (log)

[BBhasin]

Beef or Buff

This goes back a few years ago. The congress party was in power in India and the Junta party ( Holy Cow) was in opposition.

A Junta party minister sits down to dinner at ' The Supper Club ', a pestegious restaurant in the government operated Ashok Hotel in New Delhi. He opens the menu and is appalled to see beef steak on the selection, furious, he storms out and at the next parliament meeting lashes out at the ruling party that in a predomenantly pious hindu Indian society, in a restaurant run by the government, the holy cow ( revered like a mother by hindus) is being butchered and served.

This could be serious trouble for the chief of the hotel but they had an intelligent individual whose sole purpose was, you guessed right, to field these stupid querries.

Did the hotel chief get fired? Nope.

Did the opposion minister get appeased? Yes sir.

The hotel responded that as per the Dictionary Beef meant the meat of not just cow but water buffalo, bison etc.

and the beef sreak was not cow.

If I remember correctly it was served there as a pepper steak as that seemed to appeal to both the Indians and the foreigners who dined there. I do not remember it being tenderised in any special way. The Indians usually liked their steak really well done ( which was easy, just cook it to death) but getting right the medium and medium rare for the others was a little tricky.

[Episure]

You are right, Pepper steak is the most common manifestation in India.

Tenderizing usually consists of using a meat mallet till the steak resembles a piece of sponge, completely destroying the texture.

9 out of 10 times the steak is never made to the required degree of doneness. The funny thing is, even 5 star chefs will err and offer to replace it, but by then the moment of savoring is lost.

[Vikram]

Tenderizing usually consists of using a meat mallet till the steak resembles a piece of sponge, completely destroying the texture.

Don't some places uses papaya as a tenderizer? I was told that this was the secret behind the decent steaks served up at The Only Place, Bangalore's famous steak joint (once upon a time). Apparently Haroun, the owner, was taught the technique and how to cook steaks by Peace Corps volunteers.

Thanks for the suggestions on cooking buff. You're right, Francois Maison is excellent and I used to buy from them when I stayed in that area. Maybe its worth making the trek out there from Bandra.

Vikram

[Episure]

Papain, the active ingredient in raw Papaya is an enzyme that breaks down proteins. The problem is getting all the factors in sync, viz: cross section of meat, time, temperature and ratio of meat to tenderizer. It's very easy to make a mistake and turn the meat into a mushy mess which has the texture of liver( powdery?). Haroun, one of the first guys to specialize in this had got it right.

There is absolutely no need to use a tenderizer if you use the loin section and cook it to about 65 - 70 deg internal temperature which is just enough to do away with M/s E.Coli, Campylobacter, Listeria et al and plate you a nice juicy steak just like in the photos( utterly bovine ).

I have used papaya paste to tenderize large cuts like a mutton leg ( Raan) but then it can take more heat unlike beef which gets irreversibly damaged beyond a certain temperature. The cell walls shed all the juices and you get a tough chewy piece of rubber.

After cracking the secret of a good steak I now use the same method( slow and low temperature) on Raan and the results are superb( earlier it was an also ran ).

Another trick is giving the meat a good hard massage( about 10 minutes) in the marinade. This nugget of knowledge was given to me by Vallibhai Payawallah of Bhendi bazaar and is used by his bawarchi when making a bhuna gosht. This does away with the destruction caused by using a mallet.

For good steak meat in Bandra go to the back of Pali market and pick up the first arrivals.

Once again I aver that buff is more flavorsome ( not gamey) than beef including japanese wagu which I have had on a few occasions( any more and I will have to sell my wife's jewellery!)

I am also quoting relevant Cordon Bleu School guidelines which will still be subjective:

"When demonstrating the technique for cooking a steak, the chefs at Le Cordon Bleu hesitate to give students an exact cooking time because there are so many variables to consider. Obviously the thickness of the steak and the degree to which it is to be cooked (very rare, rare, medium, or well done) will have a considerable effect on the timing. The temperature of the meat before cooking (if you like your steak rare or medium rare it must be at room temperature before cooking), the presence of a bone, the method of cooking (sautéing, grilling or barbecuing), and the heat of the stove, grill, or coals will also affect the cooking time. The best way to test whether the meat is cooked is by touch and sight as well as by the clock: as a steak cooks, the meat becomes firmer and the interior colour lightens from a dark purple-red to pink. With experience you will be able to determine when all meats, poultry, and even fish are done, merely by touch.

Here are guidelines for cooking steaks to the desired degree: approximate times are given for 2-2.5 cm (3/4-1 inch) thick steaks.

VERY RARE (called bleu in French)

Sear both sides just until browned (about 1 minute each side) in very hot oil and butter. The steak will feel very soft when touched; the interior colour will not have changed from the purple-red colour of raw meat.

RARE (Saignant)

Sear for 2 minutes each side and 1 minute on the edge in very hot oil and butter. The steak will still feel soft when touched; the interior colour will be red.

MEDIUM (à point)

Sear for 3 minutes each side and 1 minute on the edge in very hot oil and butter. The steak will offer resistance when touched; the interior colour will be pink, and pink juices will bead on the surface of the seared side of the steak when turned.

WELL DONE (bien cuit)

Sear both sides just until browned (about 1 minute each side) and then cook for about 15 minutes in a 170 C (325 F) mark 3 oven. The steak will be very firm when touched; the interior colour will no longer be at all pink."

Edited July 31, 2003 by Episure (log)

[BBhasin]

Episure,

slight deviation from the beef/steak stuff but do you have a favourite raan reciepe?

thanks

[Vikram]

do you have a favourite raan reciepe?

I don't have a recipe, but if you come to Bombay, Shalimar serves a very good one. Its not the most inspiring of restaurants, being chaotic and crowded with tables in every corner and all spaces filled up with squalling kids, but the raan is excellent. Only complaint is that they give you no means of extracting the marrow. One has to do all sorts of contortions with sucking and deployment of bone shards to get at it.

Vikram

[Episure]

Forgive me for responding so late.

I cook it differently everytime, my latest version uses Lagavulin whisky and rosemary. I think of Raan as a whole leg( Gigot) of mutton/lamb. I presume you want an indian version, this is one that deserved archiving the recipe:

Massage a well pricked leg ( 750g) on the bone with raw papaya and ginger- garlic paste for 15 minutes. Wipe off the pastes and marinate in:

In 2 tbsps ghee, lightly fry 10 g cuminseed, 5 g aniseed, 10 peppercorns, 5 g whole garam masalas and a few kashmiri chillies. Grind finely with 1 tomato gradually adding a cup of thick yoghurt and salt. Massage this into the meat and marinate for a few hours.

Roast in a slow oven with 1 star anise, a few allspice berries ( I use triphala) and sliced Shalgam( turnips/swedes/rutabagas) for 60-90 mins. or about 75-80 deg internal temperature. Make sure it does not dry out by adding water upto 1" sides.

Remove from oven, rest the meat for about 10 minutes, make a gravy from the juices. Deglaze the pan with milk and add to the gravy.

Carve at a slant on the bone into 1/2 inch slices and serve topped with the gravy and onion slices which have been fried in ghee.

I am afraid I am not much of a recipe writer, if I have left out something please ask me.

I fry by the heat of my pans

Edited August 7, 2003 by Episure (log)

[Vikram]

Digging up this old thread to answer my own question about whether there people in this region who aren't squeamish about acknowledging that the 'beef' that they eat is usually buffalo meat. I've just picked up a tattered old book called 'Himalayan Recipes' which was compiled by the Inner Wheel Club of Darjeeling.

(The Inner Wheel Club, for those lucky enough never to have encountered Rotarians is a spin off from the Rotary Club meant for the wives of members. Pretty much the only thing the Inner Wheel Club had going for it - apart from the fact that its members could compile books like this - was that it was preferable to being called Rotariannes, the other term applied to the spouses of members. Now that at least some Rotary Clubs are enlightened enough to admit women members, perhaps all these things are in the past).

The recipes seem sort of Nepalese-Tibetan-Gurkha and include dishes like Thukpa (noodle soup), Momos (dumplings), Kwati (a kind of mixed lentil dhal, I think), Kinama (fermented soya beans) and bamboo shoots. And pride of place seems to go to Boiled Buff Meat, described as a typical Chhewala-Newari dish. The instructions are quite prosaic - it starts: "Boil the whole lump of meat in the pressure cooker for 20 minutes". A little later comes Roasted/Grilled Buff or Chicken or Mutton, with the words "This type of roasted buff is eaten as a delicacy, especially by the Newars."

So there you have it, Newaris, a Nepali community who is honest about eating buff. Wonder if there's a religious angle - doesn't this community worship Devi (the mother goddess) who killed Mahishasura, the buffalo headed demon? Would that make them less squeamish about admitting they eat buff?

Vikram

[gingerly]

this might interest you Vikram-vegetarians avert you gaze..FOOD IN NEWARI CULTURE

r

Edited July 13, 2004 by gingerly (log)

[Episure]

...the consumption of an organism produced by the rotting of meat. I did not, however, come across a single individual eating such a thing. But the consensus of opinion among the Newars themselves asserts that it still forms a favourite dish of the Jyapoos in the Patan area. Some of the high caste Buddhist Newars are also reported to relish it. It is prepared in the following manner: Raw meat is stuffed into half a foot-long bamboo tube, which is closed tightly at its both ends. It is allowed to rot till the flesh is transformed into maggots. These organisms begin to eat one another and finally become a single organism of the size the volume of the tube. It is boiled in water and cut to pieces

Aaaiiieee!

[gingerly]

heh!heh!makes you want to reconsider the'guest of honour' status eh?!

[gingerly]

http://www.jwajalapa.com/foods.html

Tahkha- A jelly-like meat

Sanya khuna/ Nya khuna- Jellied fish soup

Gorma white jellied meat

heh!

several'buff' recipes here too.

[Episure]

At a lovely lunch buffet I came across 'Tenderloin Goulash'. Upon tasting, it definitely wasnt tenderloin, probably round or gola. Just then the Chef flitted across gracefully to to ask me how the food was.

me: Chef, I dont think this is tenderloin.

chef: (very softly) Yes sir, it is.

me: But why are you whispering?

chef: You know sir, many people dont like it.

me: Yes, I can understand that if you give them this and call it tenderloin, they wont like it.

chef: No, No, we dont like to call it ****.

me: You mean people will swallow this as tenderloin but not as ****.

chef: Yes sir.

me: But this is not even tenderloin!.......

I then realised I had come across another euphemism for Beef/Buff.