Review of Bison Meatloaf Recipe

We've all heard about the benefits of Bison meat, high in protein low in fat (see comparison below from The Bison Council). As you can see, lower in calories, saturated fat, cholesterol and higher in iron. The Native Americans were definitely on to something when hunting this hearty animal.

	Bison	Beef
Calories	103	189
Total Fat (g)	1.35	11.1
Saturated Fat (g)	0.53	4.49
Cholesterol (mg)	59	72
Protein (g)	21	21
Sodium (mg)	45	53
Iron (mg)	3	1.5
Based on 100 g of meat

But how does it taste? Is it easy to cook? Will my family like it? I decided to give it a try.

The meat was readily available at my local Wegmans, so I picked up one pound of ground meat, thinking this would provide the most options as far as recipe choices. Next searched the Internet for a viable "meatloaf" recipe. Surprisingly, there were a ton of possibilities available. Decided to give this a try Bison Meatloaf Recipe on Food.com with some variations based on what I had in the fridge. Variations include no eggs and no bread crumbs. I used dried minced onion (1 tbs) instead of fresh and garlic salt (1 tsp) replaced the fresh garlic and salt. Put all ingredients in a bowl and mixed together.

The mix was a bit more sticky than beef but washed off easily with little residue. Instead of one large loaf, decided on single serving loaves (4 oz each). Placed them on a foil covered cookie sheet, popped them in the oven and 25 min later they were ready. What did they taste like? Good old fashioned meatloaf, my son and I didn't notice a big difference in taste. There was limited fat on the cookie sheet after cooking, which was great compared to the ton of fat from beef. The only real difference - the consistency was a bit more dense than ground beef, it didn't crumble like beef would have without eggs and bread crumbs, but other than this, it was a winner in my book.

Bottom line, it's a great replacement to beef and I'll be trying other recipes with this healthier version of red meat. Plus we have a local Bison farm (Wooden Nickel Buffalo Farm) and will be looking at purchasing meat directly. Great experiment for a Sunday dinner. Enjoy!