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Bison

the name applied to two species of large animal in the family Bovidae, whose fate, broadly speaking, has been to be eaten up already and thus no longer available:

  • Bison bison, the American bison (or N. American buffalo, or just buffalo), dark brown and bearded, once existing in enormous populations, reduced by 1890 to near-extinction, now surviving in a population of viable size under rigorous protection measures. During the relatively brief period that it provided game meat, the bison was liked particularly for its tongue, hump, and marrow. Hooker (1981) cites Susan Magoffin, who travelled the Santa Fe Trail in 1846–7 and kept a diary of what she ate, as saying that buffalo hump soup was ‘superior to any soup served in the “best” hotels of New York and Philadelphia and the buffalo marrow superior to the best butter or most delicate oil’.
  • B. bonasus, the European bison (sometimes called aurochs, but see cattle) survives only in zoos and parks, and forest reserves in Poland.

The name ‘Indian bison’ is sometimes applied to the gaur, Bos gaurus, a huge and vigorous wild animal whose range extended from the Indian subcontinent to Malaysia but which is now far less common than it used to be. It is essentially a hill animal and is said to thrive best in the hills of Assam. The seladang of Malaysia is a race of gaur.

See also buffalo; water-buffalo.

Contributors

Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.

Reading

Hooker, Richard J. (1981), Food and Drink in America, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.