Food - Drink
The Time Researchers Ate A Mummified Bison
By ELIAS NASH
Bison meat has risen in popularity since the early 2000’s as an occasional alternative to beef, with similar levels of protein, key nutrients, and amino acids, as well as lower counts of calories and fat. Despite billionaire Ted Turner’s efforts to promote bison ranches in the U.S., one researcher decided to eat a mummified bison instead.
In 1979, a 50,000-years-old steppe bison — a now-extinct precursor to the modern bison — was found in the permafrost in Alaska and was turned over to the University of Alaska. The bison, named “Blue Babe” due to the blue mineral it was coated with, greatly interested paleontologist Dale Guthrie, who wanted to know what it tasted like.
Guthrie cut off a piece near the bison's neck and made it into a stew for a dinner party — he wrote that the meat "gave off an unmistakable beef aroma," "[tasted] delicious, and [no one] suffered any ill effects" — although his wife later said it tasted like beef jerky, but worse. The rest of Blue Babe remains on display at the University of Alaska Museum of the North.