# Are Buffalo fine dining?



## Chucknbob (Jan 14, 2012)

I was at Meijer a couple of days ago, and there was a huge whole buffalo on ice in the fresh seafood case. It was sitting next to the wild caught salmon and sea scallops. 

So, am I missing something? Are these good? I've never tried one, but always heard they're not much for table fare. 


Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine


----------



## RustyGoat (May 17, 2011)

Sorry misread the post.

Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine


----------



## lifeisdash (Jul 5, 2012)

Not that good at all, compared to bass or catfish. 
I would rate bass as 8 out of 10, cat 5 out of 10, buffalo 2 or 3.


----------



## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Really lifeisdash? I've never had bass but catfish is good eatin!


----------



## BMayhall (Jun 9, 2011)

I like Salmon and Snapper


----------



## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

BMayhall said:


> I like Salmon and Snapper


Oh yeah, I catch them in the LMR all the time


----------



## zuelkek (Jun 8, 2011)

I think I would give channel cats way higher than a 5/10. An 8 at least. I took a 15" smallie home summer before last because one of the treble hooks had worked into its gills and tore them to shreds and it wasn't going to make it. It was excellent. I fried a sauger alongside and liked the bass better. A stronger flavor than the sauger, but really choice. Of course, so was the sauger. When I was a kid I ate a big redhorse sucker once. The meat was soft and mushy and there were zillions of dangerous little chokebones. I would think a buffalo is similar, but I've never tried it, I might be wrong.


----------



## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

zuelkek said:


> I think I would give channel cats way higher than a 5/10. An 8 at least. I took a 15" smallie home summer before last because one of the treble hooks had worked into its gills and tore them to shreds and it wasn't going to make it. It was excellent. I fried a sauger alongside and liked the bass better. A stronger flavor than the sauger, but really choice. Of course, so was the sauger. When I was a kid I ate a big redhorse sucker once. The meat was soft and mushy and there were zillions of dangerous little chokebones. I would think a buffalo is similar, but I've never tried it, I might be wrong.


Thats funny, when I was younger I ate a redhorse sucker as well. I thought the meat tasted good but there were way too many bones to effectively eat it. I have never eaten a bass and I don't target bass for food, but I'll tell you what, if the apocalypse came and I was living off the land, I would eat some smallmouth. I'm sure they are delicious, being as muscular a predator as they are.


----------



## Sfritr (Aug 9, 2011)

The buffalo in the case is a completely different fish from a freshwater buffalo(drum) What was in the case is a saltwater fish and they are excellent tablefare. The meat is much like snapper or seabass, very light and flaky witha sweet, briny flavor. They can be grilled our baked. My favorite is to fill the cavity with herbs and lemon, cover the entire fish with kosher salt and bake the fish. The salt hardens and steams the fish. Outstanding!!!


----------



## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

i think sfritr is right. i think those fish in the counter is a saltwater fish. i have never eaten either one. i worked with some guys that said freshwater buffalo was nothing like carp. they said it was good to eat, but i never tried one. but i catch alot of saltwater sheepheads and they are great tablefare. they are nothing like freashwater sheepheads.

i have eaten alot of redhorse suckers back when i was a kid growing up in tenn. i thought the meat was good to very good. you just had to fight alot of bones to get the meat.
sherman


----------



## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

What does a saltwater buffalo look like? I&#8217;ve never heard of one. I know what a saltwater sheephead is, but they look nothing like a freshwater buffalo so I assume that&#8217;s not what we&#8217;re talking about?


----------



## jsm197 (Mar 11, 2010)

M.Magis said:


> What does a saltwater buffalo look like? I


----------



## Dandrews (Oct 10, 2010)

I&#8217;m no fisheries biologist but I think we&#8217;re getting our fish mixed up. Buffalo are suckers and drum...are drum. I&#8217;ve eaten buffalo (bison) and I enjoyed it but I&#8217;ve never eaten buffalo (the fish). Freshwater drum are related to redfish (good eatin&#8217. Then there&#8217;s what we call sheepshead (freshwater drum) and there&#8217;s a saltwater fish known as a sheepshead.

...Did I clear that up for anybody?...LOL


----------



## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

Caught this guy in the GMR just below fernald. He put up a heck of a fight on 400 lb line but those were some good burger fillets....


----------



## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Dandrews said:


> Im no fisheries biologist but I think were getting our fish mixed up.


That's kind of what I was wondering. But, the original poster specified "buffalo", and a couple people seemed to understand what he was referring to, but claiming it was a saltwater fish. So I'm a little confused, is there a saltwater buffalo that looks like a fresh water buffalo?


----------



## gibson330usa (May 15, 2012)

oldstinkyguy said:


> Caught this guy in the GMR just below fernald. He put up a heck of a fight on 400 lb line but those were some good burger fillets....


Must have found a leftover uranium deposit.

Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine


----------



## Lowell H Turner (Feb 22, 2011)

What were you attaching that 400 lb line to? A harpoon fired from a whaling gun mount ?


----------



## KaGee (Sep 8, 2006)

A man once told me if you put enough horseradish on it, you can eat anything!


----------



## zuelkek (Jun 8, 2011)

Stinkyguy, you made me laugh OUT LOUD. Thanks for that! I'd eat that critter with tartar sauce and A1 mixed together.


----------



## CarpCommander (Jun 20, 2007)

I saw buffalo fillets in Krogers a looong time ago. It was scaled but still had the skin on, and was that unmistakable gray color. Regular ole freshwater buff Im talkin. 

Yuck...


----------



## backlashed (Mar 19, 2011)

This is a saltwater Drum, aka Red Drum, Red Fish and so on. Very tastee.

Saltwater Sheep head here. Supposed to be good eating too, but I never have had one.


----------



## Aqua Man (Aug 8, 2011)

I bet the fish seen in that seafood dept was either a red (red drum), a black drum or a sheephead. (all saltwater fish) I have seen reds and sheephead at my local store before. If it was a whole sheephead the most noticeable thing about it is the big teeth they have. The red & black drums both have that downshot mouth similar to the drum & buffalo we have here in our rivers. Reds, Black and sheephead are excellent eating!

Surprised to hear the drum we have here are good table fare, wouldn't have though so and now I'm going to have to try one. Still no verdict on the buffalo? Curious if anyone has tried one & if it was any good.


----------



## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

The stripes on a sheephead, I think, would make it easy for most to differentiate from a buffalo. A black drum would look very similar, though I've never heard of anyone eating one. See, this is why fish should have ONE name.  And stores should be required to call it by that one name, not what they think will sell the best.


----------



## Dandrews (Oct 10, 2010)

oldstinkyguy said:


> Caught this guy in the GMR just below fernald. He put up a heck of a fight on 400 lb line but those were some good burger fillets....


Nice water buffalo!!


----------



## zuelkek (Jun 8, 2011)

There's this about the bigmouth buffalo: 

"Though it has numerous small bones, its good flavor makes it one of the most valuable of the non-game freshwater fish."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigmouth_buffalo

And about the smallmouth buffalo:

"Many people may be unaware that smallmouth buffalo is quite a food fish. It is the number one species sold by commercial freshwater fishermen."

www.tpwd.state.tx.us/landwater/water/aquaticspecies/inland.phtml

I think the black buffalo is what we have in the LMR, but not sure. There is less said about that one as table fare everywhere I looked, so maybe it's not as good.

If I ever catch one, I might give it a try.


----------



## cwcarper (Apr 5, 2004)

It's been quite a few years and I don't remember which supermarket it was (one of the big stores in the Cincinnati area), but I remember seeing a whole buffalo for sale in the seafood cooler. It was definitely a freshwater buffalo - not a "mislabeled" saltwater species. So, what the OP saw could very possibly have been a freshwater buffalo.

Never tried eating one, but I wouldn't mind trying it if someone that knew what they were doing prepared it.


----------



## muddguppy72 (Sep 3, 2012)

Buffalo meat is almost as good as walleye. It is a white fish and has a flaky meat. Most importantly the mudline must be removed before cooking. Mudline runs down center of filet. I like to fry em with a corn meal batter. Like any fish younger they r makes for a better meal. Not tough. Lol my grandma would always take all the gills and crappie and put em in freezer. Id see the carp tails sticking out of the garden lol

Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine


----------



## Mason52 (Aug 21, 2009)

I remember watching them pack them up once while getting fish cleaned up at lake Erie. they were bringing them in in the back of pickup trucks and boxing them live with ice and some sort of fake greenery. I asked the guy what they were doing with them and he said they ship they to New York and that the Jewish people make gefilte fish out of them. I watched them load 3 or 4 pickup truck beds full of them up while there


----------



## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Now being part Jewish, I know that most gefilte fish has carp as one of the main ingredients (as well as pike and whitefish), but I've never heard of buffalo. Of course, every old school family will have their own family recipe with whatever fish they prefer/is traditional for them. Maybe the next carp or buff I catch will go the way of the food processor and end up gefilte...


Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine


----------



## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

i have tried to find anything on a saltwater buffalo and so far have had no luck. so i think the op was in fact talking about freshwater buffalo. which like i said before they are sopposed to be good to eat. but i,ve never had the chance to eat one myself. but if i ever get the chance im willing to try one.

as for the saltwater fish talked about earlier are all good fish to eat. and i dont think any of them are called saltwater buffalo. i try to make a trip to fl for the month of feb. we usely catch quite a few black drum and sheephead and catch a red drum or two on some of our fishing trips. so far the last few years we have found a hot spot for black drum, which is shaped alot like the red drum but are more of a black color than the red drum (red fish). but they are very easy to tell apart. alot of people down there think the sheephead and the black drum are trash fish. but i assure you they are great to eat. i think the red drum is maby alittle milder than the black drum. but if i didnt know for sure which one i was eating i wouldnt be able to say which one i was eating.

my younger brother said he didnt like the redfish because it didnt taste fishy enough for him,LOL. and its one of my favorite fish to eat.
sherman


----------



## Mason52 (Aug 21, 2009)

kingofamberley said:


> Now being part Jewish, I know that most gefilte fish has carp as one of the main ingredients (as well as pike and whitefish), but I've never heard of buffalo. Of course, every old school family will have their own family recipe with whatever fish they prefer/is traditional for them. Maybe the next carp or buff I catch will go the way of the food processor and end up gefilte...
> 
> The buffalo is actually in the sucker family, but is commonly called a buffalo carp. They do resemble a carp as far as scales and the look of the face.
> Here is a recipe for gifilte using buffalo I found on the web. Just got curious so I took a look.
> ...


----------



## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

That sounds good. A lot of people will trash talk gefilte fish, but I always liked it, especially with some horseradish on it. Yeah passover!


----------

