The Dinner Party That Served Up 50k-Year-Old Bison Stew (2018)
Paleontologist Dale Guthrie hosted a dinner party in 1984 in Alaska, serving stew made from a 50,000-year-old bison named Blue Babe, discovered by gold miners. Despite its age, the stew was edible and served to guests. Blue Babe is now displayed at the University of Alaska Museum of the North.
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In 1984, paleontologist Dale Guthrie hosted a dinner party in Alaska featuring stew made from the neck meat of a 50,000-year-old bison named Blue Babe. The bison was discovered by gold miners and preserved in ice. Guthrie and his team learned about the ancient animal through radiocarbon dating and found it well-preserved, with muscle tissue similar to beef jerky. Despite its age, they decided to cook part of it with vegetables, spices, and wine for the dinner party guests, including taxidermist Eirik Granqvist and lecturer Björn Kurtén. The stew, although tasting slightly earthy, was deemed edible and not unpalatable. Guthrie, a hunter, was unfazed by the age of the meat, stating that frozen meat can be consumed safely. Blue Babe remains on display at the University of Alaska Museum of the North, serving as a unique reminder of this extraordinary dining experience.
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7 commentsSpecifically, is there any difference at all between, say, meat frozen for 5 years vs. 50K years? Volatile flavor compounds degrade even in the freezer, but at a rate measured in months. So I'm genuinely wondering if there are any flavor compounds at all that degrade but take decades or centuries or even millenia to do so. Or textural changes.
> “Making neck steak didn’t sound like a very good idea,” Guthrie recalls. “But you know, what we could do is put a lot of vegetables and spices, and it wouldn’t be too bad.”
That kind of makes me sad -- I feel like the whole point should be to see what the meat tastes like by itself, with just salt.
If you cover it in strong spices and cook it in a stew, it might as well be any mystery cut of beef. Seems like it takes away everything unique from the experience at all, in terms of taste or texture.
Instead -- add a little salt, cook it low and slow in a sous vide, then a quick sear on the outside. Then you'll know what the ancient bison actually tastes like, without trying to cover it up. Shouldn't that be the point?
If you don't like it, then you don't like it, but at least you genuinely tried to taste it. And it might even be fine, not bad at all!
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