How does a 50,000-year-aged Bison taste?

Palaeontologist Dale Guthrie cooks a famous pre-historic meal.

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The Blue Babe is a 50,000-year-old Steppe Bison found in Alaska. Scientists ate part of it in 1984. Image source: Wikimedia Commons.

With the holiday season fast approaching, some of you may be looking for festive recipes. Is bison on your menu? Though I love bison, I’m not sure if I’d be as adventurous as paleontologist Dale Guthrie and his friends. On April 6th, 1984, a few select guests got the chance to have a taste of history. No, I am not talking about a recreation of a historic meal; I am talking about an actual 50,000-year-old bison eaten by Guthrie and his colleagues!

You’re either grossed out by the thought of it or curious about how it tastes.

Let us discover more about the prehistoric bison that was the main attraction at the scientists’ meal and how it tasted.

Blue Babe, the 50,000-year-old bison frozen in time.

In 1979, gold miners Walter and Roth Roman discovered a frozen carcass of a bison in Fairbanks, Alaska. They contacted the University of Alaska. Paleontologist Dr. R. Dale Guthrie determined that the bison lived during the Ice Age.

Radiocarbon dating suggested that the carcass was at least 36,000 years old. But, according to Josh Reuther, Curator of Archaeology at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, the bison is at least 50,000 years old. The scientists identified the animal as a Steppe Bison, a species of bison that is now extinct.

Guthrie wanted to study the bison and feared it could decompose quickly. His team could not excavate the carcass because of the frozen ground.

He cut off the bison’s head near the neck and re-froze it. During summer, as the icy surroundings of the carcass melted, it became easier to extract the remaining animal.

Once Guthrie’s team pulled the entire bison from the ground, they noticed a blue chalk-like coating. A substance called vivianite caused the bluish hue of the bison.

The phosphorus in the animal’s bones reacted with the iron in the soil to form vivianite, a white compound. Vivianite becomes blue when exposed to air, giving the bison a bluish appearance.

Thus, Guthrie and his team named the bison the “Blue Babe.”

According to the scientists studying the Blue Babe, the bison died because of an attack by an Ice-Age feline, the Panthera leoatrox, believed to be the ancestor of the African lion.

Claw and tooth marks were present on the bison’s skin. The predator tore away the skin, exposing the spine and ribs.

Researchers found that the Blue Babe had frozen well, preserving its tissue. The muscle kept its texture, and it resembled beef jerky.

Blue Babe’s perfect preservation allowed them to see coagulated blood at the skin where the feline’s teeth had entered the bison’s flesh.

The bone marrow of the bison was also intact.

While studying the bison, Guthrie wondered if the muscle, marrow, and fat were so well preserved, why not find out how it tasted?

Would it taste like beef jerky or a dry-aged steak?

The “pre-historic” dinner featuring an Ice Age bison and wine.

Eirik Granqvist working on the Blue Babe. Image source: University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Guthrie is a hunter and is familiar with eating frozen meats. He did not cringe at the thought of eating an animal thousands of years old. That was quite bold of him since he mentions that the meat of the abdomen rotted before the bison froze, possibly due to scavengers eating its entrails.

The neck, on the other hand, was in good condition. Guthrie and his colleagues decided to cut a piece of the frozen neck. When it thawed it had a “beef-like aroma, not unpleasantly mixed with a faint smell of earth in which it was found, with a touch of mushroom”, according to Guthrie.

Because the neck flesh is tough, cooking it like a steak would be difficult. They thought preparing a stew with enough spices and vegetables was better.

Guthrie hosted the dinner in honor of taxidermist Eirik Granqvist, who had just completed his research on the Blue Babe. A dinner party was held in Guthrie’s house. Twelve people joined this special meal and ate an Ice-Age bison stew and wine.

Guthrie described the dish as “delicious” and said none of the guests suffered ill effects.

Bacteria didn’t have a chance to grow on the bison because it was frozen in time, making meat safe to eat.

We must appreciate the daring act by Guthrie and his friends to eat the bison, but you may wonder what inspired them.

Siberian Woolly Mammoth steaks?

Dr. Guthrie and his colleagues had heard about Russian scientists eating prehistoric animals after discovering frozen remains of a Woolly Mammoth.
Russian explorers in Siberia found the frozen remains of a male Woolly
Mammoth in 1901.

The animal’s carcass was exhibited in St. Petersburg, and later, a “mammoth banquet” was held, at which the animal was eaten.

Some scientists, such as paleontologist P. Tolmachoff, questioned the dinner in 1929, claiming that it was a fabrication and that the animal was not eaten. He said a frozen animal would turn into a gooey, unpalatable liquid. But Tolmachoff made those assumptions. He hadn't seen or met anyone who claimed to eat the animal.

In 1951, the Explorers Club in New York organized a similar Ice Age feast. The animal was a carcass of either a mammoth or a mastodon found in the Aleutian Islands. Later, a DNA analysis revealed that the meat was not of a pre-historic animal but rather a giant sea turtle.

Despite the faux pre-historic meal of 1951, Guthrie was convinced by the stories of the Russian mammoth banquet. He thought trying Blue Babe's meat would be a good idea.

Guthrie’s brave assumptions were more correct than Tolmachoff’s because he did not suffer from horrible food poisoning.

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While there are many questions about the pre-historic meal from 1901 in Russia, there are no controversies over the 50,000-year-old bison stew served at the 1984 dinner party.

Would you eat a 50,000-year-old bison for dinner? Let me know in the comments.

Do you enjoy tales from lost civilizations and cultures from the ancient world and the Middle Ages?

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References

• Blue Babe, A Messenger from the Ice Age, University of Alaska.

• What Happens to Meat When You Freeze It for 35,000 Years, The Atlantic.

• Food History Almanac Over 1,300 Years of World Culinary History, Culture, and Social Influence, by Janet Clarkson.

• Death on the steppe: The case of the frozen bison, Dale Guthrie, and Marie Lee Guthrie, New Scientist.