Buffaloaf
Festival goers can partake of variation on comfort dish

By Quentin Young• Longmont Times-Call

LONGMONT — Meatloaf. The comfort food of comfort foods. Why would you want to mess with it?

Nutrition, for one. Texture. Flavor.

These are the reasons Patrick Cordova gives for making meatloaf with buffalo meat.

Most Americans make their meatloaf with good old beef. Pork is another common ingredient. Apicius, writing in the time of Imperial Rome, mentioned a version of meatloaf made with hare.

But Cordova, executive chef at Fusion Food & Spirits in Longmont, favors buffalo.

“The whole crux of it is it’s healthy,” Cordova said.

Buffalo meat contains less fat than beef. And it is said to provide more protein, iron and other nutrients than its more common cousin.

Cordova also likes the flavor of buffalo.

“It’s rich, very rich,” he said, adding that the flavor is consistent throughout the various cuts of the animal.

If there is a drawback, it is that buffalo tends to be more expensive than beef.

Cordova tops his meatloaf not with the traditional ketchup but with a chasseur, or hunter’s, sauce.

Fusion offers buffalo meatloaf as an entree on its menu, and it will serve it from a booth at Rhythm on the River, Longmont’s annual celebration of music and green practices.

The free event is planned for Friday evening and all-day Saturday.

Quentin Young can be reached at 303-684-5319 or qyoung@times-call.com.