Grand reopening, now taking pre-orders: 20% off everything until Wednesday 4 November, 17:00
Order now and secure your cuts. The first orders ship on Wednesday 4 November with SEUR Frío (refrigerated courier) and arrive the next day (Balearic Islands: two days).
On orders over €129: free delivery and a free tray of 4 criollo sausages.
Water buffalo · Sierra de Guadarrama · Delivered in Spain
Water Buffalo Meat in Spain: Taste, Cuts and How to Cook It
Water buffalo meat is much like beef: darker red and lean, with a clean flavour that many people find slightly sweet, and no gamey notes. Because it is lean, cook it a little less than you would beef, or it dries out. On a Spanish label it is búfalo, and the cuts carry the same names as beef. We sell buffalo steaks, roasting joints and stewing cuts from one farm in the Sierra de Guadarrama, vacuum-packed and delivered by refrigerated courier.
See the buffalo cuts Buffalo in the barbecue boxes
- Water buffalo from one farm in the Sierra de Guadarrama, north-west of Madrid
- Steaks, roasting joints and stewing cuts, with English names on the product cards
- Order by Wednesday 17:00, delivered Thursday before 13:00 on the Spanish mainland
Buffalo cuts for the grill and the oven
For the grill and the pan: boneless sirloin (US: striploin), sold as lomo bajo; a bone-in loin to cut into thick steaks; rump cap (picaña; US: picanha); short ribs; and thin frying steaks. For the oven, a 1 kg salmon cut (US: eye of round). The product pages are in Spanish for now, so the table further down gives the English name and the Spanish label of each cut.
Whole buffalo loin without fillet, 1 kg
Chuletero Entero de Búfalo (sin solomillo) 1 Kg49,90€ VAT incl.Add to basket
For stews, burgers and slicing
For slow cooking and burgers there is boneless chuck, shin (US: shank) and 1 kg of mince (US: ground buffalo), plus cecina, cured buffalo that is sliced thin and eaten without cooking. To taste buffalo beside beef, the chuletón box puts 1 kg of bone-in buffalo loin next to two 1 kg retinto chuletones (thick bone-in rib steaks), one from a mature cow and one from a yearling, with 600 g of criollo sausages: about 3.6 kg for 6–8 people, priced at €139.90. The criollo asado box, for 8–12 people, includes buffalo picanha.
Chuletón box: retinto and buffalo (approx. 3.6 kg)
Kit Chuletones Retinto & Búfalo139,90€ VAT incl.Contains processed meat: ask us for the allergen listView productCriollo asado box (approx. 5.6 kg)
Kit Parrillada Criolla del Maestro119,90€ VAT incl.Contains processed meat: ask us for the allergen listView product
What water buffalo meat tastes like
A note for American readers: this is water buffalo (búfalo de agua), the animal behind Italian buffalo mozzarella, not the American bison that US menus often call buffalo. In Spanish the bison is bisonte. On the plate, water buffalo is close to beef: darker, clean and full in flavour, without the gamey taste the word might lead you to expect.
Is buffalo meat lean?
Yes. Buffalo has less marbling than beef, and its fat tends to sit in a band along the edge of the cut rather than inside the muscle. With little fat running through the meat to protect it, a buffalo steak goes from juicy to dry sooner than beef, so the whole trick is timing.
Buffalo cuts: the English name and the Spanish label
The cuts are named as for beef, and our guide to beef cuts in Spanish has the full list. One trap: sirloin in Britain is lomo bajo, while in the US it is cadera, which the British call rump. Our sirloin steak page explains the difference.
| UK name (US) | Spanish label | How to cook it |
|---|---|---|
| Boneless sirloin (US: striploin, New York strip), 1 kg | Lomo bajo sin hueso | Cut into thick steaks for a hot grill or a hot pan |
| Bone-in loin, fillet (US: tenderloin) removed, 1 kg | Chuletero entero sin solomillo | Cut between the bones into thick steaks; sear hard over embers |
| Rump cap (US: picanha, coulotte) | Picaña | Over embers, whole or in thick slices, fat side first |
| Short ribs cut across the bones | Churrasco / costilla | Over medium embers; serve with chimichurri |
| Thin frying steaks | Filete | Very hot pan, briefly on each side; also good for stir-fries |
| Salmon cut (US: eye of round), 1 kg | Redondo | Roast in the oven; rest before carving |
| Mince (US: ground buffalo), 1 kg | Carne picada | Burgers and meatballs; salt just before cooking |
| Boneless chuck (braising steak), 1 kg | Aguja sin hueso | Stews and goulash; brown well before adding liquid |
| Shin (US: shank) | Morcillo or jarrete | Long braises and stock; its gelatine gives the sauce body |
| Cured buffalo | Cecina | Not cooked: thin slices with a drizzle of olive oil |
How to cook buffalo without drying it out
- Take steaks out of the fridge a while before cooking and pat them dry, so they sear rather than steam.
- Loin cuts want strong heat and a short time. Leaving them over a medium heat is the usual way to dry out a buffalo steak.
- Serve loin cuts rare, 50–52 °C (122–126 °F) in the centre, or medium-rare, 54–57 °C (129–135 °F): one stage less than you would give beef. The doneness guide has the full scale.
- Rest the meat for a couple of minutes, then slice across the grain.
- Picaña: fat side down first, as for a beef picanha.
- Chuck and shin: brown them well, then braise with the lid on over a very low heat or in a low oven, 150–170 °C (300–340 °F), for about three hours, until a fork goes in easily. A pressure cooker needs roughly a third of that time.
Buying buffalo in Spain
If you find buffalo at a Spanish counter, it is labelled búfalo and you order the cuts by their beef names: lomo bajo, picaña, or aguja for stewing. Ours comes from one farm with a small herd that slaughters an animal only now and then, so some weeks there are more pieces than others. If a cut is sold out, ask us on WhatsApp when it is due back.
Buffalo questions
What does water buffalo meat taste like?
Much like beef, but darker, with a clean, full flavour that many people find slightly sweet and no strong gamey taste.
Is buffalo meat lean?
Yes. It has less marbling than beef, with the fat mostly at the edge of the cut, so the loin cuts are best rare or medium-rare, one stage less than you would give beef.
Is buffalo the same as bison?
No. In the US ‘buffalo’ often means the American bison, bisonte in Spanish. What we sell is water buffalo, labelled búfalo in Spain, which is a different animal.
Is buffalo meat tough?
Not if you match the cut to the method. Sirloin, bone-in loin and rump cap are tender when cooked quickly and served rare to medium-rare; chuck and shin need a slow braise. A tough buffalo steak has usually been cooked for too long.
Where can I buy buffalo steak in Spain?
Online, from us: boneless sirloin, bone-in loin and picanha are in the product cards above, and we send one chilled dispatch a week. Everything is on pre-order at the moment, and the first parcels leave on Wednesday 4 November 2026.