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Pork Heart Confit - recipe/ideas needed


rorycberger

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Somehow I've got it in my head that I should make pork heart confit. Googling has turned up nothing. I've made duck confit several times, pork belly confit once, and bacon confit a few times before, so I'm not totally clueless, but I have a few questions:

-Is this even a good/feasible idea?

-How long should I cook it? Would it be better to "fast confit" (say 350 degrees for 2-3 hours) since heart is very lean or "slow confit" (8-10 hours at 200) since it is particularly tough?

-Any special curing requirements (e.g. more/less salt, shorter/longer curing time, pink salt?)

-Confit whole or in chunks? What size/shape chunks?

-Serving suggestions for the finished product?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Stop. Think. There must be a harder way.

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Heart is generally a very lean muscle: I'm not sure how well it will respond to the confit technique. I have only used the confit technique on cuts that have a substantial amount of intramuscular fat that renders out while it cooks. Is there any particular reason you have settled on confit for the heart? I don't have any recipes for pig's heart, but Henderson suggests roasting or grilling, and Cosentino recently did a beef heart tartare. Nothing wrong with breaking new ground, of course! Make sure you report back on what you decide to do...

Chris Hennes
Director of Operations
chennes@egullet.org

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Thanks. I'm not sure either, to be honest. In the past I've only grilled heart using this recipe:

http://www.offalgood.com/site/blog/recipes...for-beef-heart/

However, most of the recipes I've seen for heart suggest a long braise (e.g. http://www.recipezaar.com/143249) so I'm guessing it doesn't dry out too badly over longer cooking times. Being covered in fat the whole time can't hurt either.

As for why I've settled on this: I keep a list on my computer of ideas for things I'd like to cook, adding ideas when inspiration strikes and revisiting every few weeks whenever I have time for a cooking project. I honestly don't remember putting pork heart confit on the list, but now it's sitting there waiting to be done and mocking me. I realized the other day that I have 2 qts of homemade lard in the back of the fridge looking for a purpose, and I've got free time this weekend. I'm pretty sure I can get a heart from the farmer's market tomorrow (I know a farmer who processed some pigs this week). So it seemed like the perfect time to do it.

If no one has any ideas I'll probably just do a standard confit recipe with a medium heat and cooking time, maybe adding some gamier than normal spices like juniper and allspice. I'll definitely report back with results.

Stop. Think. There must be a harder way.

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look up gizzard confit. im sure it would work the same way because there both really muscular meats. i would maybe cut it in smaller pieces so it wouldn't take 8 hours but still cook it low heat and a 2-3 hours or until nice and tender.

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Thanks iriee. I found a recipe for duck gizzard confit in the Zuni cookbook, and it even mentions you can do the hearts the same way, so I will probably use that ratio/method (1/8 ounce of salt per pound). I got 2 hearts yestarday, but won't be able to cure them until monday night to cook tuesday night. I'll post back later in the week with results.

Stop. Think. There must be a harder way.

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Thanks. I was making lardo on monday night also so I had some of the basic cure from Charcuterie (2 parts salt, 1 part sugar, 1/8 part pink salt) which I used enough of so that there would be an 1/8th of an ounce salt per pound of meat. I also used some roughly chopped herbs (mostly bay and rosemary) and some crushed juniper berries, cloves, allspice and pepper.

Cleaning the hearts was not fun—I wanted to keep them whole, but they each had several blood clots that I wanted to get out. After lots of rinsing, poking my fingers around inside, and selective trimming with kitchen shears I finally got them clean enough that they would only turn water slightly pink when submerged/rinsed. I covered them with the cure, stuffing lots of the herbs and spices inside each heart, and put them open (valve) side down on a bed of parsley so they wouldn't sit in their own blood/juices. I figured I'd give them two days to drain more blood and take on more of the cured flavor. I'll cook them tonight in lard, probably going to go ultra-low heat (180) overnight.

Confit lamb's tongues are an interesting idea. When do you peel them? How do you serve them typically? How much salt/cure do you use?

Stop. Think. There must be a harder way.

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rorycberger: I use thomas keller green salt cure (mixture of parsley, thyme, bay, peppercorns) and add a little of five spice mixture. This salt I use 1tbsp per pound, leaving for 1 day then rinse and pat dry, the usual.

I peel them after cooked and cooled. Then I remove most of the fat and sear on a hot pan or put in the oven for a couple of minutes untill golden brown. Usually I finely slice serving with sweet potato blinis.

It's a handful but totally worth it.

always hungry...

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