Sous vide beef heart

[TdeV]

I have a beef heart. What temperature and for how long should I cook it?

Thanks in advance

Edited February 9, 2013 by Mjx (log)

[Ttogull]

Anyway, Keller suggests 79.4C for 24 hours for a calf's heart. That's a starting point I guess. Please post here if you get a better recommendation as I have a frozen heart I plan to SV soon.

Edit: I forgot to mention that a quick sear is also an amazing way to cook heart. I bought one from a Halal butcher, and he prepared it for me "the way we do it in my custom." Basically he trimmed it for me. Put it on skewers with nothing but salt and pepper and cooked just past rare. Amazing.

Edited February 9, 2013 by Mjx (log)

[pbear]

I've done beef heart 48 hours at 131ºF and was quite pleased with the results. And I generally prefer to do long cooks of beef (chuck, etc.) for 24 hours at 150ºF. With the latter, I find the texture at lower temps to be a bit squishy (to use the technical term). Whereas the former is by nature a "tight" cut texture-wise, so the lower temp worked very nicely. YMMV.

[Syzygies]

Anyway, Keller suggests 79.4C for 24 hours for a calf's heart.

I saw this thread around the same time that Harlem Shambles had very fresh lamb heart and liver. Uses a Sichuan recipe for the liver, and followed Keller's 175F 24 hours for the heart. Then pan seared, reduction sauce. Would have thought this was too high a temp, but the texture and flavor was very nice.

Edited February 9, 2013 by Syzygies (log)

[Ttogull]

Anyway, Keller suggests 79.4C for 24 hours for a calf's heart. That's a starting point I guess. Please post here if you get a better recommendation as I have a frozen heart I plan to SV soon.

Edit: I forgot to mention that a quick sear is also an amazing way to cook heart. I bought one from a Halal butcher, and he prepared it for me "the way we do it in my custom." Basically he trimmed it for me. Put it on skewers with nothing but salt and pepper and cooked just past rare. Amazing.

Well, I thawed my heart, brined it in 8% salt content with pickling spices for 24 hours, and SVed for 24 hours in the best veal stock I've had at 174.9 for 24 hours as mentioned above. Seared some of it, but not all. My dog loved it. Which is fine with me because I thought it was terrible. Well, not terrible, but just not worth the $8 for the heart and the 48+ hours. Not to mention my wonderful veal stock. It was tender, not dry but not moist, and the non-seared parts were slightly better I guess because the meat part has little fat. The finished product looked just like pictures I've seen of others following the same technique.

I wish I had grilled it instead of SVing it. It was so beautiful beforehand.

Maybe this is a different topic, but the end result of this heart is what I've come to realize with long SV cooks: I don't seem to like it. I've eaten mostly short ribs SVed by pros, and I don't like them either. Too much uniformity in texture or something, which is sort of my main complaint with the heart. I smoke stuff for 18+ hours, I pressure cook stuff, braise stuff, etc. etc. and love it all, but cannot get on board with long term SV. I love short SV, like chicken, steak, pork chops, etc. I'd hate for this to be true as the SV concept is great.

[Joe Blowe]

Too late now, but I wonder if the heart could've been rescued by cutting it up, skewering and grilling à la anticuchos:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticuchos

Not sure, however, if it would've been any different in the end than traditionally grilled heart...

[FeChef]

I feel the same way about long SV cooking. Everything ive SV over 48
hours has been either mushy sawdust texture and dry. The longest SV time
that ive done that turns out excellent is pork butts @ 155F for 30
hours. And chuck roasts @ 132F for 24 hours. I have tried short ribs
twice, one bone in, and another flanken cut @ 132F for 48 hours and both
came out like sawdust texture. Such a waist of time and money.

Maybe this is a different topic, but the end result of this heart is what I've come to realize with long SV cooks: I don't seem to like it. I've eaten mostly short ribs SVed by pros, and I don't like them either. Too much uniformity in texture or something, which is sort of my main complaint with the heart. I smoke stuff for 18+ hours, I pressure cook stuff, braise stuff, etc. etc. and love it all, but cannot get on board with long term SV. I love short SV, like chicken, steak, pork chops, etc. I'd hate for this to be true as the SV concept is great.

Edited February 18, 2013 by FeChef (log)