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Whole beef heart

jsolomon

By jsolomon
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jsolomon

jsolomon

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I work at a land-grant University. Our Animal Science department offers USDA grading courses to students. So, all of that meat they grade goes somewhere--the Meat Sales store.

I was visiting there the other day, and picked up a boned lamb shoulder, some bacon, and a whole beef heart.

What the hell do I do with a whole beef heart? I'm tempted to thaw it, cube, sear, and braise in a stew. But, I'm welcoming all ideas.

I always attempt to have the ratio of my intelligence to weight ratio be greater than one. But, I am from the midwest. I am sure you can now understand my life's conundrum.

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carswell

carswell

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Posted (edited)

While I've never cooked beef heart, a local Peruvian restaurant trims, cubes, marinates it, threads the cubes on skewers and grills them medium rare. Wonderful, chewy, tasty beef. I believe the Peruvian name for the dish is anticucho.

Braising and roasting, stuffed or not, are other "popular" preps.

edit: Google search results for anticucho heart recipe

Edited by carswell (log)
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Pan

Pan

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I was going to suggest the same thing. I had that dish a few days ago at a local Peruvian restaurant. Make sure to put plenty of cumin on the pieces of heart and grill until the strips of meat have a nice char but are still tender. I couldn't tell you how long that would be, as this is just the perspective of a diner who's had the dish.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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forever_young_ca

forever_young_ca

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When I was a child my mother used to stuff the beef heart with a mixture made from bread cubes, sage, butter, onions, poultry seasoning (like a turkey ressing). I think she then baked it in the oven. I don't know how long it was baked or steamed, but it was wonderful.

It is one of my favorite childhood food memories. To this day I love turkey & chicken hearts and grab them befoe anyone else can get them :biggrin:

Life is short, eat dessert first

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jsolomon

jsolomon

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While I've never cooked beef heart, a local Peruvian restaurant trims, cubes, marinates it, threads the cubes on skewers and grills them medium rare. Wonderful, chewy, tasty beef. I believe the Peruvian name for the dish is anticucho.

Braising and roasting, stuffed or not, are other "popular" preps.

edit: Google search results for anticucho heart recipe

That sounds like a good recipe, but, alas, I am in an ethnic wasteland known as Nebraska. Half of the spices called for in this dish, I can't find (I looked).

*sigh* Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.

I always attempt to have the ratio of my intelligence to weight ratio be greater than one. But, I am from the midwest. I am sure you can now understand my life's conundrum.

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jsolomon

jsolomon

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Would anyone use heart for sauerbraten?

I always attempt to have the ratio of my intelligence to weight ratio be greater than one. But, I am from the midwest. I am sure you can now understand my life's conundrum.

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carswell

carswell

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That sounds like a good recipe, but, alas, I am in an ethnic wasteland known as Nebraska.  Half of the spices called for in this dish, I can't find (I looked). 

My sympathies. Having spent too much of my life in small Midwestern towns, I know how frustrating it can be. As I mentioned upthread, I've never cooked anticucho. But that won't stop me from saying you could adapt the recipe and come up with a perfectly acceptable dish. After all, we're talking about a marinade; the beef remains the star of the show. See here for one possibility (replace the hontaka chiles with mirasols, serranos or what have you). The only exclusively ethnic ingredient is annato, which you could order from Penzey's for not much dinero or maybe even prevail on a fellow eGulleter to mail to you a teaspoons' worth of (I'd be happy to, though there might be trans-border issues).

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jsolomon

jsolomon

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What I ended up doing was braising the butterflied heart in tomato juice with garlic and onions. Oven, 250 degrees for ~6 hours.

The braising liquid was beautiful.

Leftovers were sliced and browned for first serving--again delicious.

The remainder are going into goulash to use the final braising liquid and to use some leftover turkey stock.

Wow. It was good.

I always attempt to have the ratio of my intelligence to weight ratio be greater than one. But, I am from the midwest. I am sure you can now understand my life's conundrum.

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Pan

Pan

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Poultry (chicken, turkey) heart is very fibrous. Beef heart is more like a very good steak with some liver taste. At least, that's how it seemed to me when I ate a beef heart dish recently.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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jsolomon

jsolomon

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How does beef heart flavor compare to poultry heart?

I've usually found them to be fairly similar. Pan is correct about the slight liver character in the flavor, but when poultry hearts are braised properly, they are quite lovely.

On the other side of the coin, both poultry hearts and beef hearts take well to very high heat methods.

Due to the specific nature of cardiac muscle, though, as well as having that delicious flavor of steaky-ness, they also have the unctuousness that a braised chuck or short-rib gets. They really are a lovely melding of two wonderful worlds.

But, remember, when you purchase a whole beef heart, it's going to be 4-5 pounds. That was my problem. It did make great goulash, though. Yum!

I always attempt to have the ratio of my intelligence to weight ratio be greater than one. But, I am from the midwest. I am sure you can now understand my life's conundrum.

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  • 6 years later...
scubadoo97

scubadoo97

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Going to give this a try. I found a half beef heart at the market for $1.99/lb. Cleaned it and sliced it then then marinated it for a couple of hours in OJ, white wine and garlic. I plan to grill it and put it over a salad of arugula and golden beets. Borrowed some components from Chris Consentino's site. Never worked with it before but watched the video of Chris cleaning one and then went to it. Had to clean it while my wife was still at work. If she had seen it there would be little chance she would try it.

beef heart.jpg

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avaserfi

avaserfi

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My go to with heart is beef jerky. The texture is great and it has a slight offal flavor when finished, but it isn't overwhelming. That said seared is great too, as long as it isn't overcooked and chewy. I like it fairly rare, any more and I find it gets rubbery.

Andrew Vaserfirer aka avaserfi

Host, eG Forums

avaserfirer@egstaff.org

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OliverB

OliverB

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looks delish! I have one in the freezer, I'll take some of this here for inspiration.

Oh, and as a side note: Amazon delivers to any culinary wasteland on the planet, or at least most. Def Nebraska. As do others. Don't waste time looking all over town for some spice/ingredient, order it :-)

"And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!"

- Thomas Keller

Diablo Kitchen, my food blog

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rarerollingobject

rarerollingobject

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looks delish! I have one in the freezer, I'll take some of this here for inspiration.

Oh, and as a side note: Amazon delivers to any culinary wasteland on the planet, or at least most. Def Nebraska. As do others. Don't waste time looking all over town for some spice/ingredient, order it :-)

Well actually, for food products, they deliver nowhere on the planet outside the US, Canada, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. :wink:

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ChrisTaylor

ChrisTaylor

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looks delish! I have one in the freezer, I'll take some of this here for inspiration.

Oh, and as a side note: Amazon delivers to any culinary wasteland on the planet, or at least most. Def Nebraska. As do others. Don't waste time looking all over town for some spice/ingredient, order it :-)

Well actually, for food products, they deliver nowhere on the planet outside the US, Canada, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. :wink:

Why am I reminded of the baseball 'World' Series? >_>

Chris Taylor

Host, eG Forums - ctaylor@egstaff.org

 

I've never met an animal I didn't enjoy with salt and pepper.

Melbourne
Harare, Victoria Falls and some places in between

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