Beef Heart

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giggler

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Location
Austin, TX.
Any one here ever cooked one?

I got one from my dear father at thanksgiving. it is in my freezer.

Google recipes seem mainly either make soup, or shish kabob it.

Dear Spouse is going out of town next weekend and would never eat heart, so I,m "Batching" it on my own and figure now is my chance to cook something wierd!

Thanks, Eric Austin Tx.
 
For anyone who's ever tried to replicate a Michigan Coney Island hot dog, beef heart is the key. I've seen recipes containing everything from hamburger & tomato sauce to ground up hot dogs. There are no hamburger, tomatoes, or hot dogs in coney sauce. Beef heart is the taste that you are looking for.

Giggler, make all of the Michigan transplants in Austin happy - make some coney sauce.
 
Beef heart is good, but it's a tough muscle and needs some braising time in order to become tender. A couple of years ago I cooked heart for the first time and made a stew with it. It came out great.

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We used to cut them up and dredge them in seasoned flour, brown them, transfer them to a casserole with with a can of tomatoes and sliced onions. Cook low and slow for a couple of hours for a sort of Swiss steak.

We also had them stuffed with bread stuffing, browned in hot grease and cooked low and slow in the oven surrounded by carrots and onions, sort of like a pot roast.

You could also stuff them and simmer them in a Sunday gravy for a couple of hours, sort of like a braciole.

Can't find them in my area anymore.
 
I haven't cooked one in many years. I remember slicing it very thin, pounding the heck out of it and soaking it in buttermilk overnight I think. Then it was treated like chicken fried steak...flour, egg, flour and fried. The pan gravy was great, and the flavor spectacular.
 
Shrek won't eat heart, so I haven't had it in a long time. Mom always did a low and slow with tomatoes or in the pressure cooker, chunked for a stew.
 
The last couple of times I cooked beef heart was in the slow-cooker, with kidneys and some prepared oxtail sauce. Made the most delicious beef & kidney pie filling.
 
It's wonderful and best cooked really slow. Cube it after removing sinews and treat like a cut of braising beef. Add onions, carrots and mixed dried herbs. Don't forget to make lashings of mashed potato to soak up the rich and delicious gravy. While the cat's away etc.!!
 
Beef heart is a well used muscle. As such, it receives a rich supply of blood, making it a very flavorful cut of beef. That same exercise also can result in a tough piece of meat. The last heart I cooked was cubed, and cooked in the slow cooker for a few hours. I then added carrot, potato, onion, salt, garlic, and a bit of celery to the pot. I cooked that until it was done, made a brown roux of flour and butter, then added that to the pot to thicken the juices into gravy. I served it up at a church pot luck, not letting anyone know that the meat was beef heart. I was asked numerous times how I was able to get such well flavored, tender beef. I finally told everyone that it was beef heart. After that announcement, some were not as happy with the stew as they had been.:LOL:

Heart is wonderful if cooked properly. I'd braise it, or pressure cook it, then add it to whatever dish you like. It has great flavor.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
I've smoked it low and slow till tender. It was really good and the kids liked it even after I told them what it was. They didn't care, it was good.

I cleaned it, smoked in qtrs. at 225-250, then sliced. Very good flavor. I have two in my freezer ready.

It's well liked here.
 
Never had it.

I was watching a show "Alaska, The Last Frontier" and one of the clan fathers raises beef. During the butchering, they light a fire, set up a grate, slice the heart into steaks and grill them on the spot.
No braising. Just grilled like a steak or chop.
 
Any one here ever cooked one?

I got one from my dear father at thanksgiving. it is in my freezer.

Google recipes seem mainly either make soup, or shish kabob it.

Dear Spouse is going out of town next weekend and would never eat heart, so I,m "Batching" it on my own and figure now is my chance to cook something wierd!

Thanks, Eric Austin Tx.
Hi, Eric. I haven't seen a beef heart (or ox heart as it's usually called over here) for years but my mother used to cook them.

After cleaning the heart and removing the outer fat, the tubes and what Ma called the "strings", she stuffed it with sage and onion stuffing and sat it on a bed of veg, a clove or three of garlic and a bouquet garni, with stock up to the top of the veg layer. She pot roasted/braised it in a low oven (about 300F/150C/gas mark2) in a stoneware oven-proof dish with a close-fitting lid for a couple of hours or longer until tender. By the time the heart was cooked the veg were too overdone to serve as a side dish so Ma used to blend them into the cooking liquid for the gravy. Cheap nosh but delicious! I cook lamb's hearts in a similar way and vary the stuffing recipe to taste

A slow cooker would work very well for this, adjusting the cooking time, or a Le Creuset-type dutch oven on top of the stove on a very low light would work too.

As for your Dear Spouse, what she doesn't know won't hurt her, so just call it pot roast. After all the heart is just muscle the same as steak. When she raves about how good it was you can confess or just look smug while relishing the compliment. ;)

I've read that in the States you call the internal organs of animals "variety meats". If so, it's a much better name than "offal" as we call them - too close to "awful"! Cooked properly the various bits can be absolutely delicious (with the exception of tripe - shudder!).
 
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The best beef stew is made from beef heart. Use any stew recipe you like, Make sure to cook long and slow, you'll love it.
P.S. if you search this site you'll find a simular question was asked in the past and there was tonn of good sugestions in that thread too.
 
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The best beef stew is made from beef heart. Use any stew recipe you like, Make sure to cook long and slow, you'll love it.
P.S. if you search this site you'll find a simular question was asked in the past and there was tonn of good sugestions in that thread too.

CharlieD, you and me, we agree on what we like in our stew.:mrgreen:

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
Once again I saw another show on beef heart. " Bizarre Foods" last night.

They took raw thin strips and grilled them rare. The words to describe the heart were "tender".

I thought it might be the age of the animal determining the tenderness of the heart. But in at least one occasion watching, the animal was quite old and that was the reason for butchering it.

So, what is it. Heart is tough and needs to be braised? Or is it tender enough to grill rare?
Seems we are conflicted or I am missing something.
 
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Once again I saw another show on beef heart. " Bizarre Foods" last night.

They took raw thin strips and grilled them rare. The words to describe the heart were "tender".

I thought it might be the age of the animal determining the tenderness of the heart. But in at least one occasion watching, the animal was quite old and that was the reason for butchering it.

So, what is it. Heart is tough and needs to be braised? Or is it tender enough to grill rare?
Seems we are conflicted or I am missing something.

Even tough cuts, if cooked rare and sliced very thin are tender enough. Also, they have to be cooked against the grain. But if you overcook any meat, it gets tough. Heart and other well exercised muscles are very prone to this. Or if they are cut thick, they can still be rather chewey.

Think of liver, when prepared well, it can be so tender that it's downright creamy. Then again, I've had liver that would substitute for shoe soles. The same is true of beef brisket. Cooked rare, or even medium rare, and slice thin against the grain, it can be a wonderful meat, especially grilled. But I have had corned beef (made from brisket) that was so tough, it was nearly inedible. You couldn't even cut it with a knife. But that was on a naval ship. We often said that the navy taught their cooks to take perfectly good food and make it inedible.

So, I hope that helps clear things up a bit. Like clams, or squid, for heart, cooking is - 2 minutes or two hours. That is barely cook it, or braise it long enough to break it down.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
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