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Heart is a familiar muscle meat, yet also a hard-working nutrient-dense organ. I think that it’s a really accessible way to start eating organs since the texture of muscle meat is familiar and the flavor is not as intense as liver or kidney. That said, working muscles do have more flavor in general, like dark meat versus light meat in poultry.
As always, the smaller animals have milder organs. Grilled chicken hearts are kind of like candy. After you get them to try just one, I’ve seen kids that would probably never otherwise eat organ meats sneak them from the serving dish.
Heart should be smooth and firm when fresh. A beef heart is typically 3-4 lbs and your local farmer likely has excess on hand. For this dish, I had a 2.5 lb portion available. When I defrosted it, I found that it was not as well in tact as I had hoped though. A bit of twine went a long way in securing my heart and stuffing.
To complete the dish, Darina Allen recommends making a roux and combining the leftover cooking liquid to make a pan sauce. Even when tender to the bite, heart resembles typical muscle meat and is less fatty. Sauce (ie. added gelatin and fat) always improves muscle meat, or at least digestion (gelatin) and nutrient absorption (fat). That said, I didn’t have much liquid left at the end of my braise and instead used the leftover brothy crumbs along with a pat of butter as garnish.
As always, jump in, make do with what you have and see how it goes! A little heart goes a long way. Read more from the commentary to this recipe. Also find many more heart recipes.
Recipe Moderator Notes: We recommend that all the heart be 100% pasture-raised, the vegetables, herbs and spices be organically grown, and the salt be unrefined.
Ingredients
- 1 beef heart
- salt
- pepper
- 6 T butter + more for greasing parchment
- 1 onion
- 2 c sourdough bread crumbs
- 1 t dried oregano
- 1 T thyme leaves
- ¼ c parsley, chopped
- 2 c chicken or beef stock
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- If heart is slit open, trim any silverskin and ventricles from the inside of the heart. Else, cut away ventricles to make a nice cavity for the stuffing. Rinse and pat dry. Season well with salt and pepper and reserve.
- In a pan, melt butter over medium heat. When foaming subsides, add onion and cook about 8-10 minutes until soft. Remove from heat, add breadcrumbs, herbs, salt and pepper. Stir all together until well-combined. Let cool.
- Next, fill heart with stuffing, tying together with twine if it has been partially or completely slit open. Set into dutch oven or roasting pan, piling remaining stuffing on top or spilling out into the pan. Add stock. Cut a piece of parchment to fit pan, and butter one side well. Cover heart with buttered parchment paper (buttered side down) to keep moist.
- Cover with lid and cook for 3 hours. Check once or twice that there is still some stock in the pan and add a bit more if needed.
- Slice heart. Serve covered in breadcrumbs and garnish with parsley.
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