Crock Pot Braised Heart a la Meta Given

Groff's Content's beef liver is wonderful, so it was what I asked for. After several moments' rooting around in the cooler for it, Julie's able colleague said, "Are you sure you don't want the heart? It's right on top." That seemed as good a recommendation as any, especially as I had not yet made beef heart. So instead of a pound of liver, we came home with 2.6 pounds of heart.

Cattle have much larger hearts than lambs or even pigs. This makes perfect sense, but still it seemed like a surprisingly large thing when I was holding it.

Cleaning the heart was easy, especially as it was destined to be cut into stew cube-sized pieces: I trimmed the fat and valves and membranes, cut out and threw away the membranes and valves, and decided to leave the fat (there wasn't much, as the picture above shows). It's a very pretty cut of meat.

To braise it, I consulted the 1947 Meta Given's Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking. She says:

"An old-time method is to soak heart in buttermilk or a vinegar solution (half vinegar and half water) for several hours, keeping in a cold place. Heart is then drained and then cooked in the preferred way. Results of experimental work done in different laboratories on the tenderizing effect of the acids on meat are not conclusive, but there is agreement that both acids impart a delicious flavor."

Not having enough buttermilk on hand for the job, I used the vinegar mix approach, soaking the cubes of heart overnight in the fridge. Picture shows it. Given continues:

"To simmer hearts, add just enough salted water to cover (1 teaspoon salt to each quart of water), heat to boiling, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook until tender...To enhance the flavor, add an onion, a small carrot and a branch of celery when cooking beef heart or half this amount of vegetables for pork, veal, or lamb hearts."

I followed the instructions, throwing in about a dozen whole peppercorns besides. Turned the crock pot on low and went away for the day.

The whole house was amazingly fragrant by my return at 4:30. There was a lot more liquid than I'd expected. Given recommends cooking some of it down into gravy, but I didn't have time to do anything more than turn it out into bowls, making something of a heart soup.

Eating Notes: The heart itself was excellent - tender and a bit tangy from the vinegar. The sauce had the distinct stew-sweetness conveyed by the carrot/celery/onion mix. It also had a vinegary tang, balanced by a surprising amount of fat. Not as much as when cooking stew from stew meat or carcasses, but more than I had expected from heart, which is a very lean muscle. Including the fat was a good idea. A couple of smaller valves were overlooked when I was cleaning the heart, but these were completely cooked and tender and (in case they had been offensive) easy to spot and remove if desired. Leftovers keep well and could be frozen if desired.

In short, it was a quick and easy way (preparation-wise) to use a relatively inexpensive cut of meat. I am going to try more heart-for-meat substitutions in the future; curry is calling to me as I write this, and Given has a recipe for heart sauerbraten I'll likely try some time.