Author Topic: Animal Heart - its whats for dinner.  (Read 4614 times)

windypig

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Animal Heart - its whats for dinner.
« on: July 11, 2014, 07:25:55 PM »
I just discovered an absolutely delicious cut of meat, heart! Beef / veal heart and chicken hearts specifically. These are some seriously delicious cuts of meat and best of all they are super super cheap. Ive been grilling and pan frying (with a little bit of flour + chili powder) served with some sliced tomatoes from the garden. Magnifico!

Apparently its got a almost 2x the density of amino acids and other good stuff compared to other cuts. My buddy tells me in wolf packs the alpha dog always gets to eat the heart (wonder why?)

So how about it, anybody have any other recipes for heart or some other interesting and cheap uses for budget / organ meat?


MBot

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Re: Animal Heart - its whats for dinner.
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2014, 08:09:40 PM »
Swap 1/3 of the ground meat in burgers or meatloaf with ground liver. More iron and a deep meaty taste to it.

I have never eaten beef heart, except when I bought one to dissect (I do heart ultrasounds and wanted to see a similar type of heart closer-up). I cooked the beef heart and ate a little. Haha)

neophyte

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Re: Animal Heart - its whats for dinner.
« Reply #2 on: July 11, 2014, 08:20:26 PM »
I love beef heart skewers! Yum! Yum! Yum!

defenestrate

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Re: Animal Heart - its whats for dinner.
« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2014, 08:57:54 PM »
The poor animal is rarely understood-- the least likely meat is where all the flavor is. If you want true badassity go out and make friends with a local beef processor. Let them know you are interested in the Offal--tongue, heart, oxtail, cheeks, sweetbreads. You may be surprised at what you could get for free, or for a low price. Often these cuts are thrown away.

Even better, go out an purchase a steer from a local rancher and split it up with friends--have them pay for the high price steaks, and you keep ground beef, roasts, ribs, etc--these are the flavorful cuts-- This is true mustachianism, and effecient. You will purchase beef that has not been shipped all over the world, it will likely be grassfed these days, will have a total cost for all the cuts that is similar to ground beef, and provides a bit of adventure that the grocery store will never have.


Hotstreak

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Re: Animal Heart - its whats for dinner.
« Reply #4 on: July 11, 2014, 10:11:09 PM »
Beef heart is great :).  I like to slice it like stew meat and put it in chili's or soups, usually with some other cuts mixed in as well.  I use chicken hearts mostly in stir fry.  The smooth texture, and tiny bit of chewiness really meshes well with all the vegetables.

Liver can be okay.  I will eat it but I know a lot of people who just can't stomach the taste.  I fry it up with onions and hot sauce.

Those are the only ones I've tried!

limeandpepper

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Re: Animal Heart - its whats for dinner.
« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2014, 04:50:57 AM »
Ooh this is up my alley. I like doing a stir-fry with heart, using soy sauce, ginger, chilli, etc. Lamb heart is pretty great for this. Other offal I enjoy, when cooked in the right way, include ears, tongue, stomach, intestines, blood cubes, tendon, trotters... These ones I haven't really prepared myself, but I eat them when I'm in Asia.

soccerluvof4

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Re: Animal Heart - its whats for dinner.
« Reply #6 on: July 12, 2014, 08:26:03 AM »
Liver and onions or chicken gizzards! two of my favorites but haven't had in awhile.  YUM.  Never had beef Hearts but sure its good. Had Tongue actually on Taco's and didnt know till after the fact but was delicious.

Gerard

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Re: Animal Heart - its whats for dinner.
« Reply #7 on: July 12, 2014, 05:27:24 PM »
I slice a little beef heart up into strips about the size of a french fry and marinade it for about 20 minutes in Maggi. Then I stir-fry it and eat it in tacos. I've never done brochettes, but I bet it would be good. Maybe in a pita with tzatziki and onions and tomatoes?

You kinda have to treat it like squid -- either barely cook it at all, or do it low and slow and long.

A little goes a long way, so I'll often ask the guy at the supermarket butcher counter to open one of the packages and cut off half of it for me.

lizzzi

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Re: Animal Heart - its whats for dinner.
« Reply #8 on: July 12, 2014, 07:36:27 PM »
When Susanna Johnson was captured by Native Americans in 1754, food was scarce, and they boiled a horse's hoof and drank the broth.

Ynari

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Re: Animal Heart - its whats for dinner.
« Reply #9 on: July 12, 2014, 09:18:43 PM »
I just ordered 50 lbs of grass fed ground beef...  discount!

But even with the discount, kidney is cheaper.  I bought some kidney along with it.  From what I've read, sounds pretty easy to cook.  Hoping it turns out well!

FuckRx

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Re: Animal Heart - its whats for dinner.
« Reply #10 on: July 12, 2014, 10:08:53 PM »
may your gout treat you kindly

Gone Fishing

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Re: Animal Heart - its whats for dinner.
« Reply #11 on: July 18, 2014, 01:30:27 PM »
Wife doesn't like the texture.  We usually grind the heart and mix it in with the rest of the ground meat.  Probably another lb or so of ground on a deer.