Eat your heart out

Tricia Dameron

For me, February and hearts go hand in hand: conversation hearts, cardboard heart-shaped boxes filled with cloying mystery chocolates, and teddy bears cradling crushed-velvet hearts. But then my mind turns to actual hearts: the thumping, life-giving kind. Oh, dear. Is this going where I think it’s going?

This month’s recipe might be a little off-putting if you weren’t raised eating animal organs. Not that I was—no I was raised on Hamburger Helper and broiled, skinless chicken breasts. But I’m adventurous in the kitchen, eschewing bungee jumping and rock climbing for lard rendering and food preserving. 

The time came to challenge myself to consider the waste involved in my omnivorous eating habits. Offal, which according the Oxford Companion to Food, literally means “off fall”—the pieces that fall from a carcass when it is butchered—has become the dregs of the meat industry or fodder for shocking television programs. Why are roasts acceptable fare, but not heart? Didn’t our ancestors make use of the entire animal? When did we get squeamish enough to shun edible parts of beast that gave its life to be our food?

I ran into a roadblock not long after embarking on this culinary adventure. I procured beef heart at the OSU-OKC farmers’ market, but I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with it. I wanted to give this heart the best possible chance to be delicious, but unlike other food items, there weren’t user-friendly cookbooks or websites offering much-needed handheld guidance on preparing offal. Luckily, my mom gave me a 1975 Doubleday Cookbook that retained evidence of our society’s forgotten “nose to tail” eating habits.

To prepare the heart for stuffing, author Jean Anderson instructed me to rinse it, trim away fat and veins and marinate the muscle if it seems particularly tough. Trimming requires an extremely sharp knife and a fair amount of detachment. Unlike flank steak or loin chops, heart resembles…well, heart. And perhaps detachment wouldn’t be as necessary with other types of offal, given that we assign emotions to hearts. Trimming the heart took longer than I expected, which led me to the theory that perhaps offal fell out of favor not just because Americans got squeamish but because offal was a casualty of our fast food culture. A quick rub and sear won’t do—it takes time to make offal appealing.

I had some good-spirited friends over to try the spread: stuffed heart with gravy, creamed carrots and onion, cheddar-garlic biscuits and salad. Emotions ranged from hesitation and doubt to enthusiasm. My husband joked about ordering pizza if the dish turned out to be a miserable failure. But guess what? It wasn’t a failure. A gentle, three-hour braise rendered the meat tender and flavorful, and the pan juices made a rich gravy. My friends and I were relieved and pleasantly surprised the heart was decidedly edible, if not quite tasty.

If you are interested in trying offal, you might first have a difficult time acquiring it, given the disappearance of local butchers. First, attempt to seek out a local butcher or meat market. If that doesn’t lead anywhere, get acquainted with a local rancher at your farmers’ market or visit www.oklahomafood.coop to see a wide variety of offal. Given the lack of offal recipes, please send an email to editor@ok-living.com if you have family recipes you would like to share.

Braised Stuffed Heart
from The Doubleday Cookbook, Volume 1, 1975 edition

1 (4–5 pound) beef heart
1 t salt
¼ t pepper
2 T butter
2 cups beef broth
2 T flour, blended with 2 T cold water

Stuffing:
1 cup minced yellow onion
1⁄3 cup minced carrot
2 T minced celery
2 T butter
1 ½ c cooked rice
2 T minced parsley

Prepare heart for cooking (by rinsing and trimming away fat and veins) and pat dry with a paper towel. Rub inside and out with salt and pepper and let stand while you prepare stuffing. Stir-fry onion, carrot and celery in butter in a heavy skillet over moderate heat for 8–10 minutes until golden; mix with remaining stuffing ingredients. Spoon loosely into heart cavity and close opening with poultry pins and string or bind it with cooking twine. Brown heart all over in 2 tablespoons butter in a heavy kettle or dutch oven over moderate heat. (Note: use tongs for turning so you don’t pierce the heart and lose precious juices.) Add broth, cover and simmer slowly about 3 hours until tender, turning 1–2 times during cooking. Check pot occasionally and add a little water if necessary. Lift heart to a heated platter, remove pins or string and keep warm. Stir flour paste into kettle and heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and smooth. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust if needed. To serve: slice heart crosswise, not too thin, and pass the gravy.

Oklahoma Living Archives Oklahoma Living Advertising Oklahoma Living Contact Us Oklahoma Living Home Page WSI Internet Consulting and Education