Hi all
I have the opportunity to buy grass fed beef heart and I’m intrigued, but not brave enough yet to actually buy it. I like chicken and turkey heart, cooked in soup, but my farmer says it’s a bit different and obviously much larger. I’m interested in hearing how others prepare it.
Thanks!
I buy it with the fat on in. Where I am, it comes cut in half. I take a half, put salt on it, then cook it sous vide at 145F for 24 hours. This turns the (quite hard) fat into edible fat. I then eat the heart as is.
I’ve also done this:
Take the fat off, and for the thicker part, cut it thinner to make a “flap” that you can then expand to make the heart larger, then stuff the heart.
My wife does and it is delicious. I’ve never been tempted to eat it raw.
I have no idea how she cooks it but I suspect fire is involved. I generally stay out of her way while she is in the kitchen as part of my quest for longevity.
Oh, I used to eat beef heart when I was a child, and liked it. Grass fed would be great for you!
Like a roast is how my great aunty cooked them, so when I can locate one, I do that as well. Humm, I should try doing it in the Instant Pot next time. I think it is the finest of beef roasts.
Before a keto life we had sweet and sour heart. I’ve not tried any of the keto sweet and sour sauces though. Pan fried the heart. So good!
Just bought some beef heart for first time, so I’m reviving this thread for suggestions. I eat pure carnivore, no spices or vegies, I’m just looking for the best way to get it tender as possible. Anything but sous vide.
I bought beef heart and liver last week, I will cook a little part of the heart tomorrow! I usually just fry all organs and hope for the best, I will do it with the little piece but I am ready to try other things with the bigger part. A big organ eater in the carnivore thread said it’s good baked so maybe I will try that 
Unless I get a more tempting idea.
I tend to dislike roasted lean meats (leaner than pork chuck) so I am a bit wary.
I only have normal things, not those fancy machines 
I don’t feel the need, my roasts are perfection, I need to keep myself to eat more at night (with mixed results) when I have times where I am not bored of meat.
If I am bored with my normal meat, it’s typically organ time.
But if one is really lost and don’t mind the tiny (or much if someone prefers that style) plant matter… Very nearly everything is good as a stew… Heart stew is definitely a thing in Hungary. Just like liver stew. Or mixed but that’s usually done with chicken organs, they even sell livers together with hearts (but I would want more hearts in my stew than that so I will buy them separately).
I only make Hungarian stews so lots of paprika, some fried onion and then comes the meat…
Hmmmm, it’s actually an idea… Maybe I will do that. I am a bit afraid the heart will dry out in the oven (maybe it won’t as it’s not that long time? I need to ask how long it takes…).
I found it. 5-10 minutes on each side at 350F, I think it’s around 180C, I bake almost everything there, it’s a nice temperature.
I probably will end up with more time but it’s me. We will see!
Too bad you don’t like sous vide. I usually buy beef heart, unprepped with the fat, from my local farm. It’s frozen. I take it as it is, sous vide it at 140F for about 24 hours, plunge into cold water. Eat for lunch. The fat is edible, though a bit hard.
I didn’t even see fat on the heart… It’s a very lean meat. Some parts are white but it’s not fatty. I googled some pictures and some does seem fatty while others are what I am used to… I wonder why.
I think you get the kind that’s already been prepared. I like the version that still has fat on it. Mine looks more like this:
When I started eating beef heart, I would thaw it, cut the fat off, then cook. The fat can be really hard, and there’s different amounts of it. Now, by sous viding it, I can make it easier to eat, as a long sous vide session will make the fat edible. Still a bit tough, but more like suet (if you’ve eaten that raw from frozen), and less like steel.
Edit: And also, there are arteries that are usually there, at least in part. The sous vide makes these edible too. So, I do no preparation whatsoever for beef heart, and everything comes out edible by using the sous vide. Without this, you have to cut off the arteries, fat, etc.
Nope, I didn’t even know people at other places can get other than the heart itself with everything. I took a look, it has a white stuff but it’s little and well okay, so it’s hard fat I am used to soft fat too much. And now that I think about, I cut off the white and the odd things inside, I still eat it but ground and mixed with an egg, maybe that’s why I didn’t notice it being fatty? But even if it’s pure fat tissue, it’s very little compared to the whole heart…
When I will defrost the bigger part, I will look at it The smaller has even less hard fat on it.
I have read a big part of the sous vide thread yesterday… Maybe it’s good for chewy meat but I almost always eat pork and heaven forbid to make it any better, I already stuggle with the temptation at night to eat more lately (as I don’t resist temptation, I nibble a bit but I am pretty satisfied with my restraint. even though I am over my energy need at that point). The texture and tenderness is perfect. I have no problem with livers either though I only had pig and chicken before. Heart has a perfect texture too, firm but nice. Liver is the super tender one and my usual 70-100 minutes (unless I fry a little bit) don’t change that, IDK what people are talking about. Or because it’s chicken so can’t be not tender? Oh well. (Actually, it can harden a bit. Still amazing though. Duck liver is even harder and it’s normal for it. At least I only met that. Cold.)
I like heart, I can’t imagine not loving the beef one But I can imagine it’s chewier than the pork one. More time then. If nothing else helps, cooking first. Oh I am still all for stew then, it is cooked for 1 hour at least…
Yes and it’s almost no work as I can make it generously. If I cut off a quarter of a heart, it’s fine as I will eat it anyway. I love my grinders 
I can eat boiled pork skin, any part of the heart and many other stuff with the help of them. Our first pig heart was different, it was more work indeed but I quickly realized I can grind the stuff so poor cats don’t get those parts anymore… I like using up everything I have that is even remotely food. And the heart is tasty everywhere.
While one needs to work for very, very long to buy a sous vice that takes up space and I don’t have space even for an extra mug at this point. And why to complicate my life when my meat is near perfect anyway (making it better would require better ingredients or much effort or patience or something I am not willing to do. patience has a chance as I think about my future meals and can start the preparation a day earlier, I actually do that with frozen stuff. but I need plans anyway).
But I wrote it up in my mind yesterday so if I will afford chewy (ruminant) meat, I will think about it. I just have no use for it now. We make stew from our rare beef anyway… Stews are great. I like to fry and roast and stew everything. Of course, a tender stuff can be fried afterwards
Thank you for the sous vide info. Going to buy a beef heart and sous vide it this week! I love doing Carni sous vide, it’s so simple, just salt, and still as tender as you can imagine! Truly a “set it and forget it” prep.
Last time I bought beef heart, I pan-fried it as I would a steak. I was surprised that it tasted exactly the same as other beef. But I guess it’s muscle, just like other beef.
I fried my tiny piece, 138g heart today And I swear I kept forgetting mention it to my SO before he reached his dessert phase in his meals… I actually wanted to give him 25%… But nope, I eat them all (except a few grams of strings, the new kitten ate that).
I forgot about the heart too for a while but it got a nice color. 7 minutes in a pan. Nice firm meat, heart is like that and I like it. It has a way less “cow flavor” (just like cow smell in my childhood, more milk than stable ;)) than the liver but I used lard without tallow this time… I have plenty of liver and heart left so I can compare them made the same way later But the tallow didn’t have that intense flavor. It had the usual tallow flavor.
IDK about the heart but the liver (okay, fried in tallow) was nothing like the one from the supermarket long ago (fried in lard, surely). The latter was very sweet and lacked that intense cow smell flavor.
So maybe hearts aren’t the same either. But the taste seems to be more subtle, livers are famously intense though never the beef ones, it seems? Except the cow flavor but it doesn’t feel like a real flavor, oh I can’t explain it.
Well, the joke’s on me because I didn’t buy beef heart, I bought beef clod heart, I just didn’t read the package closely enough. However, serendipity reigned because I found I prefer it for some reason to the sirloin I’ve been eating the last few years, so all’s well.
I wish my supplier did supply heart. If they ever get it in, I’ll be on it like a duck on a June bug.
