Open Question: What’s the best way to cook beef heart?
O.K. here’s the problem. I bought some beef heart figuring it’s very high quality protein. I wanted such high quality protein because I figure that it’s somewhat healthier for you than lower quality animal proteins, or even vegetable proteins. Of course, I figure that’s also very debatable, especially since, as I understand it, proteins are broken down into amino acids when they’re digested. Besides, no vegans are dying of specific protein deficiencies that I’ve heard of, or even having trouble building muscle.
Beef heart is, in fact, of such high quality that it’s very firm. Just refridgerated, with no freezing, while cutting it, you get the impression somebody froze and then half-thawed it, so it would be firm under the knife, but that’s just how it is. (One should be careful here since it’s not a uniform firmness. You can be caught off guard by soft spots.)
As it turn out a big part of this is the animal I got the heart from. Looking on the internet, I’ve found that heart has a reputation as a tender cut of meat. Which may have something to do with the poetic use of tender and heart going together often times, especially with “tender as a woman’s heart”.
Beef, however is the exception to this rule. As near as I can figure this is owed entirely to the size of the animal pushing blood under high pressure around a very large vascular system. I understand moose heart is the same way.
So what I’ve got here is a very tough piece of meat. I should mention we’re not talking about your classical toughness. The connective tissue is almost entirely muscle connective tissue, protein and lots of it. That’s striated smooth muscle, by the way, which I found makes pulling it, like you would other cuts of meat, not turn out the same way.
Heart is also famous for having alot of fat, saturated fat naturally. Saturated fat is good for the heart, not for heart disease mind, but good for the heart, which is why you find alot of it in animal hearts. But nonetheless at the butcher’s most of that fat, almost half the starting weight of the heart, ends up in the trash. There’s no marbling in the heart to speak of. That’s the way it has to be. The heart’s got to be strong. So basically in culinary terms this is not a self-baster.
I cook it for a good long time, and although it is cooked and edible, it is still kind of tough, and all the flavor has been cooked away. I figure this may be one more reason why it’s just not a very popular piece of meat (in addition to the obvious).
I’m at my wit’s end here. Should I try sous vide? What about the pressure cooker? Maybe next time I should ask my butcher to slice it thin deli style and -I don’t know- make creamed chipped beef.

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:55:58 GMT

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