If you like chili... make beef heart chili.

I usually get a 1/4 a cow a year, including parts.

Tails are my favorite, but I do like to to make beef heart chili. I cube it a bit smaller than stew meat and it makes a fabulous dish.

Enjoy it... the weather should be getting cooler starting tonight.

If anyone's still curious about this, we cooked up the heart as our contribution for my fiance's family Thanksgiving. His brother and dad had expressed interest in trying the heart.

We cleaned it, cubed it, and cooked it overnight in the crockpot (about 8 hours) with a couple glasses of dry red wine, some Worcestershire sauce, garlic, onion, salt, pepper, and a touch of hot sauce. It smelled amaaaaazing while it cooked (it even woke me up, it smelled so good!) and it tasted just as good. I was so pleased with how it turned out! I wish it were a little easier to find, because it's pretty cheap (it was from a local farm and I think it cost $2/lb). Anyway, that's how we did it, and it was a success. :)

I don't usually eat Beef heart, but we eat Lambs hearts reguarly (my kids love them). I take out all the pipes and sinews with a pair of kitchen scissors, and create a large cavity. I stuff it with a homemade breadcrumb-based stuffing (finely chopped onion, breadcrumbs, suet, egg to bind, herbs and seasoning) and roast in the oven for about 30-40 minutes. I then slice them and serve as a roast. I also put them into my cookpot. I prepare them in the same way, but don't stuff them. Add a red wine stock, and we also add whole peeled pickling onions (small shallots) and mushrooms. Cook in the pot until tender (I give them about 3 hours). Slice them and serve.

I find placing a whole heart on a plate puts some people off. Slicing them through is a nicer way to serve them. Try Lambs hearts if you can get them - they have a very delicate flavour. Avoid Pigs hearts unless you really like them, as they have a very strong - some would call overpowering - flavour.

Missing an Ingredient ? UKFoodOnline.co.uk



Roast Stuffed Lambs' Hearts HT MC 120mins

Serves 4 Hot Offal Vegetables Nuts Herbs Main course Gluten Wheat Free Eggless



Ingredients

50g/2oz Button Mushrooms, chopped

2 Sticks Celery, chopped

25g/2oz Butter

25g/1oz Walnuts, chopped

1 tbsp Fresh Parsley, chopped

Salt and Pepper

4 Lambs' Hearts

2 tbsp Oil



Instructions



1. Melt the butter in pan, add the mushrooms and celery and fry for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add breadcrumbs, walnuts, parsley and seasoning. Mix well and leave to cool.



2. Preheat the oven to 180C, 350F Gas mark 4. Prepare hearts, using kitchen scissors to cut through the pockets inside to make room for the stuffing. Wash and dry well.



3. Stuff the hearts with the mushroom mixture and sew up with a trussing needle and thread, or fasten with skewers.



4. Melt the oil in a roasting tin and add hearts. Baste well and cook in the centre of the oven for 45 minutes. Turn hearts over and baste. Cook for a further 45 minutes until tender.



5. To serve - remove the string or skewers and serve immediately.

Oh Mayday - we are DEFINITELY on the same wavelength!

I like the idea of the stuffing made with mushrooms and walnuts: I must try this one out.

My mother use to cook hearts 50 years ago. Rememer they are mostly mussle, so she cut up onion, celery, salt, pepper and covered the heart over with water, then cooking it for several hours until tender, then cut it like turkey breast. She made a gravy out of the water/veggie mix to pour over it. mmmmm was really good.

Put it in the freezer for a while until it starts to firm up. Slice it, roll it in a flour-salt-pepper mix and brown in hot shortening. then cook slower and keep turning in the pan. My dad always added water to steam it, but the browning first made sort of a carmelized coating. That is the way he made any chicken-fried steak (or even our turkey breast cut up and fried). Use the drippings and water from boiled potatoes to make gravy for the meat and mashed potatoes. I'd still rather have the chicken fried heart than steak!

My Goodness, I didn't think so many people ate beef heart. My father liked to eat beef hearts and tongues, kidneys, tribe, sheep's heads breaded and baked, yuck. My grandfather loved headcheese and pigs feet, those I could eat if I really had to. Mind you we weren't farm people but lived in the big city. I'm sticking to a hamburger or steak, May in Jersey