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Aromatic Beef Heart Skewers

Our mission of random animal parts is far from over, but for today, we are sharing our recipe for beef heart. Bill and I really don’t squirm at the idea of eating any certain part of an animal anymore, however, this recipe in particular was slightly difficult for us.
I will say, this was the first time I had really held an animals heart in the palm of my hand, which was an interesting feeling to say the least. Bill took on the task of trimming all the ventricles from the heart before we sliced it for the skewers, and this was pretty difficult for him. It’s all mental you know, nobody thinks twice about trimming the fat, or silver skin from a skirt steak (which comes from the diaphragm by the way), but since a heart or tongue or liver is unknown territory for most, it can be a bit unnerving.
Beyond having to get over the slight ick factor of trimming a heart for cooking, we weren’t even sure of how to cook it. Of course I turned to my cooking bible, Google, for the answers I needed. We decided to slice the heart fairly thin, and marinate it over night in a simple aromatic marinade of fresh herbs, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. After marinating, we planned to skewer the heart and grill it.
The recipe turned out wonderful. I can’t say that either of us are huge fans of heart, or that it is a cut we would buy regularly, but we did enjoy it. We found that it is best cooked well done, anything less than is a bit chewy. The flavors were great, and grilling was definitely the right way to cook it. If you have a slightly adventurous palate, this is certainly something you should try.
Ingredients:
  • 1 beef heart (2-3 lbs)
  • 1 sprig of each, rosemary, thyme, and sage, chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Process:

  1. Rinse the heart under cold water and pat dry.
  2. Trim the ventricles from the heart and slice into thin strips.
  3. Place the strips of heart into a zip lock bag.
  4. Pour olive oil, and balsamic vinegar over the heart.
  5. Add the minced garlic, fresh herbs, and salt and pepper to the heart.
  6. Seal the bag and massage the marinade into the heart to make sure all is evenly coated.
  7. Marinate the heart in the fridge overnight.
  8. Preheat the grill to med-high heat.
  9. Carefully skewer the strips of heart onto metal skewers.
  10. Grill the heart 8-10 minutes, flipping once.
  11. Remove heart from grill, and serve.

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    COMMENTS

    1. September 14, 2011

      Another way to use it is to grind it up and mix it in with ground beef. That's what I do, and my husband and I can't even tell it's in there. I do a 2 to 1 ratio, beef to beef heart. I've never had it by itself…you guys are braver than me!

    2. September 14, 2011

      chicken livers are great to grind into beef also!

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