Beef heart for healing
Not many people like heart meat anymore, and it is a pity because like the old Chinese saying goes: “Eat the organ you want to heal”. Well our modern hearts need much healing, especially in a strictly physiological sense.
Beef heart contains all essential amino acids, zinc, selenium and phosphorus.
It has more than double the elastin and collagen than other cuts of meat and a highly concentrated source of coenzyme Q10, also known as CoQ10.
MayoClinic.com suggests choosing grass-fed beef rather than grain-fed beef because it may have higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids.
Heart meat is not difficult to find, but I would not recommend getting it from the regular supermarket, as it will come from stressed animals, laden with hormones and antibiotics. Make sure your heart comes from Organic, Free Range, Grass fed and finished animals.
For this beef heart steak you can use beef, lamb, even pork heart.
How to make it taste good!
Beef heart has a stronger flavor than regular muscle meat, but it is also a muscle, like a regular steak cut, and just like any steak that is cooked right, it can be tender and juicy.
Heart is covered by a layer of fat. even if you will not est this fat, it is good to leave it attached for the cooking process, so the meat will not get too dry.
If you have a whole beef heart, you can start slicing it whole from the tip up. You will get nice roundish slices that work good as a steak.
When you get to the top part you will find hard veins and tissues, so at that point, you can remove the hard pieces by cutting around them.
The best way to eliminate the strong blood flavor is to marinate the heart meat with a 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar or just plain milk. Leave in the marinate for 24 hours and it will lose the strong bloody scent.
There is 2 main ways to cook heart meat: Slow long braising and quick searing.
The Moroccan Heart Stew is a delicious recipe for the slow cooking technique. The meat will be so tender you won’t believe it!
This recipe is a quick 10 minute pan sear, great with a salad for a fast lunch.
You can use a good cast iron pan or a stove top grill.
PS do not buy pre-seasoned cast iron pans as they are seasoned with very poor quality oils.
- 1 tablespoon ghee
- 4 slices of beef heart 1" thick
- 2 tablespoon rosemary infused olive oil (or plain olive oil)
- salt and pepper to taste
- Take heart slices from the marinade and pat dry.
- Heat a cast iron skillet with the ghee on a high flame for ⅔ minutes.
- Lay meat in the skillet . Temperature should be high enough to sizzle.
- Cook for 5 min on each side until nicely browned on the outside but still pink in the middle.
- Drizzle with the rosemary infused olive oli.
- Serve with salad of choice.
PS If you wonder where the heck to get some high quality Pastured Heart Meat, and you have no local farms around you, I recommend US Wellness Meats. You can buy heart online form them!!
Nice blog, Vivica. I will be visiting often. Your recipes are always wonderful.
Thank you Caroleah you are very kind!
This is one of the easiest beef heart recipes I’ve seen, so I like it and want to try it, but there’s just one thing I’m confused about.
It doesn’t look like you trimmed anything from the heart! Aren’t you supposed to take the fat off, and take all the connective tissue out from inside of it? It looks like you just sliced it whole like it’s a loaf of bread or something. Does that really work?? I’ve never seen a recipe do that before. Can you really just slice it like that and eat the fat and connective tissue in it? Please answer, I’ve never seen this done before, every other recipe says that the fat and connective tissue aren’t edible.
The info was great, but why the sickening, gross photo at the bottom??? It turned me off. We have too much of this scary, weird stuff in our society today. I’m talking about the interest in weirdness from zombies to ware-wolfs, etc. etc. I don’t think it is funny because it is desensitizing us to what is truly ugly and cruel.
Diane the picture is from the famous series Game of Thrones. I just happen to be a big fan of the series and thought a little humor would not hurt….:)
What happen to the GoT pic? Never try to justify humor Vivica :).
You are right….I just got tired of the stupid haters comments …people will take any opportunity to make you wrong, when you are exposed to the public eye it is your own individual choice if to be yourself and be judged or sometimes duck under the radar….:)
I would love to try this but my breastfeeding baby is allergic to dairy, so I can’t use ghee… What do you think would be a good non-dairy alternative? Thank you!!
You can use coconut oil or avocado oil or even better LARD!!! 🙂
Sweet! I am always looking for ways to use lard.
Pam, I use lard for cooking, it’s the best fat! If the flavor is too strong for you, you can dilute it with avocado oil, (very mild) or with butter!
Ghee is clarified butter therefore all milk caseine which is the alergent is eliminated. Only the pure fat is left but it contains no milk content. I wish people educated themselves more about food.
Casein is the protein in milk, which if you had a dairy ALLERGY, like this child, the protein is the problem. I was allergic to dairy the first 17 years of my life. The allergy is to the milk protein. (I was also allergic to eggs– to the egg protein. The albumen. Many people were like “oh, can’t you just use egg whites?” No!!! The egg white is the protein part!!! Sigh.)
Most people automatically think of lactose intolerance, which is an inability to process the SUGAR in milk.
But lactose intolerance and a dairy allergy are very different things.
I wish people educated themselves more about allergies.
Confusing dairy allergy and lactose intolerance is a pet peeve of mine. Lol
Thank you Gabriel! very well explained!!!
Ghee does not have lactose if that Is your child’s allergy.
Will you please try to explain why meat from animals that have been treated with antibiotics is bad?
Hey Ty
it’s called bio-accumulation…the chemicals accumulate in the tissues of the animal and then they transfer to you when you eat them 🙁
Hi Viv,
I love organ meat of all kinds. I’ve been eating my beef hearts, thawed, sliced [ JUST LIKE YOU DID] for years. I season with a sprinkle of onion & garlic powder & cook in my REDI GRILL. I cook it RARE!! Delicious! Happy you verified my cooking method!
Carol
Yay thank you!!
I just got some heat meat, the lady I got it from said to just put into my instapot season add cup of water set pressur and forget. Am trying tonight.