Jerad has been wanting to cook a beef heart ever since his parents grilled a deer heart last fall & raved about how good it was. After weeks of asking for one at the farmers’ markets, Jerad finally brought one home a couple weeks ago.
Once again, he researched online & found
another video of Chef Chris Cosentino cleaning a heart. Unfortunately, as with the
pig’s head, I didn’t get to witness this part of the process…and Jerad didn’t take any pictures. But, the untrimmed heart looked pretty much like this:
After all the fat, silver skin, & arteries were trimmed off, I marinated the meat in 3 cloves of garlic (crushed), a handful of fresh oregano, 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 cup freshly-squeezed lime juice, 1/2 cup white wine, & 1 cup beer for 2 hours. We grilled the meat for 2 -3 minutes per side, sliced it thin, & ate in on heated tortillas with grilled peppers & onions.
I have to admit that I was initially fairly grossed out about eating heart, but I rationalized it by reminding myself that it’s just a muscle, just like (well, not exactly like, but close enough) any ol’ steak. The meat turned out to be tender & not “weird” or gamey tasting at all. It tasted like…well…steak. The only difference is that it’s very lean, with no fat marbling at all. Therefore, it was pretty dense meat. The thin slicing worked well in that aspect.
After pig's face & beef heart, I'm a little excited to see what animal part Jerad will want to cook next.
