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Hearts, Sheep's, with Batter Pudding
Prepare two hearts as in the last recipe. Bake them for one hour; then drain them from the gravy, put them into a deep, well-buttered pie-dish, and pour round them a batter made thus. Mix four heaped table-spoonfuls of fine flour smoothly with a quarter of a pint of milk and water. Add the beaten yolks of two eggs, a pinch of salt, and, when the flour is smooth and free from lumps, another quarter of a pint of milk. Let this be made, if possible, an hour before the batter is wanted. Just before putting it in the oven stir in the whites of the eggs well whisked. Bake until the pudding is done enough. Thicken and flavour the gravy in which the meat was stewed, and send it to table in a tureen. Time, two hours. Probable cost, about 1s. 10d. It will be sufficient for four or five persons.
A Victorian variation on toad-in-the-hole, using sheep's hearts in place of sausage. The batter is straightforward; the hearts are where the attention goes.
- The missing first step"Prepare two hearts as in the last recipe" refers back to a recipe not given on this page. The usual Victorian preparation for sheep's hearts is to split them, cut away the valves, tough arteries and interior membrane, and rinse or soak in cold water to clear the clotted blood, often stuffing and trussing them afterwards. Trimming of this kind is what keeps the flavour from turning bloody.
- Cook the hearts until tender firstHeart is dense working muscle, and the hour of baking here follows whatever cooking the previous recipe gave them; the gravy is described as one "in which the meat was stewed." If your hearts are not already tender, braise or bake them covered with liquid until a skewer goes in with no resistance before they ever meet the batter.
- Quarter of a pintAn imperial quarter-pint is 5 fl oz, about 2/3 cup, so the batter uses about 10 fl oz (285 ml, roughly 1 1/4 US cups) of liquid in total to four heaped tablespoons of flour — very roughly 4 oz / 115 g, depending on how heaped. That is a thin pouring batter, in the general range of Yorkshire pudding proportions.
- Separated eggsYolks go into the batter early; the whisked whites are folded in at the last moment. This is a lighter, more soufflé-like result than a modern all-in batter, and it will not hold — get it into the oven immediately.
- Rest the batterThe recipe asks for it to be made an hour ahead "if possible." Resting lets the flour hydrate, which is generally held to give a better rise and a less pasty crumb.
- "Until the pudding is done enough"The book gives no temperature. A batter of this kind wants a hot oven; around 425F (220C) is a reasonable modern equivalent. Reckon 30 to 40 minutes for a deep dish, until well risen, brown and firm at the centre. Note that the recipe puts the hearts into the buttered dish and pours the batter round them, rather than preheating the dish.
- The gravyThicken the braising liquid with a little flour-and-butter roux and season it sharply — a spoonful of mushroom ketchup or Worcestershire sauce suits the period. Serve it separately, as directed, or the batter goes soggy.
- Yield and sourcingFour to five servings, as stated. Sheep's or lamb's hearts are order-ahead items from a butcher now rather than supermarket stock; two lambs' hearts weigh roughly 1 lb / 450 g together.
Baking meat in a poured batter is one of the oldest tricks in English cookery: the batter caught the dripping fat under roasting joints, and once cooks began putting cheap meat into the dish itself the family of puddings that includes toad-in-the-hole was born. Hearts were among the cheapest cuts a Victorian household could buy — "1s. 10d." for a dish feeding five is the point of the recipe, and Cassell's gives costings like this throughout. Offal appears at length in books of this period not as a delicacy but as ordinary economy; a dictionary of cookery aimed at middle-class households needed as many uses for hearts, lights and tripe as for saddle of mutton.