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Stuffed Calf's Heart
Soak 2 hearts in cold water for fifteen minutes to draw the blood out of the veins and arteries; remove as many of these as can be done without cutting the heart. Make a stuffing of 1 cupful of cracker or bread crumbs, and 2 tablespoonfuls of butter seasoned with salt, pepper, a little onion juice, and a teaspoonful of powdered mixed sweet herbs, or a teaspoonful of minced parsley and a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet. Moisten sufficiently with hot water; fill the cavities with the dressing, tie or skewer the opening to keep the dressing in, put them in a stewing-pan with just enough hot water to cover, and cook slowly for an hour or more-until very tender. Serve either hot or cold.
A plain braise of an organ meat that has largely disappeared from butcher counters but is still sold by whole-animal butchers and halal shops. The main adjustment is time: an hour rarely brings heart to the texture the recipe promises.
- Sourcing the heartsA calf's heart runs roughly 1 to 1.5 lb; two will serve four to six people. Order ahead from a butcher who breaks whole animals, or substitute a single beef heart, usually 3 to 5 lb, which is coarser and needs longer cooking. Lamb hearts, at roughly 4-6 oz each, work well but you will want one per person and the cooking time drops to about an hour.
- TrimmingThe soak draws blood from the chambers, but do the real work with a knife: cut away the hard white valve tissue, the tubes at the top, and the pad of fat crowning the heart. Anything gristly left inside stays gristly. Rinse the chambers under running water rather than relying on the soak alone.
- Cook it longer than an hourHeart is dense working muscle, and an hour at a simmer may still leave it firm. Reckon on 1.5 to 2.5 hours at a bare simmer to reach the "very tender" the recipe asks for. Test with a skewer through the thickest wall, not the tip.
- Keep it below a boilA rolling boil tightens the muscle fibres and squeezes out the stuffing. Hold the liquid at a bare shiver, or transfer the covered pan to a 300F oven, which holds the temperature more steadily than a burner.
- Kitchen bouquetA commercial browning-and-seasoning sauce, caramel-based, still sold in most supermarkets. It contributes colour and a faint vegetable savour rather than herb flavour. A teaspoon of soy sauce or a spoonful of concentrated stock does the same job.
- Mixed sweet herbsPeriod blends commonly drew on thyme, marjoram, savory and sage, sometimes with a little parsley or basil, dried and powdered, though proportions varied from book to book. Half a teaspoon each of dried thyme and marjoram with a pinch of sage is a reasonable stand-in.
- Moistening the stuffing"Sufficiently" means damp enough to hold together when squeezed, not wet. Warm stock is better than hot water. Pack loosely; crumb stuffing swells, and a tightly stuffed heart will split its skewers.
- The cooking liquidWater barely covering the hearts gives a thin, gamey broth. Use stock, add a halved onion, a carrot and a bay leaf, and after lifting the hearts out, reduce the liquid hard and thicken it for a gravy. Otherwise the dish is dry.
- Serving coldChilled, sliced across the grain into thin rounds, this was a supper or sandwich meat. Let the hearts cool in their liquid so they do not dry out, then slice no thicker than a quarter inch.