Beef Heart Braised in Wine

It was very good.

Beef heart is a dense meat. This recipe came out very flavorful, the potatoes, carrots and gravy were perfect! This was my first time trying beef heart. My husband liked it. I think you have to like the meat. The only thing I did different was add garlic. I would definitely make again if someone gives me another beef heart!

I don’t see how a grass-fed heart is any better than one that is not. The heart strengthens through exercise, not diet. Diet will affect fat content, not toughness. Please do research before making ignorant assumptions.

Excellent flavor!

I like this site over all others. It’s not pigeon-holed into “homey ” or sophisticated recipes. It has all of them in a well-edited groups, so you have lots of choices. It also lists ingredients in a simple list, so you know what you need, without having to read a long, wordy description which includes ing. In the text. Thank you, folks!

I added a clove of pressed garlic and soaked the intact heart in salted cold water for an hour first, as others have recommended. Otherwise, I followed directions and it turned out fantastic. No exaggeration, I was blown away by how good this was. You can buy sirloin steak on sale where I live for $3.99 a pound, and it isn’t nearly as good as the heart that cost me $1.29 a pound (full price), with virtually no waste. Whereas most supermarket steaks have little flavor–looks like beef, chews like beef, has less taste than tofu–the heart had true beef flavor that was not, at all, overwhelming, nor was it tough–a very pleasant, not too chewy texture, I thought. The sauce/gravy was also amazing. A truly hits-on-all-cylinders one-pot miracle that’s a snap to make. I am somewhat concerned that the rest of the world will catch up and so the price of heart will skyrocket, as has the price of tongue and oxtail. And if you keep tropical fish, there’s an added bonus. Fish love raw, ground beef heart, and it’s legendary for promoting growth. Aquarium shops charge $5 or so for just a few ounces. The trimmings from my beef heart (it was gigantic) would have cost me, easily, $15 at the pet store. All you have to do is put it in the blender, pulse a couple times, flatten out so that pieces can be easily cut off and pop it in the freezer. Takes all of two minutes.

We did not know what to expect, we never had heart before. We used the heart from our grass fed cow that we purchased. It was delicious. Everyone loved it. Basically it was a very well flavored beef stew. Loved the thyme. We added garlic but otherwise stuck to the recipe. We will use this recipe again when we come across another heart. Thanks for the recipe Lola!!

Pretty good, although as others have already commented, beef heart has an unusual taste. It tastes something like liver, although not as strong and similar in texture (rubbery). It might become tender if it’s cooked longer. I added 5 cloves of garlic, chopped to the recipe. Otherwise, pretty simple to prepare. Beef heart is healthy and high in vitamin B-12. It is also high in cholesterol, but don’t worry about that – the ‘new’ 2015 dietary guidelines state that cholesterol in food is not a concern.

This was delicious. I really enjoyed preparing it too. It was my first time making beef heart, it was wicked easy and it came it awesome! thank you!

This was surprisingly great. I have never prepared heart but am always up for new challenges, proteins and economical ways to feed my family. The “stew” turned out very well. I added five cloves of minced garlic, Worchestershire, and doubled potatoes and carrots just because that’s my taste. The meat itself was chewy. I do not think this is a matter of grass fed vs feed lot meat. I think it is the age of the particular animal…more use of muscle tougher it gets kind of deal. Because I bought this from a grocery store, the next time I do make it, I think I’ll adapt it for the slow cooker. The taste of the meat was no different than any cut of the tougher parts and way cheaper!!! Four pounds for $8 (Canadian) is a great deal!!!! I will make this again and play with the recipe a bit!

It was as tender as filet mignon probably because I trimmed the dense covering off really well. Love the fact that it is so cheap to buy!! I flash fried it in butter as Julia Child recommends for meat ( super high heat, one minute on first side and 30 seconds on the second side. set it aside. The liquid is thick and if you want it stewier, use more broth and wine. Couldn’t be easier. I used crock pot and it was fine but think I will use the oven method today (and therefore will watch for need to add more liquid). It was so easy and the teenagers loved it which is a miracle. It tastes the way a really beefy stew SHOULD taste, not like organ meat.

Delicious added garlic and a little extra wine would definitely make it again with some minor differences

Good, but I think the heart needs to stew a bit longer. It’s quite tough. Also added some garlic for a little extra umpf.

I used this recipe as a starting point and tinckered with it a bit to customize it. As another reviewer suggested, I soaked the heart in cold salty water for an hour. I added some fresh and dried mushrooms, 4 cloves of garlic, a dash of cayene pepper, pimiento powder, bay leaf, and annise. Instead of simmering on the stove top, I used a cast iron pot and baked it on 350 for about 1.5 hours. We absolutely LOVED it and didn’t think it had a strong flavor at all, but we had a grass-fed beef heart so that probably made a big difference.

Easy to follow, great tasting!

yikes, way too much thyme! The heart meat is good and the sauce it was in would have been good maybe if it were toned down a little.

A very delicious way to use an often-ignored “cut” of beef. I added minced garlic and used a slow cooker on low for about 6 hours.

Great low cost treat for the dogs. They loved it!

So maybe I didnt do a good job cooking this or I just don’t like heart very much (first time), but this did not turn out too great. The heart was very chewy and I did not care for the aftertaste. I will be trying heart again, just not this recipe.

Fabulous. This made me imagine some kind of magical stew you might find at a country tavern in the middle ages. I added more boullion to make it a bit more liquidy because I knew that the sauce would come out delicious and could be scooped up with toasted baguettes. Great wine recommendation- a strong red really enhances the heart’s strong flavor. And the meat is available at my supermarket at one-fourth the price of fancier beef cuts. Merci!

I’m rating this three stars not because I didn’t like it, but rather because I think it has a lot of unfulfilled potential. My only change was to add two cloves of garlic, which I’m glad I did. It just seemed to lack a flavor to really marry with the somewhat strong flavor of the beef (which is not unpleasant, just stronger beefy flavor than I’m used to.) It seemed to require a lot of salt and I’m not sure why. Also, the sauce didn’t thicken up as much as I expected it to so it was kind of watery. If I get the opportunity to try this again, I’ll add more carrots, more garlic, a splash of worcestershire, lots of salt and probably do the braise in a crock pot instead of on the stove and see how it goes from there. I’ll probably also hold back some beef stock to add a thickener to to boost the consistency of the sauce. That said, I recommend trying this recipe as is before making too many changes. You really need to see what flavors will work for your family before just going off of my opinion. Lola, thanks for posting a recipe for an unusual cut!