When I shoot an animal, a deer, hog, elk, or whatever, I’m always looking forward to the great meals I’ll get from it.  Of course there’s steaks, chops, sausage, and such… but there’s more meat than meets the eye.

Like many hunters, my field-dressing and butchering usually consist of cutting out the primals from the base of the head to the tail, sawing off the ribs, and usually trimming the “trim” from the areas that don’t have much substance (e.g. belly meat, brisket, etc.).  When I get done, there’s skin and head, a bare spine, some feet, and the entrails.  Pretty good work, right?

Well I’ve got ancestors who probably turn over in their graves at the edible food I’m leaving for the coyotes in four major organs… the heart, liver, kidney, and brains. 

The thing is, they knew how to get the most out of these parts and, to be honest, I think folks were a bit less squeamish in those days… not to mention that you got your protein where you could back then.  There were no all-night fastfood joints where you could slide in and grab a nice processed food product and cholesterol sandwich… and even if there were, nobody could afford that stuff.  Food was precious, and not to be wasted.  That’s actually an idea that could stand a good resurrection.

But I’m not sure I’m the guy to do it.  I hate liver, and didn’t really care for kidney the only time I had it.  Besides, I’m a little slow to go dining on the parts whose function is primarily removing impurities from the animal’s system. 

I used to love brains, scrambled with eggs, or served up on a tortilla with grilled green onions… now that right there is good stuff.  But with all the madness about mad cow, chronic wasting disease, and some of the other stuff running around out there, I’m a little hesitant to eat them any more.  A shame maybe, and a product of the modern, information age (without the Internet and TV, most of us would never know about these things), but the fact is I have taken brains off my menu. 

And that leaves the heart. 

For years, when I dressed an animal, my only interest in the entrails was to do a sort of post-mortem exam.  I’d look to see the effect of my bullet, what I’d hit and the sort of damage I’d done, then I’d dump the remains for the scavengers.  But a few years back on my first elk hunt, the guide asked if I wanted to save the heart and liver of my animal.  it hadn’t even occurred to me before, but what the heck?  I took them home, collected a couple of recipes, and had at it.

The liver… well, it was liver.  I’ve already covered that.  But the heart!  I’d eaten chicken hearts before, and kinda liked them.  But this elk heart…  it must’ve weighed three or four pounds, and it was dense as no meat I’ve ever cut.  And it was good! 

Since then, whenever I can, I salvage the heart of my deer and elk (if I didn’t shoot it), and that becomes one of the first meals I make of the animal when the hunt is done.  I have learned the hard way, despite warnings, that the heart doesn’t freeze real well.  It gets tough and the flavor loses something as well.  Heart is best served fresh. 

You’d think that I’d think that heart is heart.  Right?  I mean, a deer heart or a cow heart or a pig heart… pretty much the same thing.  It’s a big, dense muscle meat.  But for some reason, in all this time I never really thought about eating the hearts from my pigs.

Until this weekend.  As Michael pulled the innards out of my boar, he asked if I wanted any of them.  I wrinkled up my nose at liver and kidney and said anyone who wants them can have them.  There were no takers.  But at the heart, I hesitated.  Why not?  I’d try it.

There are a lot of ways to prepare heart, but my favorite is probably the simplest.  Here’s what I did, and honestly, it’s so good I may never try it any other way.  It’s also a nice recipe because you can do it in the field at the end of a day’s hunting, or when you get back home too tired for more elaborate preparations.

So here goes:

First, you’ll need a skillet (I like cast iron) with about a quarter inch of bacon grease (more or less depending on how big the heart is), salt and pepper or other spices of your liking, and a few ounces of plain flour. 

If you haven’t already, you need to cut the large blood vessels down to the muscle itself.  These veins and arteries (I could never remember the different parts, vena cava, aorta, ventricle… it all runs together, but hey, this isn’t a biology class) are really tough, so you don’t really want them in there.

Rinse the heart out thoroughly.  You’ll probably find blood has clotted throughout the vessels and chambers, and unless you like the flavor of blood (some people do, I don’t) you’re gonna want to get that all cleaned out. If you’re at home with running water, just put the faucet up against the big vein/arteries and run the water right through.  The heart is just a big pump, and the water will circulate through and wash that stuff out.  If you don’t have running water, do the best you can with what you’ve got.

Once it’s nice and clean, pat it dry.  Cleaned up like this, the heart is actually a pretty nice looking piece of meat. 

Slice the heart crossways to make steaks about 1/4″ to 3/8″ thick.  You can go thicker, but I haven’t tried it.  The thicker the steak, the more the meat’s flavor will come through, but the harder it will be to cook evenly using the method I’ll be describing.  Heart can also be fairly tough, so thick steaks may be a challenge to chew.

When you slice the heart, you’ll notice that the top is pretty well laced by the vessels and chambers to the point where your last few slices may be mostly air, surrounded by thin ribbons of meat.  This is usually where I stop slicing because cooking these little bits doesn’t offer much return.  You may also find some fat in there (there wasn’t much in my boar heart, but my last deer was loaded).  You can trim that if you like. 

Salt and pepper the slices as you like.  I like to add some cayenne and garlic powder to my flour also, but that’s up to you.  Plain old salt and pepper are fine. 

At some point about now, you need to heat the bacon grease so that it sizzles if you stick a piece of meat or fat in it.  Do not test the grease with your finger.  If the grease is smoking it’s too hot… turn it down.  It should stay nice and clear and still until you put your meat into it. 

Dredge each slice of heart in the flour, and then lay it in the hot grease.  Be careful, not only will this stuff burn you faster than the flames of hell, it’ll also start a nasty fire if you slosh it onto the burner. 

Fry each side until it is nicely browned (not blackened).  If you overcook, it will be tough as jerky.   Remove from the grease and drain on a paper towel.  Serve it up hot, as you would with any fried food. 

The remaining grease and flour can make a pretty tasty gravy, but you’d better stock up on Lipitor before you eat much of it.  It’s not the healthiest thing you’ll ever eat. 

Heart is a pretty rich meat, so serving sizes don’t need to be huge.  Sunday night I was really hungry, so I did eat the entire heart of my boar, but I was stuffed painfully when I got done.  It would have easily served two people. 

I chose to have a Central Coast pinot noir with this meal, and it worked pretty well.  I think something like a good zinfandel would have been better, though.  As the late Justin Wilson always said though, the best wine to go with any food is the kind of wine you like. 

Disclaimer:  I’m pretty much a rank amateur when it comes to the culinary arts.  I know what I like, and other folks generally seem to like it too, but if you want to read from some real experts, here are a couple of good places to read and learn more:

Honest Food Blog – Hank Shaw’s blog - Hank’s site offers a great perspective on cooking REAL food, from garden to game and fish to fowl.  He often writes about utilizing the whole critter, and brings up some great ways to prepare the parts that many of us never even thought about, not to mention the parts that intimidate us.

Offal Good – Chris Cosentino’s blog - This one is specifically about preparing the parts that usually go into the gut bucket, and he can actually make some of it sound pretty appetizing.  I’m not sure I’m quite that ambitious, but if you are this is a good source of info and ideas.

There are lot of other edible ”pieces parts” on a critter.  Tongue, hocks, tails, noses… sometimes I feel a little guilty about not making better use of my game, but since most of my animals are broken down in the field, under fairly adverse meat-handling conditions, some of it just isn’t realistic to me.  

Bon apetit!

 

 

 

 

Related Posts

No related posts.