Grilled Marinated Beef Heart with Balsamic Butter Reduction

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

snorkelinggirl

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
Nov 15, 2012
1,025
105
Hi Nose-To-Tailers,

I mentioned this beef heart recipe in a different post, and there seemed to be some interest in it. So I thought I'd put it in it's own post for clarity....

Grilled Marinated Beef Heart with Balsamic Butter Reduction

Makes 2-4 servings, depending on how "hearty" appetites are (har har)
 

1 pastured beef heart, sliced lengthwise
 

Marinade:

2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp fresh chopped rosemary leaves
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
 

Balsamic Butter Reduction:

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2-3 Tbsp butter, cut into pats
 

4 cups (lightly packed) mixed salad greens
1/4 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese

Spread the heart open. Cut the heart into manageable steaks following natural divisions in the heart. Remove the fat from the top of the heart. Remove the valves, connective tissue, and silverskin from the inside of the heart to get down to clean steak meat. Remove the blood vessels and silverskin from the outside of the heart to get down to clean steak meat. To ensure that the steaks are of roughly the same thickness, just use the thicker steaks (from the ventricles) for this recipe. The thinner steaks (from the atria) can be reserved for another use such as grinding for ground beef or slicing thinly and stir-frying with onions and peppers.

So here is a beef heart trimmed of the big fat cap and big veins/arteries.


Here is the inside of the heart. I trimmed away the thinner muscled area on the lower right of this picture.


Here is the thicker muscled area of the heart cut into steaks and cleaned of all valves, connective tissue, and silverskin. It is just clean, pure muscle meat, about an inch thick. 


Place the thick heart steaks in a large rectangular casserole dish. Season both sides with salt and freshly ground pepper. Mix minced garlic cloves, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, rosemary, and thyme in a small bowl. Pat the marinade over the heart steaks and turn to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 8 hours, turning occasionally.

Here is the marinade. It is basically a wet rub, but you could add more olive oil and balsamic vinegar if you wanted to have more liquid.



Preheat grill. Remove excess marinade. Grill for about 5 minutes per side for medium-rare. While steaks are grilling, prepare the balsamic butter reduction. When steaks have finished grilling, let them rest while finishing the reduction.

Simmer 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar in small saucepan over medium heat until reduced by half and it reaches a syrupy consistency, about 5 minutes. Whisk in butter, one pat at a time, allowing melted butter to be fully incorporated with the balsamic reduction before adding more butter. Reduction should become glossy with the consistency of a thick syrup. Remove from heat and use immediately, as the reduction will thicken as it cools.

OK, here is 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar.


Reduce it down by half. When it starts to bubble like this, it is reduced enough. Turn the heat to the lowest setting you have ("simmer" setting works great here), or turn the heat off if you think you are burning your reduction.


Start adding in the butter, stirring well between adding pats. I add in about 1 Tbsp at a time, and use about 3 Tbsp total. You could add more butter if you want.


The reduction will become thick and glossy as you add in the butter.


Slice the steaks thinly and serve on a bed of mixed greens with balsamic butter reduction drizzled on top and sprinkled with crumbled gorgonzola cheese.

Here is the grilled heart steak.


Heart steak after resting and slicing. We prefer our heart grilled rare to medium-rare. The reason is that we think that the heart becomes more strong and "liver-y" in taste, and also tougher, as it is cooked medium to well done. When cooked rare to medium-rare it has a very mild taste and is quite tender.  


The plated shot.


Thanks for looking!

Clarissa
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bearcarver
Nice job on the heart, Clarisssa..  Superb reduction also...  That makes me a bit hungry....
drool.gif
 
Clarissa

Looks very good. The only heart I've ever had was in deer camp fried along with liver and onions from the first deer taken. Was very good, but tough, probably from overcooking. The balsamic, butter reduction sauce has to be very good, I'll have to try that one.

Phillip
 
Nice job on the heart, Clarisssa..  Superb reduction also...  That makes me a bit hungry....
drool.gif
i don't see a thing wrong with that Ms Clarissa.noting wrong with a heart. i know yours are beef.

 chicken heart is my favorite part of the chicken.

happy smoken.

david
Great looking heart steaks and I'll bet they were tasty too! Nice job!
Clarissa

Looks very good. The only heart I've ever had was in deer camp fried along with liver and onions from the first deer taken. Was very good, but tough, probably from overcooking. The balsamic, butter reduction sauce has to be very good, I'll have to try that one.

Phillip
Thank you so much for the compliments!!!

The sauce goes great over other cuts too....we especially like it on beef tenderloin.  Don't let the heart put you off from trying the sauce!

Hope everybody has a great day, and thanks again for looking at my post!

Clarissa
 
Wow!!!!!

Awesome job on the heart, Clarissa!!!!!

Also, this is an Outstanding Step by Step, and I know Step by Steps!!!!
biggrin.gif


Thanks for showing!!!

Bear
 
Nice looking plate and nice tutorial!
Wow!!!!!

Awesome job on the heart, Clarissa!!!!!

Also, this is an Outstanding Step by Step, and I know Step by Steps!!!!
biggrin.gif


Thanks for showing!!!

Bear
Thank so much for the compliments, Woodcutter and Bear!!  And thanks for checking out my post!

Hope you guys have a great day!

Clarissa
 
Clarissa looks great! We eat heart when we go hunting, well if we're lucky enough to get one! I'll have to try your recipe, at home not hunting. Might get funny looks from the guys pulling out a bottle of basalmic at elk camp!   I bet it would would be great with a bit of smoke and then grilled.
 
Clarissa looks great! We eat heart when we go hunting, well if we're lucky enough to get one! I'll have to try your recipe, at home not hunting. Might get funny looks from the guys pulling out a bottle of basalmic at elk camp!   I bet it would would be great with a bit of smoke and then grilled.
I was wondering how a little smoke would go with it.  Maybe oak??  I'll have to give that a try next time!

Thanks for checking out my post, and for the compliments, Case! 
 
I was wondering how a little smoke would go with it.  Maybe oak??  I'll have to give that a try next time!

Thanks for checking out my post, and for the compliments, Case! 
I would think that oak, cherry, hickory, alder all would be good. I know at camp we grill it right on the open fire and the smokey flavor adds to the goodness!
 
Sounds great...I'm planning on doing something very similiar with the addition of a dryed porcini mushroom rub....but how to disguise it so the wife will eat it....
 
Clarissa, That looks wonderful!!! I love heart, my hubby wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole11 LOL!!! I was raised on a farm and we butchered our beef to put in the freezer each year. We would always eat the heart and liver the day we butchered. I think that spoiled me!!!! I will only eat fresh right from the cow heart and liver! Thanks for your step by step, maybe others will try it that never thought they would!!! COOK ON!!!!!

Glenda
 
Well, Clarissa......I agree with many posters above, nice knife work, good tutorial, xlnt camera work, reduction sounds good but I'm in with OCG's husband...I wouldn't touch that with any pole...LMAO. I choked down enough liver in the Army to last a lifetime and I just don't do organs. Nice post though....c ya around
 
Nice Thread Clarissa!  My fav is the sauce....sorry don't do the organ type meats.....I guess it's from too many days working in the OR!

Good information...and great q-views!

Kat
 
Nose to tail is a happening place . I get that some viewers will take the method but not the meat.Others dont need any encouragement to embrace the whole deal. Either way there has been some high standard cookery on display here. Great to see.
 
 
That looks awesome. I will be making this for sure.

Thanks
Sounds great...I'm planning on doing something very similiar with the addition of a dryed porcini mushroom rub....but how to disguise it so the wife will eat it....
Thanks so much for the compliments, guys! 

Porcini mushroom sounds like it would be a good fit with heart.  Earthy and meaty flavor.  It sounds delicious and I hope that your wife enjoys it too!

Have a great evening, guys!  Thanks for checking out my post!

Clarissa
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky