Beef heart pastrami

[617Smoker]

Tongue is one of the finest cuts of beef. Cant tell you how many times iv heard of people buying a 1/2 side of beef and either throwing it away or giving to me. Trying to tell them how good it is waste my time.

Tongue is great in Jewish delis and sort of got me thinking about turning heart into something.

 

[DougE]

lol if it works out, maybe I'll send half of a beef heart your way from the last beef I had processed. I normally tell them to keep the heart and liver, but I forgot this time, so I got both. I know people who eat liver, so I passed that along.

 

[617Smoker]

I do it all the time with venison harts. They cure fast weather using quick tender or injectable cure. The only thing I found is going light on rub before putting in smoker. Think because lean mussel it can be over powering. IT 135 and makes great reubens. Would love seeing pictures of finished product.

Good advice thank you

 

[617Smoker]

lol if it works out, maybe I'll send half of a beef heart your way from the last beef I had processed. I normally tell them to keep the heart and liver, but I forgot this time, so I got both. I know people who eat liver, so I passed that along.

Ha I can tell you there will be zero chance anyone in my house will eat this except me

 

[kawboy]

I've got some pig hearts in the freezer. This may be in their future!

 

[JLeonard]

in for the finish.

Jim

 

[617Smoker]

So there is some good news and bad news. The good news is that I think it came out pretty good. The bad news is that I got Covid earlier this week and can't really taste anything. I did pass some on to a neighbor who gave it a thumbs up, but am looking forward to getting my taste buds back and having some on rye, and maybe with some eggs, too. This plus some belly bacon had been curing, and I was well enough to smoke it.
So here's how it went.
Here's the heart after 6 days in the wet cure, with a small slice off for the fry test (two slices of bacon on the left). Not very useful without a sense of taste, though I can pick up on some saltiness.


After a day unwrapped in the fridge, I coated with a slather of mustard (it is pastrami after all). Thinking I would slice it thin, I went heavy with a pastrami spice rub -- lots of black pepper and coriander, some lt brown sugar, paprika, garlic and onion powder, whole and powdered mustard. The whole spices (pepper, coriander and mustard) I did a half-grind in the spice grinder.


I thought about rolling and tying to account for the uneven thickness, but I didnt' want to lose the surface area, so I just let it be. I figured I would take the thickest part to 135 as suggested here and the thinner parts would just be more cooked. So onto the Masterbuilt gravity smoker with cherry chunks @ 185 degrees, with two pieces of belly bacon to keep it company. Pulled it after it his 135 in about 2 hours -- I did not not the time.




After an overnight in the fridge, here it is today.


No discernible difference between thick and thin, so I think not wrapping was the right call. I was able to pick up some of the flavors and so far as I can tell, it's pretty good. I don't regularly eat heart and don't see making it part of the weekly menu, but there was nothing taste (that I could tell) or texture-wise that was off-putting. I'm looking forward to getting my sense of taste back and enjoying some on toasted rye with brown mustard and some melted swiss!
Thanks for looking.

 

[Brokenhandle]

Looks good! Was nice of you to share some of the heart not the covid with the neighbor! Lol

Ryan

 

[indaswamp]

Lookin good! Hope you get your taste buds back soon so you can enjoy it!

 

[Gonna Smoke]

That looks pretty good!! I bet it even tastes better than it looks...

 

[crazymoon]

617S, I'm in!