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Stuffed Heart

A baked beef heart stuffed with bread, onion, herbs, and potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Heart

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Soak the stale bread in cold water until soft.

  2. Wring the soaked bread dry in a clean towel.

  3. Peel and chop the onion.

  4. Fry the onion in butter until light yellow.

  5. Add the soaked bread, salt, pepper, and dried herbs to the onion, stirring until heated through.

Stuff and bake

  1. Wash the heart in cold water.

  2. Stuff the heart with the mixture.

  3. Sew the heart closed.

  4. Place the stuffed heart on a baking pan with the peeled and washed potatoes.

  5. Bake the pan in a 400°F (200°C) oven for one hour.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef heart
Forms the main body of the dish, holding the stuffing as it cooks.
Butter
Fat that carries the onion's flavor and helps it brown lightly.
Stale bread
Soaked and wrung dry, it gives the stuffing a soft, moist texture.
Onion
Softens and sweetens when fried, adding aroma to the stuffing.
Potatoes
Bake alongside the heart in the same pan, absorbing savory juices as they cook.

The step that matters

Wring the soaked bread dry. Excess water left in the bread would dilute the stuffing and keep it soggy, so squeezing it dry helps the mixture hold together and heat through evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, bread, pepper, potato):

  1. Tomatofits about as well
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, bread, pepper, potato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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