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Ox Heart, Baked

A baked ox heart layered with potatoes and bacon, seasoned with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ox Heart, Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the heart

  1. Wash the heart in several waters.

  2. Cut away the lobes and soak it in vinegar and water for three hours.

  3. Drain and slice the heart into thin steaks lengthwise.

Layer and bake

  1. Grease a pie dish and layer sliced potatoes at the bottom.

  2. Add 2-3 rashers of bacon on top of the potatoes.

  3. Layer the heart slices, followed by more bacon and then more potatoes, repeating until the dish is full.

  4. Dredge pepper over each layer and add salt if needed, depending on the bacon's quality.

  5. Pour ½ pint of water over the entire dish.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for one and a half hours.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Vinegar + potatotop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,608 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox heart
Forms the main meat, becoming tender and savoury as it bakes slowly in liquid.
Vinegar
Soaked with the heart beforehand, its acidity helps tenderise and freshen the meat.
Potatoes
Form a starchy base layer that absorbs juices and soaks up flavour as the dish bakes.
Bacon
Its fat bastes the layers and adds savoury flavour as it renders during baking.

The step that matters

Soaking the heart in vinegar and water. Ox heart is dense and can be tough. Soaking in an acidic liquid helps loosen its muscle fibres, so the slices turn tender rather than chewy after baking.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cabbagefits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper. 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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