Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Beef Heart, Stuffed
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the heart
Wash the heart thoroughly to remove all blood.
Cut through the partition to make the two cells into one, being careful not to cut through to the outside.
Fill the cavity with stuffing and cover with greased paper or cloth.
Roast and make the gravy
Place in a deep pan with plenty of water and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours or longer, basting and turning often.
While the heart is roasting, cut off the valves (deaf ears) after washing and place them in a saucepan with 1 pint of cold water and the sliced onion.
Simmer slowly for 1 hour.
Melt the butter in a separate pan, add the flour, then the strained liquid from the valves, and bring to a boil to serve as gravy.
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.
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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + turkeytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together248 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,592 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef heart
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender after long, moist roasting.
- Butter
- Fat that combines with flour to form a roux, giving the gravy body and richness.
- Flour
- Thickens the gravy when cooked in butter and combined with the liquid.
- Onion
- Adds aromatic flavour to the simmered liquid that becomes the gravy.
The step that matters
Cut the partition without piercing the outside. Cutting through the outer wall would let stuffing and juices escape during roasting, drying the heart and spoiling the cavity. Keeping the wall intact holds moisture and stuffing in as the heat works through the muscle.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, turkey, butter, flour):
- Leekfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, turkey, butter, flour. 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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