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Stewed Beef Heart

A stew of beef heart with potatoes, onions, and tomato ketchup, seasoned with cayenne pepper, celery, and bay leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stewed Beef Heart

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the heart

  1. Cut the heart into small pieces and remove all tough, fibrous tissue.

  2. Wash thoroughly in cold, salted water.

  3. Place the pieces in a pot of cold water to cover them and add 2 teaspoons of salt.

  4. Cover closely and stew gently for 10 minutes, removing the scum as it rises.

  5. Remove the meat with a skimmer, pour off and strain the liquid, and wash out the pot.

Make the stew

  1. Return the strained liquid to the pot along with the heart, potatoes, onions, tomato ketchup, celery, cayenne pepper, butter, and bay leaves.

  2. Stir well, cover, and stew gently until tender, stirring occasionally.

  3. Season with pepper and salt before serving.

  4. If needed, replenish with boiling water or thicken the liquid as directed in other recipes.

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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  5. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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 through slow, gentle stewing.
Potatoes
Break down partly during stewing, adding body and thickening the liquid.
Onions
Soften during stewing, adding sweetness and savoury depth to the broth.
Tomato ketchup
Adds acidity and sweetness, rounding out the flavour of the stew.
Butter or beef drippings
Adds fat, which gives richness and mouthfeel to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum during the first stew. Impurities and proteins rise to the surface as the heart first heats. Removing them keeps the broth clear and free of off-flavours before the stew is finished.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, pepper, parsley, celery, tomato, butter. 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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