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Beef-heart, Stewed

A stew made from a cleaned ox heart stuffed with bread crumbs, onion, celery, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Beef-heart, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the heart

  1. Wash the ox heart thoroughly.

  2. Remove the muscles from the inside and any blood.

Stuff and cook

  1. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, onion, celery, butter, salt, and pepper to make the stuffing.

  2. Stuff the heart with the mixture.

  3. Cook the stuffed heart in a pot until tender.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 body of the stew and becomes tender through long cooking.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body and structure.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Cook the stuffed heart in a pot until tender. Heart is dense muscle that stays tough if cooked too briefly. Slow, moist cooking breaks down connective tissue, so the meat needs enough time to become tender before serving.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, celery, butter, 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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