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Roast Ox Heart

A roasted ox heart stuffed with veal forcemeat, coated in flour, and served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Roast Ox Heart

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

  1. Wash and soak the ox heart thoroughly to remove blood.

  2. Cut away the pipes and fill the cavities with veal forcemeat, securing it with needle and twine.

  3. Pour ½ cup of melted dripping over the heart.

  4. Wrap the heart in well-buttered paper and place it in a roasting tin.

Roast and brown

  1. Roast in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 2.5 hours.

  2. About 30 minutes before it is done, remove the paper, baste with dripping, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  3. Dredge the heart with flour and return it to the oven for the remaining 30 minutes to brown.

Serve

  1. Once cooked, place the heart on a hot dish, pour tomato sauce around it, and serve immediately.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Veal + tomatotop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together709 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox heart
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender with long, gentle roasting.
Veal forcemeat
Fills the cavities, adding moisture and richness as it cooks inside the heart.
Dripping
Bastes the surface, adding fat that carries flavour and promotes browning.
Flour
Dusted on the surface, it helps the outside brown and form a crisp crust.

The step that matters

Removing the paper and basting before the end. Unwrapping about 30 minutes before the end lets the surface dry and brown, while basting with fat keeps the meat moist and adds colour.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, flour, sauce. 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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