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Stewed Ox Heart and Liver

A stew of ox heart, ox liver, onions, potatoes, suet, and seasonings simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Ox Heart and Liver

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

  1. Wash the ox heart well.

  2. Mix chopped onions, sage, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper with the heart.

  3. Place the heart in a pan with the top part downwards.

Layer and bake

  1. Add suet pieces, ox liver, and bacon if using.

  2. Season with 3 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, chopped onions, and potatoes.

  3. Pour 3 quarts of water over the mixture.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 3 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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + livertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,420 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Pepper + livertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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 through long, slow cooking in liquid.
Suet
Adds fat that enriches the stew and keeps the meat moist during the long bake.
Ox liver
Contributes a rich, deep flavor and a soft, creamy texture to the stew.
Potatoes
Their starch softens and thickens the cooking liquid, giving the stew body.
Onions
Soften and turn sweet as they cook, adding depth and aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Bake low and slow for the full 3 hours. Ox heart is tough connective tissue. A steady 350°F oven breaks it down gradually into tender meat while the water keeps the stew from drying out. Rushing with higher heat can leave the meat chewy.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Carrotfits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, liver. 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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