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Roast Beef Heart

Roast Beef Heart is a stuffed beef heart baked slowly with onions, sage, bread crumbs, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Roast Beef Heart

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash and dry the beef heart.

  2. Rub the heart with a little coarse sea salt and black pepper.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, combine chopped onions, sage, black pepper, coarse sea salt, and bread crumbs.

  2. Add the egg to the mixture to bind it.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the heart with the dressing and cover the opening with cloth or paper.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for two hours, basting occasionally.

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 + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef heart
Forms the main meat, becoming tender and juicy during slow roasting.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body and a soft texture.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds together when sliced.
Onions
Add sweetness and moisture to the stuffing as they soften while roasting.
Sage
Adds aromatic, savory flavor to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Stuffing the heart and bake. Stuffing packed too tightly can swell and burst the heart as the dressing expands, and the cover keeps the stuffing inside. Slow baking at a steady low heat, with basting, helps the muscle tenderize without drying out.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, onion, bread, egg. 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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