Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Ox Heart Roasted
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the heart
Keep the heart for some time, then wash and trim off the pipes.
Wipe the heart and fill it with stuffing.
Tie a piece of veal caul over the top.
Roast and serve
Roast gently for 1.5 hours.
Remove the caul.
Froth the heart with flour and butter.
Place the heart on a very hot dish.
Serve with a sauce made of cullis, fresh butter, ketchup, and Port wine boiled together.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,499 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,435 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Ketchup + port winetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together425 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + port winetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,167 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 dish and is the cut that is roasted and served.
- Flour
- Combined with butter to froth the surface, helping it brown and form a light crust.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the flour and surface brown during roasting.
- Port wine
- Adds sweetness and depth to the sauce as it reduces with the other ingredients.
The step that matters
Roast gently for 1.5 hours. Ox heart is dense, muscular meat. Low, gentle heat lets the connective tissue relax and keeps the meat from drying out and toughening.
“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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