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To Roast Beef Heart

A roasted beef heart stuffed with bread crumbs, suet or butter, herbs, and spices, served with butter, vinegar, gravy, or currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

To Roast Beef Heart

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Wash the beef heart thoroughly and clean all blood from the pipes.

  2. Parboil the heart in boiling water for 10 to 15 minutes, then drain the water.

Stuff and roast

  1. Stuff the heart with a mixture of bread crumbs, suet or butter, marjoram, thyme, parsley, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  2. Roast the heart in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C), basting it well with butter.

Serve

  1. Serve with melted butter and vinegar, and with gravy and currant jelly.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  5. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

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 that is cooked and served whole.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and fat in the stuffing, keeping it moist rather than dry.
Suet or butter
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing and meat moist and rich during roasting.
Sweet marjoram
Contributes a warm, aromatic herbal flavour to the stuffing.
Lemon thyme
Adds a bright, citrusy herbal aroma that complements the rich meat.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note that rounds out the stuffing flavour.

The step that matters

Parboiling the heart. Parboiling before roasting partly cooks the dense muscle and helps clear residual blood, so the roast cooks more evenly and the flavour is cleaner. Drain it well before stuffing so the filling is not waterlogged.

“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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