 |
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
I get asked a lot about venison hearts. Yeah, I know. Welcome to my world. But hearts are one of the more accessible wobbly bits — after all, they’re muscle, just like a tenderloin — and, I am very happy to say, an increasing number of deer hunters are keeping them for the table. So how to cook them?
There are lots of ways, from tossing them into a stew or casserole to pounding them thin and making a classic German jaegerschnitzel. The best way to cook a deer heart? Grilled. Hands down. Marinated and then grilled over very high heat just long enough for the center to warm, then sliced thin with some grilled peppers and onions — man, oh man you got to try it.
Just look at that picture. If you can honestly say that plate of food doesn’t look good to you, you are clearly a vegetarian. Which is fine, by the way, but then why are you looking at a picture of a grilled venison heart? Tempting, isn’t it…
Getting a typical venison heart to look like this one takes a little doing. For starters, you need to trim the heart. Begin by using a very sharp knife to slice off any visible fat from the heart. Most venison hearts are pretty lean, and you will find fat only at the top. Discard it.
Now look at the top of the heart. See all the gaps and holes? Use them as a guide to slice the heart into several thick cutlets. Many cooks will tell you to “open the heart like a book,” but it doesn’t work quite like that. You get one really nice cutlet, then two slightly thicker ones. This can be a pain when you are trying to make a pounded cutlet for schnitzel, but no biggie for this recipe.
Carefully cut away any and all vein-y bits from the inside of the heat; they look like cobwebs sticking to its inner walls. You should now have 2-4 nice, clean hunks of meat.
With a typical deer heart from a white-tailed deer, a blacktail or a muley, one heart will feed two people. Maybe. A big deer will definitely feed two, an antelope only one. An elk heart or a moose heart will feed up to six. If you are a non-hunter still reading this, a pork heart is like a regular deer’s, veal heart is like an elk or moose heart, and a beef heart will definitely serve six, maybe more.
Note that I marinate the hearts. Careful readers of this site may notice that I almost never marinate meats. Why? Because a marinade penetrates meat at no more than 1/4 inch per day. This means you’d need 2-3 days for a really good steak or a thick piece of venison backstrap. And by then the outer layer of meat will be mushy. But a day’s marinade will penetrate almost down to the center of a deer heart, so in this case it works.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Get your grill raging hot. You want a char on the outside of the heart, but the center still very much pink. A hot grill and cool meat will help you do this. So unlike most meats, which you should bring to room temperature first, in this case take the marinated hearts right from the fridge to the grill.
My final piece of advice: Undercook the hearts just a little. For whatever reason, hearts tend to go from pretty pink to icky gray faster than other cuts. And an overcooked heart is a sad thing. Dog food. Best to undercook a bit, then let the meat rest for a good 10 minutes.
If all goes well, you will be rewarded. Grilled hearts have a smoky, charred flavor on the outside, a tang from your marinade and a dense, firm texture somewhere between ribeye and flank steak. Slice thin and enjoy. Oh, and if you are serving people who might get all squinchy about eating deer heart, don’t tell them until after they’ve demolished their plate.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Grilled Venison Heart with Peppers and Onions
This recipe can be done with any large heart. I designed it for deer and elk, but it will work with antelope, moose, wild boar or whatever. For non-hunters, try beef heart, veal heart or lamb hearts. You don’t have to marinate the meat, but it adds a lot of flavor, and helps keep it moist on the grill.
A tip on the peppers and onions: Cut them in large pieces so they don’t fall through your grill grates. For the onions, make sure you keep the stem end attached. And cook the skin side of the peppers first — if you get any parts that blacken, the skin peels right off. You actually want significant blackening here, so keep your grill ragingly hot.
Serves 2-6, depending on the heart.
Prep Time: 30 minutes, plus up to a day for marinating
Cook Time: 15 minutes
- 1-2 deer hearts, or 1 elk, moose or beef heart
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 tablespoon sherry or red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3-4 colored bell peppers, cut into 2-3 pieces each
- 1 large onion, cut into large wedges
__________
- Trim the hearts as discussed above. In a large bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of olive oil with the vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, salt, oregano, thyme and black pepper. Massage the marinade into the meat, put everything into a container that can just about hold everything and marinate for as little as 30 minutes, or as much as 2 days.
- When you are ready to cook, get your grill hot. Coat the peppers and onion in the rest of the olive oil and salt well.
- Grill everything on high heat. Put the hearts and veggies on the grill — skin side down for the peppers — and leave them alone with the grill cover open for 8 minutes. Flip everything and grill, uncovered, for 5 more minutes.
- Check the peppers and onions, and when they are nicely cooked with a little char, remove and put in foil to steam. Remove any blackened skin from the peppers.
- If the hearts are not cooked through yet, cover the grill and cook for 2-5 more minutes. If you are using a thermometer, you want to get the meat off the grill when it is 135 degrees in the center. You can also use the finger test for doneness. Tent the hearts loosely with foil and let rest for 5-10 minutes. Sprinkle with black pepper and good sea salt at the table.
Pork and veal heart have been dark-horse favorites at my barbecues. No one expects them to be good, but a mustardy vinaigrette and some smoky char is all you need to convert unbelievers.
Great looking recipe—I hope to make it this fall with venison heart, with any luck.
Hank, thank you so much for this, as well as the jaegerschnitzel recipe. I don’t have a deer heart (although, with any luck I will this autumn), but I do have the heart from the side of grass-finished heifer we recently purchased. I’ve been wondering what I could do with it.
Need to try this. I have a beef heart on the stash that could be used up. I found three venison hearts in my freezer the other day, mixed them with pork shoulder, and made some killer traditional hotdogs out of them.
It IS the best cut on the animal in my opinion, if prepared properly of course.
Thanks for this Hank!
My Dad’s a hunter and regularly brings home deer (among other things), so I’m always on the lookout for any recipe that will help use the whole animal. It’s my belief that if you’re gonna kill it, you’d damn well better not waste it.
Would you say the heart is any gamier than other cuts?
The venison looks SOOO good! I’ve just nominated you for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award. You can take a look here…
http://onionsandchocolate.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/why-thank-you/
I love that this food blog is not just the typical “cookies and dinner for the kids” type and will continue reading and being inspired by you.
cheers!
Hart heart?
135 degrees? Wow. You might as well put it in the microwave and nuke it for 20 minutes. that sucker will carry right over to nasty in no time. 115 and let her coast.
I make venison nigir with black strap and put it in a ripping hot black iron skillet and slice it while the center is still cool. Best venision you will ever eat.
Andrew: Heart dogs? Love it.
Vicky: Not gamier, but more of itself. A beef heart tastes beefier than ribeye, and a venison heart tastes more of venison than the backstrap.
Brady: The heart in this picture was taken off at 135 degrees, and it is a perfect medium. I suppose I could have taken it off earlier and rested it longer, but it worked.
Grilled deer heart is one of the most delicious foods on the planet & I always looks forward to it the day after I bag.
Hank- That looks fantastic! I love venison heart, and fried chicken hearts… I like to take venison heart camping and sear it in a cast iron skillet to serve with breakfast. Some folks will eat it and some will not. I’ll try your recipe with the next one I cook. I shot three deer last season and kept all of the tongues for the first time after reading one of your posts last fall. I try to use as much of an animal as possible. I realized when while preparing the final one for the freezer that I had heart shot that deer… some would say a perfect shot, but it did make salvaging the heart for the pot a bit more difficult.
thanks for this great recipe. Deer heart is a real delight in my family, and until i find a supplier, we only eat it once a year during, or shortly after deer season, usually by butchering. Traditionally we have simply rolled them in flower and quickly fried in butter, a method we also occaionally due with backstraps.
Lately i’ve been wrapping backstraps in bacon and grilling them. yum.
[...] just have to have some venison lol venison liver maybe or the heart as i found a good recipe here Deer Heart Recipe – A Recipe for Grilled Venison Heart | Hunter Angler Gardener Cook Reply With Quote « Previous Thread | Next Thread [...]
Nice work Hank – just finished cooking up a heart from yesterday’s hunt with this recipe – great stuff! I served it with some home made garlic bread (fresh garlic, parlsey, black pepper, butter, olive oil) and actually ended up mixing the ingredients together before serving but pretty much everything exactly as per the recipe. Finger licking good, thanks again!
Thanks for this wonderful recipe! Just tried it tonight with the elk heart from my opening day bull- it was outstanding. I have tried many heart recipes and I think this is my favorite. The grilled peppers, onions and heart are the perfect combination of flavors. Thanks so much!
Just wanted to point out to other ways to use venison heart although I don’t have the recipes with me right now. My mother-in-law makes head cheese out of venison heart and it is WONDERFUL! Also, my brother-in-law makes pickled venison heart and it is excellent served on crackers. Even my 7 year old loves it and has been eating it for 2 years now!
Thanks for posting these wonderful recipes! I am very anxious to try out the tongue and kidney ones!
[...] Step 6: Now slice the heart into thin strips for Sauteing, Searing or Frying. For recipes on this matter, see Hank Shaw’s site. [...]
Just wondering if you could do this recipe kabob style. Your thoughts???
I have a fresh whitetail heart marinating now jkust waiting for tomorrow night. Supper before I start to bone out two Minnesota Whitetail bucks.
Thanks,
Keith
Keith: I bet it would work, although it might be a little chewy. Congrats on the hunt!
I knew if I came looking here that I would, once again, find just the right recipe. I havent cooked a deer heart in many years. I would like to say that is due to the fact that I am a perfect shot and there is nary a heart left to save. But I cannot. This time I have a deer heart and will be trying your recipe. I cook all my venison steaks and strips over searing hot heat so this seems appropriate.
In the past the only way I have cooked heart is to stuff it and bake it whole, sliced into thin rounds. Twas delicious that way too.
Thanks for the recipe! Love this site!
That’s a beautiful pink you got on the heart. We had an enormous ox’s heart a few months back that we corned in memory of a fabulous pastrami-style beef heart we had at the French Laundry. It was delicious even though we badly overcooked it. Can only imagine how good venison heart would be!
[...] just had to be tough right? Boy was I wrong. I found a great recipe at this very good site: http://honest-food.net/2012/06/13/grilled-deer-heart-recipe/ I cleaned out all the valves and chords. Cut it in 4 pieces long ways and marinated. [...]
After years of tossing the heart out with the rest of the stuff I HAD to try it… So I made it as described and yup its still organ meat to me. Looks like heart cooks like heart, tastes like heart… Next…
Thanks Hank! I stopped my hunter/neighbor from discarding the heart from a 12-pointer and now, as the new owner of this heart, I wanted to find a recipe to do it justice and this looks perfect. I’ll let you know. BTW, your photographer, Holly, did a great job with this shot.
Cooked the heart from a small doe. Reading your note abount not overcooking, and since Thickest piece was only 3/8 inch, only cooked it a few minutes each side. I put the peppers and onions on first, so they had more time to cook. Tasted great. Also, no gamy taste (deer from Illinois, raised on corn & soybeans). Had kidneys using your recipe. Great too. My only issue was marinating for 2 days, the olive oil became solid. Next time, i will Probably use lighter oil if refrridgating. Thanks !
Tried this recipe with fresh venison hearts and it turned out wonderful. Normally I would cook the hearts in stews and soups but this just blew that out of the water. Great recipe.
Thanks for the venison heart recipe – this year my husband harvested the hearts of the 7 deer that were successfully hunted this year. They are like gold! We had one on Christmas day, following your marinade (and added some of our favourite flavours too).
I have to say – this was the best kept secret. Venison heart is so rich and flavourful, and tender. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Really enjoy your blog and looking for recipes for the less popular cuts of meat (tongue and liver are next)!
Happy New Year!
Thanks you for a great recipe. I have been eating venison heart for a long time but never like this. It is so tender and does not have the heavy mineral taste it gets when you oven roast or braise it. I added garlic and paprika to the marinade. Spot on! Many mahalos and a big Aloha!
Awesome recipe…only thing I did different was put hearts and marinade in cast iron skillet and stuck it under the broiler for a few minutes…flipped it once. Had it along side some brook trout and just picked asparagus…fantastic!