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I get asked a lot about deer heart. 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 to 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.
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.
Grilled Venison Heart with Peppers and Onions
Ingredients
- 1 or 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 or 4 colored bell peppers, cut into 2 to 3 pieces each
- 1 large onion, cut into large wedges
Instructions
- 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 to 5 more minutes. If you are using a thermometer, you want to get the meat off the grill when it is 130°F in the center. You can also use the finger test for doneness. Tent the hearts loosely with foil and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Sprinkle with black pepper and good sea salt at the table.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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…
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!
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!
Keith: I bet it would work, although it might be a little chewy. Congrats on the hunt!
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
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!
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!
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 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.
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.
Grilled deer heart is one of the most delicious foods on the planet & I always looks forward to it the day after I bag.
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.
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.
Hart heart?
The venison looks SOOO good! I’ve just nominated you for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award. You can take a look here…
https://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!
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?
It IS the best cut on the animal in my opinion, if prepared properly of course.
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.
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.
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. 🙂