Bowyn Baird RD, LD, CYT-200

Processing Beef Heart and Beef Heart Meatballs Recipes

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Beef Heart Facts and Benefits

I feel it is one of my duties to educate more people on the benefits of organ means. Above all, not just educate, but show you how to do it and make it as simple and realistic as possible.

Traditional cultures prized organ meats for their high concentration of nutrients. Organ meats are a great source of fat soluble and readily avaliable vitamins A and D. In addition, they also contain a variety of b vitamins and other beneficial minerals like selenium and zinc.

Another really important nutrient that organ meats provide is choline. Choline is a rather “new” nutrient, it is possible you may have never heard of it. It was officially recognized as an essential nutrient in 1998. Choline plays a role in neurotransmitter synthesis and provides a source of methyl group for metabolism. That is a large order to fill!! Especially since almost every process in our body is driven by metabolism. Sadly, average intakes of choline are far below what is recommended. I personally, think that low intake of this nutrient may relate to the diet culture jargon that slanders organ meats and other nourishing animal foods. Hint: animal sources are all really rich sources of choline.

how to process beef heart for grinding into recipes

The organ we are talking about today is beef heart. Beef heart is rich in all the aforementioned vitamins/minerals, but it is unique because it has a high concentration of collagen and the compound, CoQ10. Including beef heart or other organ meats can be a beneficial addition to your diet. It’s like taking a potent multivitamin!

How to Process beef heart

Beef heart is my favorite organ meat to consume. The heart is a muscle, therefore, it is very similar in taste and texture to muscle cuts of meat. In other words, it resembles a very lean steak. If you read my post about liver, you know that we try to consume liver on the regular in our home. Heart has a less of a strong taste and is very easily hidden into ground meat.

Down below I provide the steps you can take to get the beef heart ready for a recipe calling for ground beef heart. There are some ground meat blends that already have organs ground into them- this can be an excellent option if you are short on time. Beef heart is very inexpensive and I prefer to save the money and do it myself.

Time needed: 15 minutes

How to Process Beef Heart for Grinding

  1. Using a sharp knife trim the hard fat, silvery skin, and connective tissue off of the heart muscle.

    Most butchers will clean out some of the tendons on the inside of the heart. Any remaining connective tissues should be remove to avoid including chewy and tough parts into the recipe.

  2. Rinse any remaining blood off of the heart.

  3. Cube the heart into large chunks

  4. Grind heart in a meat grinder.

    Heart will not grind up like steak or meat. The texture is a bit different. Once ground, the heart is ready to use in recipes calling for ground beef heart. If you do not have a way of grinding the meat, finely dicing is another option.

Why Grind up the beef heart

Those who enjoy a well cooked beef heart may cringe at this recipe. However, there is a large audience of people who are unsure of where to begin when they enter the world of organ meats. In my years of practice, I have found that adding them to “normal” recipes tends to be more accepted at first.

Grinding the beef heart also makes it easy to add into foods and is a cost effective way of “stretching” ground meat.

Adding ground beef heart to recipes

Down below I provide an easy to follow recipe that makes serving your family organ meats easy. This recipe makes a large batch. These meatballs freeze very well. We usually eat them for dinner once or twice and then the rest I freezer for nights when I want a quick meal. They pair well with spaghetti squash or pasta, marinara sauce, and of course asiago cheese! There are many ways you could serve them- this is just our current favorite way!

Beef Heart Meatballs

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Ingredients
  

  • 2 lbs ground beef
  • 1 beef heart, trimmed and ground
  • 1 tbsp cocoaminos
  • 1 tbsp Worcestershire can substitute cocoaminos if desired
  • 1 onion, caramelized in 2tbsp butter
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 2 cups pork rinds, crushed
  • 2 eggs

Instructions
 

  • Start by caramelizing onion in 2tbs butter. Start with medium heat. Then turn to low when onions turn translucent. Cook on low until onions are golden brown and very tender.
  • Preheat oven to 375°F. In a large mixing bowl combine all ingredients, including caramelized onions.
  • Form into meatballs and place on a rimmed cookie sheet.
  • Bake meatballs in oven at 375°F for 15 minutes. Internal temperature should read 165°F when fully cooked.

Notes

Caramelized onions provide a unique depth of flavor in this recipe. Caramelized onions do take awhile to cook. I get them started and let them cook slowly and low while I am getting the rest of the ingredients for the recipe ready. Trimming and slicing the beef heart can take some time to complete. 

I hope you enjoy this recipe and if you give it a try, let me know!

From my kitchen to yours I wish you the best of health for years to come!

-Bowyn

Citations

https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Choline-HealthProfessional/#h3

Other Credits

Photos by Jessica Isaacs Photography