Elk heart.... brine or no brine

[huntaholic123]

Have an elk heart and wondering if guys brine or not? Best way to prep, season, cook? Open to
Suggestions. Appreciate it

 

[Poser]

No need to brine it, just sauté medium rare.
Also makes for great pickling.

 

[TheGreek]

No need to brine a heart, slice it into about 4 equally thick slices, season with salt, pepper and garlic powder, and cook it on the rare side of medium rare on a cast iron in butter.

 

[Jn78]

Elk heart is great and versatile. There are many good ways to cook it. Just remove the fat first. I like it salted and peppered then fried in butter or oil with onions, breaded and fried, and it is great cubed and eaten in tacos. If recently marinated some in bulgolgi sauce from Costco, cooked it, and ate it over a very fine pasta with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers from the garden and it was really good.

 

[Rob5589]

Clean all fat and valves, dredge in seasoned flour, fry lightly in butter/olive oil combo to medium rare.

 

[Sykes]

Currently cooking a heart from a cow I shot this morning. Seasoned with garlic salt and pepper, going in flour then egg then Italian bread crumbs then fried in an electric skillet. Kids are drooling

 

[JakeSCH]

Many different ways to cook it. I think Meateater has an entire episodes on different ways to cook heart.

I personally love it cut into strips and pan fry with salt / pepper. I did that for a couple of friends at a whiskey night, they all look like they had seen a ghost when I told them it was heart. They assumed it was steak cuts.

They all followed it up with they had no idea heart was that good.

 

[huntaholic123]

Salt and peppered it and seared in the cast iron with melted butter. Simple and delicious. Appreciate the responses

 

[rustyN]

I followed Meateaters guide on preparing the heart and then use some butter in a hot skillet, seasoned each piece with salt, pepper, and garlic, and cooked until medium rare (I had antelope heart). It was incredible. My brother and his friend were amazed at how delicious it was. I'll never cook a heart any other way.

 

[Titan_Bow]

I usually just clean up all the grizzle and tubes and stuff, then open it up like a book, it will lay out fairly evenly. I just rub with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and cook medium rare on a wood fire. As soon as it comes off a couple minutes later, I let it rest five minutes, with paper thin slices of shallot and fresh rosemary laying on top of it. As the meat rests, it will actually pull in the flavor from the shallot and rosemary.
This is my kids favorite cut of meat off the whole animal.
For smaller animals like deer. I’ll do the same thing but wrap the pieces in bacon and throw them on the grill. Antelope, I’ll marinate, grill, then make tacos.

Heart is really good, and elk have big ones so you’ll have lots to experiment with!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Titan_Bow]

Here's a whitetail heart I did, wrapped in bacon, grilled, used for tacos

 

[stumpknocker]

Heart will take a brine quite well (or marinade, for that matter). But no need! Cut into small cubes and give it a quick sear in a skillet with salt and pepper. You don't want to hide that great deep flavor.

Wrapping heart in bacon is a sin

 

[Whisky]

We always eat the hearts in camp on successful hunts. Heart is my favorite piece of a deer/elk, and its not even close. Have cooked it a few ways, but my preference is coated in your favorite fish breading, and fried in a combo of butter/oil to medium rare. Even better, fry up a pan full of shrooms and onions first to season the pan, fry heart, eat with shrooms and onions.
Cold beer is also a necessity.

2020 elk heart at camp

 

[bpietila]

I have never brined a heart. I slice caribou heart into 1/2" slices and fry with butter. Use in place of a burger patty for heart burgers.

 

[CoMtnMike]

I have always trimmed into a steaks and grilled rare - and usually told people the animal they were eating but not the muscle. Some people dont like that for some reason... texture is a bit denser, but still tender and sliced thin most people wont notice...
The one time I brined red meat it came out tasting like ham. not bad but not what i wanted

 

[Laramie]

Sliced thin and fried is great but I am a fan of heart tacos - this is a good recipe imo.

 

[highcountrymuley]

i have not brined deer or elk heart. no need as it is moist and deliscious!

 

[Ucsdryder]

I brine in salt water and ice. Helps draw out additional blood. I like to skin both the inside and outside. When you’re done it will look like strips of meat with no “skin”. Can’t even tell it’s heart.

 

[TomJoad]

No brine here either.

This is hard working muscle that turns to shoe leather if at all overcooked, temp is critical as mentioned above, I don't go past mid rare. If you want to take heart to the next level open the ventricles and trim the silver. You need a very sharp and long chef's knife to do this well. I hold them flat against the cutting board and trim right along the bottom of the cutting board removing 1mm of silver. These end up being super thin steaks so no need to do anything but a super hot cast iron and a 45 sec sear per side. I love tacos but also use it to top a bitter salad of arugula with a simple lemon garlic vinaigrette.

 

[psirus7]

No brine here and I'm a fan like many others of grilled rare with salt, pepper, and olive-oil. That being said, I tried Hank Shaw's Jagerschnitzel recipe with heart and it was excellent. It's a little tricky to pound & tenderize heart for the preparation, but completely worth it.

Jagerschnitzel Recipe - A Recipe for German Jaegerschnitzel (honest-food.net)