How do I deal with a fresh beef heart and liver?

[steelchef]

My son just bought a whole 2year old steer. The farmer and he killed it and dressed it prior to taking it to the butcher for ageing and cutting. I though that the heart and liver would be great to experiment with in sausage . I've washed them both thourougly, there was surprisingly little blood. Do they need to be brined or ????
Would sure appreciate any input.

[Oddley]

Hi steelchef.

First, you might enjoy this video, showing how to butcher a Beef heart.

I love a bit of offal, with liver and kidneys, I usually cover in milk and put the ½ cm sliced offal in the fridge overnight, this draws out that slightly unpleasant bitterness.

In northern Europe, there is quite a lot of offal sausage made, usually with rice and spices, but this is normally pork offal, it will be interesting to see what you do with beef offal.

[saucisson]

Ooh, Ooh, time to embarrass people over the pond by talking about faggots again:

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=3615

Dave

[RodinBangkok]

No problem with a good faggot, but also check out some of the liver sausages, such as Braunschweiger. I like to use the cheap pork liver here to make a big batch, instead of making it into a paste, or spread, I do tourines in a baine marie, we then slice and fry in a little clarified butter, makes a sandwich that is worth the effort, goes well with a strong mustard, perhaps a slice of Ementhal to make it a meal. You could easily put a heart in the emul, just may need to add a bit more liver to balance out the consistency.

[Richierich]

Can't beat a good juicy faggot running down your chin!

Let's not mention smoking fags!

[wheels]

Maybe Faggots or liver sausage:

http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/LiverwurstLen.pdf

or

http://schmidling.com/liver.htm

Phil

[schlafsack]

There is very little better in this world than wafer thin slices of ox heart, marinated in a balsamic and olive oil dressing, and then flash cooked on the grill.

[saucisson]

Sounds nice

[steelchef]

OK - you got me! Over here, offal is spelled awful and faggots are - well I don't believe I'll go there. I wasn't certain of the meaning of offal so I went to the web and here's what I found.

Definitions of offal on the Web:

viscera and trimmings of a butchered animal often considered inedible by humans

Thank Oddley, the video was instructive. All of your comments made me decide that it's definitely Braunschweiger for this heart.

Thanks, Colin

[wheels]

I think that in the US, what we call offal, is called 'variety meats'.

Phil

[Oddley]

Thats ok steelchef, we often find North Americans squeamish over things that we Europeans, in the know, love.

There is nothing better in my opinion, than lambs liver, marinated in milk over night, cooked pink and home made bacon, in a caramelized onion gravy, served with mashed potato's and veg.

[steelchef]

Hey Oddley,

Thanks for your understanding. Your lambs's liver dish sounds like something I could really enjoy. I'm in the minority but love liver, onions and bacon fried together. Will have to try it with the gravy - thanks!

Colin

[Oddley]

Crap! I think that I sounded a bit condescending please forgive me. Thanks for your understanding.

[steelchef]

No worries Oddley. I was concerned about offending some of you but I have discovered that everyone on this forum seems to have a great sense of humour.

Phil, thanks for the links! As it turns out I have already selected Len Poli's Braunschweiger recipe to use this heart.

So. I've processed the heart into strips to feed through the grinder/stuffer. I ended up with 930 grams of sausage material and 700 g of waste. The neighbours dog will love me.

Now I have to deal with liver. It's 2.7 kg and is covered with a silver skin or membrane. Does this have to come off for sausage or other purposes.

Its soaking in lightly salted water and the blood is gradually coming out.

[saucisson]

Those beef faggots taste great by the way It was serious suggestion...

Dave