After a bit of cooking advice with organ meats page

[judoka]

Hi guys, first of all I wanted to say I just finished my first 24 hour fast and it was great! Pretty excited about it.

Anyways, I'm wanting to get into organ meats. I've read a fair few threads on cooking them, but my problem lies in combining them. Every Sunday I usually make up a big curry of some kind (rendang/thai red/green/masaman etc) and take it to work for lunch. I want to start putting organ meat in there, the first thing I thought of was beef heart, chicken/beef liver, lamb kidneys and tripe (these are what are available). From what I understand, the heart will need a fair bit of cooking time, I'm assuming 3 hours or so? If I were to combine it with any of the others mentioned when would be the best time to put them in to avoid them becoming too tough?
Also, is there much difference between a grass fed heart and a regular heart? I normally eat grass fed beef but grass fed hearts might be a bit harder to come by. Finally, is there any cleaning/soaking necessary for the kidneys or livers?

Thanks for your help!

[AndreaReina]

Long cooking times are sometimes recommended for heart to tenderize them, but it's not necessary. Cut them into small pieces as you would for a stir fry and you're golden. I made a curry with beef heart and the slices were probably 1/2" thick and 2" long, that worked very well. Some people recommend soaking livers a few hours to overnight in milk, not really sure why. The one time I really had livers I enjoyed they were chicken livers that just went straight into the pan. Make sure you don't overcook them and you should be fine.

[judoka]

Thanks for the help Andrea!

[nyx]

I just came here to ask about cooking organ meats too - so cool there's already a thread started. I've read that its easy to overcook organ meats and was wondering if I should start by doing a class... not that I've had any luck finding one in my part of the world. I've also seen complicated descriptions written about how to trim organ meat (I think kidneys?) and as I couldn't follow that's another reason I was thinking of classes. Can anyone advise of the best organ meat to start with, ie. the hardest to ruin?

[peril]

Heart and tongue are probably the easiest to cook as they are just muscle. In a curry or casserole you really can't overcook so long as there is sauce. Two to three hours is best.

I often make a curry with some muscle (heart, tongue or normal) and liver. Just throw in the chopped liver for the last 10-15 min then let cool. Kidney is usually cooked for as long as the steak in steak and kidney pie.

Chicken and pork are the mildest tasting liver. Beef and lamb are stronger. I don't think any need soaking

Pork is the strongest tasting kidney. I think it needs soaking. Lamb and beef are mild enough to not need soaking

[judoka]

Wow, I don't know how you guys do it. The heart was fantastic and I'll use it again, but the liver? Wow, I've never eaten anything with such a horrid consistency! I managed to get it down once and knew I couldn't do it again so I made another batch that night just with heart. I know organ meat is good for you but I just can't do liver unless it's on toast or something like that. Yech!

[Pookie]

I just cut beef heart into strips and fry it, its no tougher than a cheaper cut of steak. So very very tasty!

[rkd80]

Where are these items purchased?

[Catherine]

since heart is just muscle, what's the benefit of eating it?

i understand that there are benefits to liver. Which i hate the taste & texture of, so I eat liver tablets daily, or have some of that cod liver oil which is lemon flavored and really quite nice.

[peril]

since heart is just muscle, what's the benefit of eating it?

i understand that there are benefits to liver. Which i hate the taste & texture of, so I eat liver tablets daily, or have some of that cod liver oil which is lemon flavored and really quite nice.

Heart is very different to other muscles. It is the only muscle that must work constantly. Its fibres are very dense as a result. Its breakdown releases different proteins to those of other muscles