The HEART of the Matter

So the other day while we were skinning the deer, the boys and Shane decided  they wanted to try to eat the deer's heart. ( YIKES!!!) "What you talkin' 'bout  Willis?", was my reaction. I mean seriously...I don't eat much fish, much less organ meat. It just sounds disgusting...Right?!
Well, I always try to try new things, so I decided I was game. Now those who know me well know that smells and textures are important to me...so I was weary to say the least. I'm not a picky eater by any means, but....deer HEART???

We came home and tried our hand at cooking the deer heart, and this is what we discovered.

First we got the heart out of the deer and washed in cold water REALLY well.

There is a fine membrane around the heart that you need to peel off. Its a bit like trying to find the end of a piece of scotch tape. But just keep working and peel it off.

Next we started at the smaller end and began to slice it in to small slices about a half inch thick.

At the top of the heart you will find the ventricles and fat, we discarded those. You will be able to tell a difference in firmness. This area is almost hard.

Then we cut those pieces into smaller pieces.

We soaked it in cold water to try and make sure we got all of the blood clots out of the meat.

We then cooked it 3 different ways. We didn't really know where to start so we just winged it.
I soaked some in Italian dressing, cumin, and cajun seasoning, some in worcestershire and cajun seasoning, and floured and fried the rest. I pan seared the other two.

Now, I am no Georgia Pellegrini , but I was really impressed with what we did. I was surprised that it tasted really good. For some reason I was thinking it would taste like the liver and onions my mother use to make me eat (YUCK!!), pleasantly I was very impressed. The texture was fine it seemed to be a lot like any other piece of deer meat, and it didn't smell any different.

The boys enjoyed it too!

What we did as an experiment was very simple, but watch out because next year we will be trying it again. I am definitely going to be doing some research and try to find a good recipe or maybe create one.