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Food

Have a Heart for Valentine’s Day

Heart comes with a cultural disclaimer in Britain—but why? Whether it's simple squeamishness or historical aversion to cardiac cookery, it's high time that we start eating more heart.
Photo courtesy of Cinnamon Soho.

My first bite is reluctant. I'm resistant—timid, even. Something about it just feels wrong.

And then the savoury decadence comes through. With my first heart, I'm hooked. I pop a duck morsel between my teeth and its meaty fibers, electrified with the flavour and texture of millions of heartbeats, give way to my jaw.

I suddenly imagine that this is the way Hannibal Lector snacks: cupping handfuls of hearts into his mouth like popcorn.

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MAKE IT: Cinnamon Soho's Grilled Deviled Duck Hearts

But heaven knows that the heart comes with a cultural disclaimer in Britain. Who can forget the "Kali Ma" heart removal scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? Or the not-so-Hollywood Syrian rebel commander who cut out open the chest of an enemy soldier and chomped on his heart to the applause of his comrades?

No. Hearts are not for the faint of heart—right?

Cinnamon Soho's head chef Raju Ramachandran certainly doesn't think so. For Valentine's Day, the London restaurant is serving up a heart-y banquet to accompany the typical set menu. But will the connotations of a slaughterhouse bloodbath outweigh those of blissful romance?

"Cinnamon Soho's philosophy is to use unfamiliar and lesser known cuts of meat with familiar dishes—ox cheek vindaloo or Roganjosh shepherd's pie," Ramachandran tells me. "A chicken heart tikka fits into this way of thinking and cooking."

But if heart tastes this good, why don't Brits eat it more often?

"People are squeamish and foolish," Ramachandran tells me jokingly, before declaring that there's simply no excuse not to. "Duck, chicken and lamb aren't difficult at all to cook with. They can be pretty much cooked from raw in six to eight minutes simply in a frying pan. Ox heart, however, can take more effort." But, he adds, it's worth it. "Heart is a very developed flavour, healthy, full of iron and best of all, relatively cheap to buy."

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But it's more than just squeamishness that's keeping people from heart. Pat Whelan, the head meat man at Ireland's award-winning James Whelan Butchers, says that heart isn't as popular as it could because of its appearance, coupled with the fact that a lot of people don't really know what to do with it. He cites St. JOHN's Fergus Henderson as "the only chef I know that has the interest and courage to introduce it on menus and present it in very interesting ways."

Whelan adds that the value and benefits of eating beef heart in particular are enormous. "Beef heart contains essential amino acids, zinc, selenium and phosphorus. It has more than double the elastin and collagen than other cuts of meat and is a highly concentrated source of coenzyme Q10, also known as CoQ10," he says. "If you think about it, heart is a muscle like other cuts of beef but it is more dense with a higher nutrient content and additional protein because of the essence of its function."

"[It's] like any other cut of beef," he concludes. "To get the full benefit it needs to be treated and cooked correctly."

Naturally, I had to turn to Henderson, the contemporary godfather of offal, for his thoughts.

"Why don't people eat more heart? I really don't know, and I'm probably the last person you should ask," Henderson tells me. "It's a wonderful, flavourful, lean meat, and when cooked very quickly or very slowly—there's nothing in between—the texture is excellent. An initial bite, and then give."

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As with any ingredient—no matter how seemingly left field—the sell is in the taste. So even though heart delivers on flavour, why is it still reserved as a one-off, mentioned on Saturday cooking shows as "something quirky," "something a bit out there," or "something you wouldn't eat every day?"

Anissa Helou, author of The Fifth Quarter: An Offal Cookbook, says it's a problem particular to the British. "I think the English went off offal after World War II because it was the only meat they could have during rationing," she argues. "Kids in public schools had to eat disgustingly prepared liver and other offal, either cooked to death or served with nasty sauces. In any case, most lost the taste for it."

She says "poor cuts" available to the consumer are also a factor; compared to the butchers and farmer's markets of Europe, where hearts are sold "beautifully cleaned and ready to cook," the UK's options just don't match up.

"Even though offal is coming back into fashion, the Brits will eat it less than the Italian or the French or the Spanish," she says. "In Europe, offal never went out of fashion and most people eat it [there] without making a fuss."

Helou might be right. But I'll tell you one thing: Offal has another convert in me.