Don’t leave the best part!!!!!
Contributors to this thread:Elk
From: Ucsdryder
29-Aug-20
Make sure you take the heart! After you’re done with the gutless, break a couple ribs, no saw needed, and fish out the heart. It’s inside a sack. Don’t leave it behind!!!
From: SBH
29-Aug-20
What’s the best way to cook it? You guys got any recipes?
From: HDE
29-Aug-20
Skin outside, slice 1/4" or so thick, soak in milk for a couple of hours, coat with seasoned flour, fry up and eat.
From: jordanathome
29-Aug-20
Sir Lomax has a recipe!!!!
From: Firsty
29-Aug-20
No thanks
From: Ucsdryder
29-Aug-20
Firsty, I feel bad for you. Haha
If you don’t like elk heart you must not like backstraps either because they taste almost identical.
The key to heart is the prep. Otherwise it’s psychological for people. “Skin” the entire thing, inside and out. When I’m done it looks like steak fajita strips.
Then cook like you would backstraps. I like to pat it dry, dredge in flour and sprinkle heavily with salt and pepper. Then cook it fast on a cast iron skillet with a little vegetable oil. Get a good seat on the outside and rare in the middle.
From: Ucsdryder
29-Aug-20
You wouldn’t even know it was heart.
You wouldn’t even know it was heart.
From: Dale06
29-Aug-20
Coyotes got to eat too, I’ll pass on any non muscle meat.
From: Paul@thefort
29-Aug-20
Do not forget the tongue and eye balls. Both have a lot of muscle. Like Mikey, you will love them.
From: linehunter
29-Aug-20
Don’t know about the eye balls but the tongue is fantastic. Fwiw
From: t-roy
29-Aug-20
Haven’t done elk heart, but I just simmer deer heart in a pan for a couple hours, then slice it for sandwiches with some salt, pepper and mustard. Good stuff!
From: LBshooter
29-Aug-20
One of the best parts, and remember , it's a muscle just like the backstraps.
From: Ucsdryder
29-Aug-20
Yep....it’s a muscle more than an organ. It’s ok guys, my girlfriend gets a little weird about it too. I tell her to man up. I think some of you might have a lot in common with her. Lol!!!
From: Ermine
29-Aug-20
Heart is good! I Usually eat the heart from every animal I kill
From: Rookie
29-Aug-20
On of the beat parts of the animal! And it is very versatile in how it can be prepared.
From: yooper89
29-Aug-20
I do nothing different when prepping heart. Slice it up, olive oil, salt/pepper, toss in a hot cast iron with some garlic and let it rip. A lot of people say they're against freezing heart but I've had zero issue thawing and cooking up for fajitas during spring turkey season.
From: LINK
30-Aug-20
My brother and his son eat the heart on everything I kill. If I’m guiding a bring the clients deer heart home for them. I might have to try it. It doesn’t creep me out just haven’t tried it. I can eat tongue, cheek meat, I’ve eaten calf fries and dove heart but the one thing I can’t make myself try is menudo( a soup with stomach lining of a beef).
From: TrapperKayak
30-Aug-20
Its the best part of any game animal, to me. I just trim off all the fat on top, the auricles, and rubbery vessles, and crock pot it with salt and pepper. Then just eat and enjoy warm or sliced on a sandwich with whatever you like for garnish. Never tough, always tasty.
From: Surfbow
30-Aug-20
Hearts and tongues are great, I regret not learning that lesson way sooner! The folks who still think they're gross either can't cook or have their heads on backward...
From: fubar racin
30-Aug-20
Link my wife is a tripe cutter at the packing plant we tried menudo since its tripe, man was that horrible slimey stuff!
From: PoudreCanyon
30-Aug-20
We save hearts from everything - even sautée a pan full of dove hearts each year. My buddy made mule deer heart tacos in elk camp last year, and they were some of the best I’ve ever had - the meat had the consistency and flavor of prime rib. Delicious!
From: jordanathome
30-Aug-20
menudo/tripe taste like ass......go figure
From: Rsnyder
30-Aug-20
Biggest shame I think I’ve committed is leaving heart in deer for 30 yrs. Absolutely delicious. Trim, olive oil minced garlic fry and eat or add to sauce or sky is limit. 3yrs now I’ll never leave one behind just carry a ziplock in ur pack
From: soccern23ny
30-Aug-20
Sorry but the liver is far superior to the heart.
Recipe(deer):
*clean *cut quarter inch thick, 1 inch wide strips long. *start bacon cooking in cast iron, add onions about halfway through *Remove bacon and onions once cooked to preferred doneness *Mix flour, onion powder, garlic powder, salt in tupperware and toss liver pieces and coat well. *Shake off excess, and add to hot left over bacon grease, cook till brown/almost done. *Add onions and bacon back when liver is almost done. *Eat with favorite beer or wine.
From: jordanathome
30-Aug-20
*throw out liver and enjoy the bacon and onions with a beer to wash out the nasty liver taste. Save the liver for catfish bait.
From: Scar Finga
30-Aug-20
Soak the heart in milk over night, cut into 1/4" slices... I always cook up some of my thick sliced smoked black pepper bacon and save the grease in the pan. I then cook up some potatoes and eggs using a little of the bacon grease! I then sear some onions in the pan until translucent, and put the heart in hot bacon grease... Just a few minutes on each side and then combine everything and heat for 3 minutes... The best damn breakfast, lunch or dinner you ever had! HA!
From: hobbes
30-Aug-20
I've eaten elk heart, but don't care for it. I don't think it's even close to backstrap. The texture is not the same. It's not disgusting, but it's not a piece of meat that I'm going out of my way to eat. I won't eat liver on a dare.
I have packed both out on multiple occasions to folks that do enjoy them.
If I need to soak overnight then fry inbacon grease...... there's a problem somewhere. :) I could probably stomach coyote meat with enough bacon.
From: Scar Finga
30-Aug-20
Man send all the hearts my way! LOL! I will pay for shipping!
From: orionsbrother
30-Aug-20
Sauté some onions and baby Bella mushrooms, deglaze the pan with a splash of sherry, sauté the slices of heart. Place on a good onion roll, mushrooms and onions on top and add a few slices of Gruyere cheese, slide it under the broiler momentarily to melt the cheese and lightly toast the inside of the top of the bun. You’ll thank me.
My kids hover around, snitching rings of heart out of the pan any time we are cooking it.
From: stagetek
30-Aug-20
The heart AND liver stay in the woods. Crows, coons and other critters need to eat too.
From: bluedog
30-Aug-20
I have been known to check any fresh gut pile I come across. Especially in later season cold weather conditions. Almost always salvage a heart and over half the time the liver also.
Shameless I am... LOL
From: Grey Ghost
30-Aug-20
I would never waste a heart. It’s tradition to cook the heart after the kill with my hunting partners. Cooked like liver and onions is our favorite. The key is skinning/trimming, then soaking the slices in milk for at least 4 hours before cooking.
From: Milhouse
30-Aug-20
I recently shot a cow elk, and feel kind of stupid for leaving the heart. I agree, it's a muscle, and I have no qualms eating it. I've had elk heart, and thought it was delicious. Liver, on the other hand.... no thanks. Any time you need 10 pounds of onion to cover up the taste of 5 pounds of "meat", I'll pass.
From: bluedog
30-Aug-20
I rate elk liver comparable to beef liver. My favorite liver is deer. When I lived in Tucson those 26 years, 2 or 3 friends of mine and I would all save our Coues livers and at end of our hunts we'd get together in a garage and have a huge liver and onions feast. I score that a 10 for favorite meals.
Those little Coues hearts are delicious too. Somehow I usually ended up with the hearts. ;)
From: Grey Ghost
30-Aug-20
Liver and heart comes out first with the back strap and loins on an elk, for me. I can get all that in my day pack for the first load out. Then I take my big pack in for the heavy stuff.
Matt.
From: Zim
30-Aug-20
Agreed! Got mine on Aug 21st
From: Old Reb
30-Aug-20
We save all our deer hearts and now we have two fresh pronghorn hearts. We pickle ours. Makes a great snack food. You can find recipes for pickling hearts on line.
From: Ccity65
30-Aug-20
I hate to even touch a liver, but always take a heart. A few years back while rifle hunting, I had another couple of hunters shoot a bull on the same ridge that I was hunting. I made my way over to them to offer congrats and help if needed. They had it under control but was leaving the heart. I asked if they minded if I took it. They had no issue. It was the only elk I ate that year... You can cook it lots of ways, fried is probably the most common and the best. It is a muscle, so it is "meat" in my opinion. It is an intense flavor, and absolutely nothing like liver.
From: WV Mountaineer
30-Aug-20
I’m not much on the liver. But, I love heart. I’m just sorry I was so stupid for so many years I missed out on it.
From: butcherboy
30-Aug-20
Love heart and tongue. I don't even mind the liver if it's cooked up with some onions. Ate the oysters from a bighorn sheep last year and they were fantastic! I even had a mouthful of raw beef liver one time on a dare from my niece that was working at my meat plant at the time. That was puke worthy!
From: t-roy
30-Aug-20
The trick is to pre-drain them first.
From: Jethro
31-Aug-20
I have an elk heart vac sealed and frozen since Sept. Do you guys think its still good? Planned on trying it, but didn't. Nobody else in house too excited to try it.
From: WV Mountaineer
31-Aug-20
Yes it’s still good. Thaw that sucker, slice 1/4” thick, salt and pepper it, then fry it unbreaded in olive oil or butter.
Don’t over cook it. Probably 1.5 minutes per side on a low but steady sizzle. No need to sear it like meat. Let it rest about 5 minutes and enjoy the best eating you can imagine.
From: John in MO / KY
31-Aug-20
We eat the heart first! It's my 8 year old boy's favorite.
From: TD
01-Sep-20
Justin.... you do know you're supposed to cook em first, yeah? =D
From: squid
01-Sep-20
squid's Link
Meat Eater had a few online episodes on this and I made this last year and it was amazing
From: WV Mountaineer
01-Sep-20
Sure do Tom.
Heck, according to many of the PM’s I’ve gotten, I’m just a dumb caveman anyway. So, I keep cooking to a minimum to meet that criteria. :^)
From: Bowfreak
01-Sep-20
I have eaten plenty of deer hearts buy I honestly don't like the texture. Every few deer I'll save them and cook them up thinking that this will be the time it trips my trigger. It has yet to do so for me. Don't get me wrong....I won't go hungry if someone is cooking heart but it's definitely not my favorite.
From: WV Mountaineer
01-Sep-20
What do guys from KY know anyways? :^)
From: APauls
03-Sep-20
Used to eat tenderloins day of the kill kind of like a tradition. After eating heart, tenderloin got tossed aside and it's all heart all the time now. I can polish a whitetail heart myself no prob.
From: Basil
03-Sep-20
Absolutely love deer heart. Hard to beat a fresh heart sandwich on buttered toast. Always ate the liver until I found parasites on one while washing in the sink. Looked like liver colored leeches under the lobes outside the liver. Would recoil when I ran water on them. Never have been able to find out what they are as most parasites are supposed to be inside the liver. Wonder how many I ate.....Still love beef liver once in a while.
From: WV Mountaineer
03-Sep-20
I’d beet those beef livers have their fair share of parasites too. :^)
From: N8tureBoy
05-Sep-20
N8tureBoy's Link
Hank Shaw has a great heart recipe.
From: IdyllwildArcher
07-Sep-20
Another piece that’s delicious is the tongue. Cut it out from behind the mandible and cut off and discard the front few inches that are skinny and sit in the mouth.
From: smarba
09-Sep-20
I've never eaten the heart separately, but just toss it in to be ground with burger. It's meat and on larger animals it can be a pretty big chunk!
