Venison Heart Smoked

[Bear1968]

Last Week a Friend of mine told me his young son shot a Whitetail Buck with his bow. He asked me if I could smoke the heart for him. I never tried this before so here is what I came up with.
Trimmed the heart out and place in a brine of 1/2 Cup Morten's tender Quick, about 3 Tablespoons of Rub and about a quart and a half of water and let it sit in the fridge in a plastic container, an empty Coffee Container for 3 days. patted dry and rubbed down with Molasses, Rubbed down again with a basic rub ... anything you would use on Buts or Bird.

This is right before the smoker. I am sorry, I intended to get a money shot when the boy was carving but a feeding frenzy broke out :P



I smoked with Apple until IT of 175F, Wrapped the lil bugger in foil and a towel and about an hour and a half later brought to my friends place.
Counting the boy who harvested the deer we had 3 and 1/2 men there and the heart was gone in under 10 minutes. Everyone there, with the exception of the boy had eaten hearts from Venison they harvested for at least the last 30 years and had them just about any way you can imagine. Everyone there was amazed at the heart, me included .... hands down it was THE BEST Deer Heart I ever Had! It would literally Melt in your Mouth  :)

...and I do have to thank Viper125 for this because when I was asked to smoke the heart i looked at it and thought .... This is just a big turkey leg without the bone .... and I LOVE His Disney Legs recipe  ;)

[JZ]

Never had it but it sure sounds and looks good. I have some friends that are hunters and I might mention this to them. I wouldn't mind trying this (but don't tell the wife). This would have to be a secret smoke shhhhhhh. ;)

[Caribou]

That came out great Bear, and I am definitely going to try it.
We get a few deer hearts but I end up with a lot of beef hearts that I have to try to get my family to eat.
I raise a few beef cattle every year but my customers generally do not want the hearts and I don't have the heart  ;D to let them go in the meat guy's rendering bin.
I have a neighbor in the same situation and he actually make heart jerky which he is always singing the praises of.
Carolyn

[NePaSmoKer]

I don't have the heart for that.

Sent from my mobile smoker using the new smoke OS.

[viper125]

Ive ate it and enjoyed most. Never smoked or cleaned it my self. Figured it would of had to been sliced and remove gristle or veins . Guess I never paid much attention. Just wondering whats the proper way to trim one? May try it on the next one.

[Bear1968]

I do not know how proper this is but it is the way I do it.
First the heart will have a thin membrane around it. I slice it on the side and pull the heart out bottom first. When the membrane is completely pulled to the top there will be some pieces of heart left on the outside..... "Flopper s"  Just cut all of that off.

This is just about at the cleaned stage but no quite.



You will find another "flopper" after you remove the membrane, you will want to trim off. I put a red circle around it but was not planning on the photo being used for cleaning so ... of course it the heart is on it's wrong side.  ::)
I trim off the larger deposits of Tallow but do not get real crazy.
You are gonna want to get blood deposits out of the chambers so run cold water into the chambers and "pump" the heart with your hands until you are satisfied that the bulk is gone.
That is pretty much about it.
I do not trim out the chambers just run with them as is.
I hope that helped  :)

[viper125]

Sounds like something I can handle. Will give it a try on the next one. Thank You!