Ox heart

Form

Offal

Typical weight

40–80 g

Typical thickness

15–25 mm

Cut

Not a cut of anything

The first offal record in the catalogue, and it is the one that behaves least like offal. A heart is cardiac muscle that has been contracting continuously for the animal's life, which makes it dense, very lean and deep red — but structurally it is muscle, so it cooks fast over direct heat and is best taken off short rather than cooked through the way liver or kidney would be. The trimming is the work: the outer fat, the vessels at the top and the tough silverskin all come off, and what is left is a fraction of what was bought. Its leanness is the whole risk — there is essentially no intramuscular fat, so a minute too long produces something dry and livery that gives offal its reputation. Cut small and skewered is the near-universal preparation, and BBQHQ records the form without attributing it to any one tradition, since several cook it this way. No duration is published.

It came out dry

The meat came out dry — 4 distinguishable causes.

It came out tough

The meat came out tough — 3 distinguishable causes.

Cooling, keeping and reheating what is left is general guidance for barbecue leftovers. Neither UK authority publishes anything specific to ox heart, and BBQHQ does not invent a distinction they do not make.

• No published barbecue cooking time has been found for this food. The sources that cover it describe how to prepare it or how to keep it safe, not how long it takes over fire.

What we know we’re missing records what was searched for each of these, and what would settle it.