The powerful nutritional punch
Finally, the recipe itself
The Easiest Organ To Tame
You may well consider a safe entry-point into the wonderful world of organ meats. Sure, it looks like it’s been plucked out of an animal, which it has. But it’s also made mostly of muscle tissue, so the taste isn’t much different to steak.
As far as nutrition goes, it’s one of the standouts, and that’s part of the fun of the carnivore diet. This is about bringing back the superfoods, and letting the nutrition work its magic across our metabolic machinery. Progress comes in leaps and bounds, and eventually, the taste buds follow the breadcrumbs.
Not that we have to survive a matter of months before dinner regains its appeal. Even the organ meats, novel as they might be, can be downright delicious from the get-go. It’s just a matter of prepping it right. And this doesn’t come with a learning curve, because you’re not going to be juggling a dozen ingredients over your kitchen top. That’s the perk of practicing the ultimate minimalist diet.
The simple honest truth is if this lamb heart special was a difficult recipe, I wouldn’t have been able to make it in the first place. All you’re going to need is a pressure cooker, cast iron pan, alongside some beef tallow and two lamb hearts. If you’re in the UK, they’ll be quite easy to find at your local supermarket.
This recipe is an offshoot from my grand guide to organ meats, and all the magic they bring to the table. If you haven’t read it already, do it at your leisure. You can always drop back there when you fall for the heart hype and begin to wonder about all the organs on offer.
Why Eat Heart?
In case you’re wondering, you can easily swap in beef heart for this recipe. I rate lamb and beef very similar on the nutrition scale. They’re both ruminants, which means they take whatever mess we feed them, and convert it into that magical guilt-free saturated fat. So feel free to pick either, the recipe doesn’t change one bit.
If you’re still not convinced you want to have this dance with organs, there are a host of reasons to get you to reconsider. Organ meats are, in the technical aspect, the apex foods of nutrition. Nothing else matches their ability to pack together a million nutrients in a tight, highly bioavailable bundle. Not even steak and eggs.
As for heart, I’d put it on the pedestal alongside liver, kidney, and brain. It plays host to an array of B vitamins, as well as the CoQ10 enzyme, a compound critical for optimal mitochondrial function. So it does the business right down at the ultimate grassroots level. CoQ10 is often found wrapped up in capsules, but like any supplement, you’re going to be better off sourcing it from actual real food. It’s cheaper, more absorbable, and you can actually work it into dinner.
Heart’s Contribution To Your RDAs In an 80g Serving
B2 – 1.0mg – 74% – Riboflavin drives mitochondrial function, breaking down food components, maintaining tissue, while contributing to a healthy immune system.
B3 – 5.3mg – 33% – Niacin helps turn food into energy, while supporting the function of the nervous system, digestion, and skin.
B12 – 8.6μg – 360% – Cobalamin is used in red blood cell formation, cell metabolism, nerve function, and the production of DNA.
Copper – 0.4mg – 49% – Helps make red blood cells, supports the immune and nervous system. Also plays a role in collagen production.
Iron – 5.1mg – 63% – Heme iron is by far the most bioavailable form of iron, comprising 95% of the iron in the human body.
Phosphorous – 203.2mg – 29% – Present in every cell, helping both carb and fat metabolism. Also need for cell growth, maintenance, and repair.
Selenium – 31.1μg – 56% – An important antioxidant, making it pivotal for healthy immune function.
The addition of organ meats into the diet really helps complete the RDA picture and plug any potential gaps. That’s why I see them as non-negotiables on a carnivore diet.
Outside The RDAs
And there’s more. Heart also contains double the collagen and elastin of muscle tissue, making it a prime source of another nutrient commonly sold as a supplement. Glycine, a component of collagen, is critical in balancing out any inflammatory effects being produced in a high methionine diet. Muscle meat is high in methionine, low in glycine. Organs are the reverse. The evidence isn’t conclusive just yet that we need to worry about this ratio, but there’s no harm, and plenty of positives, in getting the glycine up.
Then there’s the small matter of the mystery vitamin that the old paleo proponent, Weston.A.Price, coined as ‘Activator X’. A fat-soluble vitamin acting as the catalyst for the absorption of nutrients in organ meats. Vitamin K2, as it’s known these days, hasn’t got a set RDA value just yet. Perhaps due to its woeful absence in plant foods. Imagine putting up the idea that a plant-only diet causes micronutrient deficiencies. In any case, heart is one of the best sources of K2, so that’s another point to add to its intimidating tally.
If you’re worried all this data won’t translate into real-life consequences for that master metabolism you’re searching for, traditional eastern medicine can put it in more favourable terms. Eat the organ that matches the one you’re trying to treat.
So eating heart, in that line of thought, should give you an energy boost, while strengthening immune function. We can match that with the generous dose of CoQ10 to help out your stamina levels, and the potential impacts of K2 on CVD risk, the known benefits of B2 and B12 on immune function. They may have lacked the capacity to get microscopic and quantify these molecules, but it looks like eastern medicine didn’t land far off the mark.
That’s the funny thing with the apex diet. It’s nothing new. Putting these foods back on the menu represents a decisive step back into the past, thousands and thousands of years ago. A time when we used intuition, direct feedback, and a deadly dose of Darwinism to figure out the optimal human cuisine.
Low in calories
Dense and diverse in highly absorbable micronutrients
Great source of CoQ10, collagen, and Vitamin K2
Helps with energy levels and immune function
More familiar and palatable than liver and kidney
Very cheap
Flexible in recipes
Resting My Case For Heart
Now I’ve made the case for heart getting a prime slot on your list of outside-the-box dinner ideas, let’s get past the bush-beating and make a stop at the actual recipe. This is fully carnivore proof, with only three ingredients and two contraptions needed.
Lamb Heart – No introduction needed.
Beef Tallow – Often called beef drippings in the UK, it’s perfect for frying. I even find it better than suet, in that it’s more durable and there’s barely any smoke, which can be a tell for oxidation. There’s always butter, but I prefer that cold, alongside steak. Feels like a waste to fry with it.
Salt – I realise I gave the title of ‘carnivore sugar’ to glycine in the brain recipe, but salt is really the guy that lends the most flavour to the all-meat diet. So you might as well fork out a few extra bucks for the high quality stuff, rather than the highly-processed versions that come loaded with microplastics.
Personally I go back and forth between Redmond Real Salt and Himalayan Pink Salt. The mineral content can be a little overhyped, since they’re realistically only going to be trace amounts, but the flavour itself is enough to go upmarket with your table salt.
Pressure Cooker – I actually use an instant pot, since it comes with all those bonus features.
Cast Iron Pan – If you’ve heard the fuss about teflon, then you’ll understand why it’s a good idea to go basic and skip the random chemicals being mixed into your dinner.
Carnivore Crispy Lamb Heart
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker
- Cast Iron Frying Pan
Ingredients
- 500 g Lamb Heart Beef heart works just as well
- 28 g Beef Dripping Also known as tallow
- 1 tsp Redmond Real Salt
Instructions
- Before slicing it up, place the heart in the pressure cooker, set the valve to sealed, and leave it to cook for 50 minutes. Pepper it with some salt before setting it off.
- Let the pressure naturally release over 15 minutes once the time is up, then set the valve to vent. Once the steam has subsided, pick up the heart.
- Melt the beef fat in the pan over medium heat, and cut the heart into thin strips in the meantime. Then fry the strips for a few minutes on either side, while adding the rest of the salt.
Notes
I have been assembling a bit of a collection when it comes to organ meat recipes, and you can check some of them out below.
In any case, I hope you don’t see this as some niche designed to get you cosplaying in loincloths and hunting elk in the wilderness with makeshift spears. This is just a very practical way of revitalising a metabolism that’s buckling under the weight of inflammatory foods. The apex diet is, at its heart, a two step solution.
Bring back the superfoods
Ditch the plants and seed oils, the harbingers of inflammation, insulin resistance, leaky gut, and the rest of the insidious set.
You can check out my full collection of carnivore recipes here.
Yum! Thank you for the help!
No problem, hope it goes down a treat!