Pondering on what to do with an Elk Heart i've had in the freezer for a while, i decided to try my hand at Confit. I've never done it before but the concept seemed simple enough.
********WARNING....If you like happy endings avert your eyes now! Things didn't go as planned. However if you're a narcissist and enjoy a good old failure at someone else expense...read on. *********
So the first step is to render some lard. (another first for me) I did this in m y crockpot. It seemed to work well but took forever to strain through coffee filters.
Ok...lard done. Time to clean the heart and cure it. Cleaning the heart was pretty easy. I sliced in vertically down the center and layed it out. It's pretty clear what needs to be trimmed out.
Cure & Spice mix bagged and heading for the fridge for a few days.
Out of cure & rinsed. I sliced of a small sample and fired it to test salt levels. It was a tad salty so I did a 24hr fresh water soak.
And this my friends is where it all started to go wrong
In the plethora of reading i'd done on confit, i came accross the idea of vac packing the meat with the lard and cooking in a water bath. Seemed like a good idea...use less lard...less mess..better temp distribution etc. So i did;
Concerned that the lard would distribute, i put the bags into some warm water to soften the lard and then massaged it all around the bag/meat.
And then into my dutch oven. This photo should've been my first sign of impending disaster.
Placed a plate on top to keep it all submerged and into the oven @ 190F for 4 hours.
....
4 huers laiter....
All the bags burst spewing the lard into the water mix and water into the bags
I dont know how long along the cooking process this happened, but I ended up with a more simmered than confited heart
I fried up a sample...
It was very tastey but very dry. I think i'll be able to use it in a cassoulette or something like that, but after a week of preparation this was a bitter failure
I'll try again next time
