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A bowl of corned lamb hearts ready to cook.
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Corned Lamb or Goat Hearts

Yield: enough to serve 3-4 people for lunch or as a light entrée
Prep Time45 minutes
Cook Time2 hours
Brining Time4 days
Total Time4 days 2 hours 45 minutes
Course: Appetizer, Snack
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Corned, Heart Reuben, Lamb Heart
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 178kcal
Cost: 10

Equipment

  • 1 1 gallon container for corning the lamb
  • 1 large stock pot for cooking the lamb
  • 1 Deep braising pan, dutch oven or casserole, capable of holding 1 gallon of liquid
  • 1 plastic bag, plate or other weight for weighing down the hearts in the brine

Ingredients

Brine

  • 2 qts water
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup kosher salt
  • 5 teaspoons pink salt
  • 1 tablspoon chopped garlic
  • 1 heaping tablespoons pickling spices
  • 1 tablespoon chopped ginger

Final braise

  • 1 each medium carrot, medium yellow onion, 1 rib of celery
  • 1 tablespoon chopped ginger
  • 1 heaping tablespoon pickling spices

Instructions

Brine the lamb

  • Toast the pickling spices, then combine with the remaining brine ingredients and bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool the brine to room temperature and reserve.
  • Make a cut down one side of each heart so they can be opened up like a book, many hearts will already come packed like this.
  • Put the hearts in the cooled brine, cover the container with plastic, or another weight to keep the hearts under the liquid as much as possible. Date the container, then refrigerate for 4 days, stirring once a day, or as often as you can remember.

Cook the lamb

  • After four days, remove the hearts from the brine and put into a pot with the 4 cups of water, the remaining heaping tablespoon of toasted pickling spice, the chopped carrot, onion and celery and ginger. Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer in a covered pan and cook for 2 hours or until the hearts are tender.
  • Allow the hearts to cool in their liquid until you can handle them, then remove and trim off some the fat, as well as removing the large central vein.
  • For storage, strain the liquid and keep the hearts in their cooking liquid so they don’t dry out. The hearts will keep in their liquid for 5 days, they can also be wrapped tightly in plastic, labeled, dated and frozen for 3 months.

Video

Notes

Any cut of lamb can be used in this recipe, not just heart. Leg roasts work very well. 
After corning, the lamb can also be smoked to make lamb pastrami. 

Nutrition

Serving: 4oz | Calories: 178kcal | Carbohydrates: 7g | Protein: 34g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 0.01g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 80mg | Sodium: 500mg | Potassium: 434mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 122IU | Vitamin C: 60mg | Calcium: 17mg | Iron: 5mg