Passport & Plate - Ox Heart stuffed with Liver and Bacon
United Kingdom | Saturday, February 28, 2015 | 3 photos
Ingredients
Serves a veritable horde
225g chopped ox liver
3 chopped bacon rashers
1 chopped onion
50g suet
6 sage leaves
Salt and Pepper
1 Ox heart (cleaned and dried)
3 whole onions
250g Haricot beans
4 pints of water
How to prepare this recipeServes a veritable horde
225g chopped ox liver
3 chopped bacon rashers
1 chopped onion
50g suet
6 sage leaves
Salt and Pepper
1 Ox heart (cleaned and dried)
3 whole onions
250g Haricot beans
4 pints of water
The story behind this recipeCor blimey guv'nor... what you have just experienced there is an authentic dish straight from the streets of 1800s London. As everyone in the capital rants and raves about the riot of nomadic food trucks setting up on London's turf, little do they know that street food here is no new thing. Many moons before the rise of globe-spanning food circuses and mad-fusions, Victorian vendors were braving it out on the dank, polluted streets of our great capital giving the punters what they wanted- which just so happened to be everything from fried testicles and milky pig trotters to that splendid little chap you've just seen above.
Now I've traveled to many places around the world and tried all manner of delicious things so I wouldn't blame you for wondering why on God's green earth, when able to choose from this myriad of exotic flavours and asked to showcase myself with one dish, why I would choose Ox Heart stuffed with liver and bacon. Well, lend me your ears good friend and I'll explain.
As a London tour guide and a food writer, it has always just made sense to me that of course the twain should meet. Food helps us make our mark on the world, it helps bind us, bond us and find common ground with those who came before. More than art, architecture, music and literature... the cuisine tells us so much about a group of people, a culture, a place, a time, a moment and this dish just speaks volumes to me. With London in an age of pollution and industry with the gap between the rich and poor growing ever wider, the streets of the 1800s would have to provide sustenance for those on the lower end of the social scale. They would eat anything and this meal was one of them- a true taste of a Londoner's heritage.
Please don't let me put you off though. This dish stands up with the very best Sunday roasts I've ever eaten (and trust me, I've had a few). This was nose-to-tail cooking before that was even a thing... and I think I like it.
