Well its been in the oven now for an hour and is smelling dark and liverish.

I had thought I was bound to be able to unearth one or two recipes for the cooking of it from the books on the shelves but was soon disabused. The closest I could find was a few lines in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s book of meat cookery. He had a good few paragraphs on the cooking of heart but suggested that the beginner should start with pigs or sheep. I was a beginner but had committed myself to a large lump of Ox heart.

I tried on the internet and came across a few recipes but they all seemed to be over complicated and the comments at the end could only suggest that it wasn’t to be used for anything else but dog food.

There was some mention of it going well with onion and sage so I told myself that this was no doubt the stuffing the smart lady in Farmer’s market had in mind so I would limit myself to that.

Taking it out of its plastic wrapping and laying it out I tried to get the kids engaged in an instant biology lesson but they weren’t really interested. All they could muster was a turned up nose at the idea of this being their tea.

So I chopped up some onions and sage and pushed that into the available cavities and trussed it up with skewers and string. I then smeared it with olive oil and seasoned it well with salt and pepper. There is some chicken stock on the go so I will baste with some of that in a while.

It seemed appropriate that having put it into the low oven I had to go outside to clear a blocked drain.