Tag: Liver

March 8, 2022 – Dinner Finds From the Freezer

March 8, 2022 /

Not really. I knew it was there. I just didn’t have the proper motivation. After reading Far Eastern Cookery, I saw a recipe that intrigued me Filipino Menudo. My wife loves Mexican menudo. When we do it, it is an event and I have written about this before. There were several things that intrigued me about this. One was the name and the second was that it used beef liver.

I am always looking for ideas to do with liver. Traditionally, liver is one of the things that would be eaten soon after the kill, not years later. I tried my hand at boudin, that needs a little work. My plan with it was to make a second batch of boudin when I prepped it. So I found what I had written as 4# of liver on the bag when I was cleaning out the freezer.

I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it. I probably should package it in smaller portions if I am going to keep this up in the future. Nevertheless, the proportions in this recipe was 5oz liver to 12oz of pork. Well, I estimate I had three pounds by the time I trimmed off freezer burn. Go big or go home.

Essentially, I quadrupled the recipe. I had an entire stockpot including 4 onions, a whole head of garlic, 8 small potatoes, 2 cans of garbanzo beans and two cans of diced tomatoes and seasonings. What was my final verdict? I was so-so. There was a heavy liver taste. I suspect that my proportions were still off since I was only guessing rather than weighing anything.

I think liver is best when it is undercooked, the distinctive liver taste is much lest pronounced if cooked medium. I think boiling it for 15 minutes is probably overcooking. Again, it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great. So, I won’t say that I wont try it again but this quantity is a lot if you are not a liver lover. I will be eating this the rest of the week for lunch.

End Your Programming Routine: As the adventurous cook in the house, I need to sometimes read between the lines. There are items in my house that people claim they like but really they like the idea of it or they like having it once a year with no leftovers. That’s OK because this is how we learn. I guess I would say, don’t be afraid to take risks, just be aware that they don’t always work.

October 13, 2020 – What to do with liver?

October 13, 2020 /

I am definitely not pretending to know the answer. I don’t know how many people have ever seen a beef liver, but I would estimate the size to be around 10 pounds. That is a lot of meat that many people probably don’t think they like.

When I get one, I try to pre-process it a bit. I cut it into chunks, de-skin it and make it generally more easy to cook straight out of the freezer. The question still remains what to do with it. Maybe it will help if I talk about what I do and what I have tried.

There are at least a few tips that I use pretty routinely.

  1. Soak the liver in milk overnight. I suppose you can use milk, cream, half and half or buttermilk. I usually try to use was seems to be on the verge of expiring and cut with the balance of milk. This technique seems to remove some of the minerally taste that is usually part of the turn-off for liver.
  2. Cook liver rare (or medium). One of the things that turns it into shoe leather is over cooking. It also seems like overcooking also brings out the stronger flavors and the rarer it is, the more mild it is.
  3. Prepare only what you think you will eat for the meal. Reheating results in over-cooking.

Here are some things I have tried over the years with liver

  1. By far and away, it seems like the most successful preparation is liver and onions. I think one reason is that you can avoid over cooking.
  2. Boudin – a cajun sausage that is made with pork, rice, and spices. My result was OK, the problem was that it was too dry and needed more fat. I am going to try this again someday.
  3. Chili – I thought that maybe I could spice my way out of liver, but it still ended up being pretty livery, so not recommended.
  4. Fake foie gras or pate – I have tried grinding cooked liver with butter and spices but I didn’t find it terribly appetizing on a cracker.
  5. Hash – This one has some promise. Fry with potatoes, onion, pepper, bacon, and serve with eggs.

Traditionally, liver is a fresh meat. It has been one of the first cuts and eaten immediately after butchering. The lore is that organ meat provided a source of essential nutrient when choices are limited.

I think that it is also worth observing that organ meat is the first thing animals eat when eating other animals. So, there is something to this, I am still looking for the right combinations of recipe and technique. Until then, I would be interested in other people’s ideas because I still have a lot of liver in the freezer.

March 3, 2020 – Beef Liver

March 3, 2020 /

Have you ever seen a whole beef liver? I don’t know the exact weight, but according to a quick internet search, the average weight is 10-15 pounds. If you haven’t seen one then it is hard to conceptualize, but it is huge.

Since I usually get one with the beef that I order, I am always on the lookout for recipes. I have tried boudin and that needs some practice. Once a year I make liver and onions, that is about all I can sneak that in. I recently heard a recipe about Vietnamese Jerky that I though I would try.

Ingredient spread for the liver

Usually with new recipes, I scour sources for three or four different recipes and try to find the commonality, but in this case there are four or five different names I found that were all different. So, I just went with the comments on the podcast and did the best that I can.

Final plate

The results on this were 1) there was still an underlying liver flavor 2) it was a bit too salty (could have been my technique of salt/rinse) 3) the frozen stir-fry vegetables were distracting 4) its a challenge to try new things, but still fun.

I would like to say a few quick words about cooking liver. This is one of the cuts that is at its best when it is fresh, like the day of the slaughter. Cook liver lightly, it really does not have an unpleasant flavor when cooked to medium (145 deg F). Do not make more than you will eat in one meal, reheating overcooks and results in the iron flavor and mealy texture.

I would love to hear other ideas, techniques and recipes. I am all about frugality, preventing waste and trying new things. So let me know if you have some liver ideas.