“Liver is usually much despised, but when well cooked, it is very palatable and it is the cheapest of all animal food. Veal liver is by some considered the best. Liver should be cut across the grain.” (from an 1800s cookbook).

FRIED BEEF LIVER
Cut it in rather thin slices and pour over it boiling water, which closes the pores of the meat, makes it impervious to the fat, and at the same time seals up the rich juice of the meat. It may be fried in hot fat mixed with one-third butter. If fried too much, the liver will be hard and tasteless. Salt pork fried brown is very nice with liver, and the fat from the pork will be found excellent to fry the liver in. Remember that rapid cooking hardens and ruins liver.

To those who like them, some onions will be thought an improvement to fried liver. First parboil the onions. Then slice them, season them with a little salt and pepper, and fry them with the liver.

BROILED BEEF LIVER
Liver is very good fried, but the best way to cook it is to broil it ten minutes, with four or five slices of salt pork. Then take it, cut it into small strips together with the pork, and put it in a stew pan with a little water, butter, and pepper. Stew it four or five minutes.

DEVILED LIVER
To three pounds of uncooked liver, add one quarter pound of uncooked salt pork, one-half pint of bread crumbs, three tablespoons salt, one teaspoon pepper, and one-half teaspoon each of cayenne pepper, mace, and cloves. Chop the liver and pork very fine, add the other ingredients, and mix well. 

Put it into a covered mold and set it in a saucepan of cold water. Then cover and place on the fire to cook two hours. Take out of the mold, uncover, and let it stand in an open oven to let the steam off. This is a cold dish.

FRIED LIVER AND BACON
Have the bacon cut in thin slices about a third of an inch thick and keep it cold until the time to cook it. If it be calf liver, wash it in cold water and let it drain; but if it be beef liver, after washing it, cover with boiling water and let it stand for five minutes, then drain it.

Cook the bacon, then take it up. Lower the heat and lay the slices of liver in the hot fat. Cook them for eight or ten minutes, turning often, then season with pepper and salt. Arrange the liver on a warm platter, make a gravy from the dripping and pour over the liver. Place the bacon round the outside. (Always cook bacon quickly and liver slowly).

POT-AU-FEU
Put into four quarts of cold water one pound of cheap lean meat, one pound of liver whole, some bones cut into bits, two tablespoons of salt, one teaspoon of pepper, four leeks cut in pieces, and four carrots, four turnips, and four onions, all whole, each stuck with two cloves. 

Boil all gently for three hours, skimming occasionally, adding two tablespoons of cold water about every half hour. Take up the meat and the liver on a platter, arrange the vegetables neatly around them, and serve the broth in a tureen with plenty of bread.

BREADED LIVER
Have fresh beef liver cut into thin slices, cover with boiling water, and let stand for ten minutes. Fry slices of bacon crisp, and drain. Season the bacon fat with black and red pepper, dip the liver into it, then into bread crumbs, then put back into the fat, and fry. Garnish the liver with the fried bacon and sprigs of parsley. Add to the fat in the pan one tablespoon of vinegar and two of tomato catsup. Pour over the meat and serve.

LIVER ROLLS
Have fresh beef liver cut into thin slices. Cover with boiling water, drain, wipe dry, remove the skin, and season with pepper and salt. Put a thin slice of salt pork or bacon on each slice of liver, roll up, and fasten with a string. Brown in hot fat, dredge with flour, cover with boiling water or stock, and cook for half an hour. Take off the strings, season to taste, and serve.

VEAL LIVER PATE
Run twice through the meat chopper one pound of calf liver and half a pound of fat bacon. Season with pepper, salt, mace, and parsley, and add two tablespoons of finely chopped lean ham and a chopped onion which has been fried in fat. Mix with the yolks of two eggs and then fold in stiffly beaten whites. 

Line a mold with thin slices of bacon, put in the meat, cover with bacon, and bake slowly in a moderate oven.* When it can be pierced easily, it is done. Let cool in the mold, turn out, and garnish with parsley and lemon.

*moderate oven – about 350-400 degrees Fahrenheit.

LIVER DUMPLINGS
Take a calf’s liver, and chop it very fine. Mix with it half a pound of beef suet chopped fine, half a pound of flour, two minced onions, and a handful of bread-crumbs. Add a tablespoon of chopped parsley and sweet marjoram mixed, a few blades of mace, a few cloves powdered, and a little pepper and salt. Mix all well together. Wet the mixture with six eggs well beaten, and make it up into dumplings, with your hands well floured. Have ready a large pot of boiling water. Drop the dumplings into it with a ladle, and let them boil an hour. Have ready bread-crumbs browned in butter to poor over them before they go to table.

LIVER RISSOLES
Take a calf’s liver and carefully remove all the veins. Weigh a pound of it, boil it, and when cold, mince it very finely with a quarter of a pound of suet, either of beef or veal. Add a quarter of a pound of finely grated bread-crumbs. Season it with cayenne, powdered mace, and nutmeg, and a very little salt. Mix in two well-beaten eggs. Shape them into oval forms, about the size of large walnuts, and fry them in plenty of boiling hot lard, draining them all on a perforated skimmer, before they go to table.

LIVER LOAF, OR FALSE PÂTÉ DE FOIE GRAS
Cut a calf’s liver in pieces, pound it in a mortar and press it through a sieve. Add to one cupful of liver pulp one quarter cup of flour panada,* one teaspoon each of butter and salt, one half teaspoon of pepper, a dash each of cayenne, nutmeg, and allspice, and two eggs. Mix well together and pass it again through the sieve. Put the mixture into a well-buttered pint mold, place it in a pan of hot water in the oven for forty-five minutes or more. It may be served hot with a brown sauce; but is better cold with salad, or used like pâté de foie gras. 

* panada – bread boiled to a pulp and flavored.

Image from Deposit Photos

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Have You Ever Eaten Beef Liver? Please Leave a Comment Below.

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ODD BITS: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal

We’re all familiar with the prime cuts—the beef tenderloin, rack of lamb, and pork chops. But what about kidneys, tripe, liver, belly, cheek, and shank? Odd Bits will not only restore our taste for these cuts, but will also remove the mystery of cooking with offal, so food lovers can approach them as confidently as they would a steak. From the familiar (pork belly), to the novel (cockscomb), to the downright challenging (lamb testicles), Jennifer McLagan provides expert advice and delicious recipes to make these odd bits part of every enthusiastic cook’s repertoire.
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