Well, folks, I haven’t eaten beef liver since I was a young child. My dad cooked it with onions. I gave it an honest try. No thanks.
Yesterday night I decided to give it another try because I had read of so many benefits, and I read that you could reduce that nasty flavor by soaking the meat in a little lemon juice.
I thawed the liver and opened the package…nope!
I gagged three times, and was reeling. I turned around, tried again. NOPE! This time I almost technicolor yawned.
The mere smell was enough to remind me that I’d rather die at 40 unhealthy than live in a world where liver is acceptable eats.
I spent the next 1/2 hour coming up with a plan to dispose of it and mustering up the courage to do so.
I eat just about ANYTHING. I’m everyone I knows’ billy-goat. The Mikey! But I just can’t stomach liver.
What, dopers, is your liver in life?
The only time I’ve ever enjoyed beef liver was when it was fresh. Fresh, as in I took it out of the cow and handed it to someone to take into the house and start cooking while I was still skinning the cow. I sat down to dinner only after I had the cow skinned, quartered, and hung up to chill.
But, it’s still not my favorite part of the cow. I use my cholesterol issues as an excuse to skip it. Liver is loaded with cholesterol.
Is liver supposed to be particularly healthy? I know it’s got iron, but I never got the sense it’s something you should eat all that regularly. (Otherwise, I would, except also for the fact that my wife doesn’t particularly enjoy liver as much as I do, so if I prepare it, it’s solely for myself. Hmm…I’m thinking stir fried chicken livers for lunch now!) It’s also a little bit tricky to cook correctly (most of it ends up way overcooked), and the freshnesss of the liver is important. That said, even done correctly, it still has that slightly bitter/metallic “liver” taste to it, so if you don’t like it, you just won’t like it.
It is funny you say that, because I have read that oxidation causes the awful smell/flavor. That is actually why I got it frozen; truly fresh isn’t an option for me. So I guess I’ll follow your strategy - if anyone asks it’s the cholesterol!
This is likely true for myself. I could probably horse down at least 4oz if someone else prepared it.
I had read that it was much more healthy than muscle meat, and since it is also much cheaper I thought it was a good move. Nope!
I don’t know if I like liver or not since I have never been able to get past the smell.
I used to work for company that had an employee cafeteria. Every other Thursday? was liver and onions day. I would actually turn green and get shaky when the liver was cooking, the smell was awful. Once it was cooked the nausea would pass but I can’t get even cooked liver past my nose.
Bananas and red beets are the two other foods that just the smell makes me nauseous.
I ate virtually anything we were served when I was a kid, including spam and other kinds of mystery meat, but liver was a major dinner ordeal of my childhood. My mother loved liver and onions, and would occasionally cook it for dinner. All of us kids hated it but we were forced to sit at the dinner table until we finished it. Sometimes I sat at the table for more than an hour (or at least it felt like it) until I could choke down enough tiny bites. The torture probably contributes to how I still feel about it today.
On the other hand, I love sauted chicken livers, liverwurst, and liver pate. I’ve tried liver and onions a few times since my childhood to see if my aversion has subsided. I can eat it now, but still wouldn’t order it by preference.
I used to love fried liver with onions, even as a kid. I’ve not had it in ages however. I do find myself still craving it from time to time. I stopped eating because I heard it wasn’t very good for you. Is that no longer true? If so, I’m putting it back in rotation.
In a previous life, I was an undergraduate. I ate beef liver three times a day. Because it was cheap. I think it was 25 cents a pound way back then. Lots of vitamins for cheap. I would fry it in bacon grease with onions.
I am over it now. Never eat it. Got my full of it. The only other thing I won’t eat is canned peas.
Is it worse than chicken liver? I go for chicken liver every once in a while, and although I like it, I get sick of it quickly and will not want it again for months.
Here’s a liver recipe the OP is guaranteed to like:
[QUOTE=me, on this board six years ago]
Liver a la Plancha
(serves three)
1 lb, approximately, fresh beef liver
1 large white onion, chopped
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
4 oz button mushrooms, sliced
2 oz extra virgin olive oil
4 oz heavy cream
4 oz whole milk
2 oz toasted pine nuts, roughly chopped
parsley, chopped
basil, chopped
salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large skillet, lightly brown the beef liver on both sides in the olive oil. Remove the liver from the heat and cover. Next, saute the onions, garlic and mushrooms in the skillet until the onions are translucent and the mushrooms just begin to show color. Add the cream and milk, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to a simmer. Allow this mixture to reduce by half while the liver is in the oven. Place the beef liver on a seasoned hardwood oven plank and place it in the 350 degree oven for 35 minutes or until juices run clear. Remove the plank, with liver, from the oven (warning: plank will be extremely hot). Next, throw the liver in the trash and eat the board with a little of the cream sauce.
[/QUOTE]
Bananas?!!? Truly? Does it matter what point of ripeness they are at? I know people who hate very ripe bananas, or very unripe, but what turns you off about them?
I’ll bash beets with you all day - if I wanted to eat dirt I’d scoop it out of the ground, I certainly wouldn’t grow it.
I worship spam in comparison to liver. How is chicken liver? What could you compare it to? Also, liverwurst is fine to me in a sandwich. It doesn’t have the liver taste to me. Is that true for you?
I read through that mentally saying “yeah but it’s still liver” over and over until I got to the end. I’d rather eat the board and suffer the splinters in passing!
