As you probably know, RFK Jr. recently suggested that if steak prices are too high for your budget, you should substitute “liver or the cheaper cuts of steak that are very, very affordable.” (Although there’s plenty to talk about in this statement, it belongs over in Politics and Elections.)
I’d like to talk about liver.
A half century ago when my husband and I were impoverished students, I used to buy beef liver fairly regularly. I cannot remember the last time I bought liver. Perhaps more importantly, I can’t remember the last time I saw beef liver in the meat case at my local grocer. (I vaguely recall a few years ago seeing containers of chicken livers in the meat case, but that’s quite different from beef liver.)
Is beef liver typically available at your local supermarket? If so, what’s a typical price for it? When was the last time you purchased some?
There’s a corner of the frozen section in most standard non-specialty grocery stores I go to where they usually have cow and chicken offal/giblets, Cornish game hens, goose, and other less commonly purchased meats.
“Cheap cuts” change over time. Oxtail used to be cheap, sadly it often is not. Lobster was famously a poverty food in the northeast. I imagine liver is catching on with the bro health crowd, but haven’t been monitoring prices.
I don’t think I’ve ever bought it, but I use it if I get some. I prefer heart and gizzard over liver as far as giblets go.
We occasionally had liver when I was a kid. It was pretty occasional, because none of us liked it except my mother (as I recall). I have not eaten liver since I left home, and for some little time before that. I recall it as being dry and having an off taste. It’s possible there are better ways to cook it, but even if so I am unlikely to seek it out anywhere. Fortunately, my husband, who does the cooking, doesn’t like it either.
I guess it’s good for you, but seriously, I’d rather turn vegetarian.
Same for me. Growing up, we would have liver maybe once a month. Smelled wonderful while cooking, the gravy and onions were amazing over rice, and i didn’t even really mind the taste of the liver itself - but the TEXTURE, that dryish, gritty texture - that I couldn’t stand. My poor mother tried a myriad ways of cooking it so that it wasn’t “dry”, but there was really no way around the fact that an organ will never feel like a muscle. But man, it did smell great. And that gravy…
I’ve always found both the smell and the taste of mammal liver nauseating (we ate quite a bit of deer and some elk when I was growing up, as well as the usual American food animals)
I like liver, once in a while. I couldn’t eat it every day though.
I don’t know how to cook it, though. I like it when it has been prepared by a professional. Whenever I’ve tried to cook it for myself it tastes terrible with an awful texture.
I’ve handled and dissected enough human livers with various pathologies to be put off eating liver permanently, even if I didn’t have childhood memories of being fed liver for school lunch (blecch).
After RFK Jr.'s announcement promoting liver as a cheap meat, he went on a national BBQ tour. I doubt any of those places feature liver.
I cooked some lamb’s liver with bacon and onions just a week ago, and was glad I hadn’t lost the knack of making it edible/pleasant. I think it’s important to both trim it well and leave it slightly pink. Overcooked liver will always be grainy and dry.
The correct way is medium rare, the middle should be pink. Any hint of gray and it’s too cooked and can get chewy. Otherwise, the prep includes trimming properly (also important for larger hearts and gizzards). Often people will soak it in salt water or milk for about 24h first, possibly changing out the liquid at some point.
A preparation like boudin can also hide the liver taste, if you have a grinder.
Yeah, lizards and gizzards is good eating when I was a youngster. Can’t stand beef liver andI detest onions, but batter fried chicken livers are great.
I really enjoy liver and would eat it more often if it weren’t for that whole filters toxins thing. They have cartons of “fresh” chicken livers always at the grocery (they come frozen and are thawed in the back), as well as frozen beef liver. Some stores with a meat counter will have fresh beef liver, but not all the time.
Aside from being delicious (to me) liver is fun to share with the animal friends; it is very popular, and nutritious for them. Alas, I am the only human I know who likes it.
I bought a carton of chicken livers on Saturday. It’s a 20oz carton from Springer Mountain Farms, sold at a small rural grocery for $2.29 +tax.
Not liver, and I do not know if this is a common thing, but whenever we would have clams we would put them in a tray with water and a little flour so the clams would filter whatever crud was in them out and eat the nice clean water and flour.
I really have no idea if that really worked or not but my parents/other adults all did that at a clambake. Not sure if you can “clean” animal livers in a similar manner or if it matters.
That said, I have always wondered about eating the body’s filter for junk but people have been eating liver since forever and it seems not to have been a problem.
Heck, I have read that orca whales will go for the liver first almost every time. Often leaving the rest of the (very dead) animal. Liver is their delicacy it seems.
I like the practice of keeping the liver in a milkbath and cooking it with bacon and onions. I think frying it up really fast works great for me. I can’t remember who wrote that here but it does sound good to me.