I love chicken liver. Also duck and goose liver. I enjoy a nicely prepared calves liver. I’ve had pork and lamb liver, and i liked them as much as calves liver, although the flavor and texture are a little different. Beef liver tends to be tough, but carefully prepared (not overcooked) it’s nice enough. Overcooked it’s tough and dry and can be bitter.
Chicken liver is always available where i shop. Calves liver is a sometimes food. I can often find frozen lamb and pork liver at the farm store. Nothing is cheap at the farm store. Chicken liver isn’t super cheap, but it’s affordable for the food value.
Do you also like lizard livers? (Couldn’t resist; I’m assuming you meant to say “liver” and typed “lizard” instead.)
I was at my local Fareway (budget Midwestern grocery chain) today and saw beef and calf liver, packaged separately, in the freezer case, and, of all things, alligator steaks. Didn’t buy any of them.
I liked liver until I realized it was the body’s OTHER toxic waste disposal site. Once in a blue moon, I’ll eat chicken liver if I buy a bird with giblets.
I understand that soaking liver in milk before cooking it is like a marinade in reverse, and the milk soaks up some of the strong flavors.
As for cheap meat, I remember seeing a thread, and I’m pretty sure it was here, started by someone who was possibly going to be facing unemployment and had kids to feed, and among other things wanted to know if tripe or chitterlings would be a good meat alternative. Most of us said, “Unless you really know how to prepare those, NO.”
Nope, that was what we called them when I was kid. Every whole ckicken would come with a pack innards that mom would fry up and she would give them to us kids while she was finishing frying up the bigger pieces. Lizard, gizzard, heart and a neck would be handed out before supper.
I have noted when searching for meat bargains on my local grocery site that there is a lot more of tongue, and tripe, and hearts than there used to be. I think it’s a response to high prices and folks are just willing to try anything to get high-quality protein these days. Two years ago they just didn’t carry those things.
Is that just maybe catering to a Hispanic market or something? Tongue and tripe are a Mexican staple, not sure about heart, though it’s South American at least (anticucho).
I love tongue and heart, I’d like to see it more often at my stores.
I just bought a little piece of calf’s liver. $11, about the size of the palm of my hand! I trimmed it of icky bits as best I could, but there was still some chewy bits while eating, not good! It tasted delicious, otherwise, but expensive, not worth it….I do love chicken livers, I cook them once a year or so with onions and bacon. Always looking for new ways to prepare them, I might have them more often.
Canada is a nation of immigrants and fresh liver from several animals is available at most local grocers, though not necessarily on every day. (It is freshest in a specific day, which differs for each store). Beef liver goes for perhaps five Canadian dollars a pound, US $3.50…
While I grew up eating organ meats, I rarely cook them at home. A local restaurant still makes beef liver with onions, bacon and gravy with sides - they say they sell a lot of it - sold at a reasonable price and better than my efforts.
I think liver is healthy, though not a panacea. Cheap cuts of beef and other meats can often be converted to ambrosia with a little patience and knowledge. The bigger problem is cheap meats are often no longer cheap; such as chicken wings.