My gf and I do a Monday dinner thing. We take turns cooking each other a nice meal on alternate Mondays, sort of extending the weekend a bit. Usually they are an outstanding success, with each of us receiving the “clean plate award”. Yesterday was my Monday, and the dogs were very happy.
As a child, I lived in a primarily Jewish neighborhood. I had a memory of enjoying chopped liver. Seriously. So last night, along with Mussel & Potato Soup (mmmmm) and a Fava Bean Dip with Assorted Vegies (mmmmm), I prepared chopped liver.
I searched for the perfect recipe. I used a small, cut glass dish as a mold. It was aesthetically pleasing. But it tasted like liver. Which the dogs thoroughly enjoyed.
Sure, the wine totally removed the taste from our palates, although it took 1 1/2 bottles.
So I called a friend (who is my token Jew friend) and he explained that even Jews don’t like chopped liver.
Did you soak it in milk beforehand? That always helps tone down the flavor. Anyhow, I’m not Jewish, but I love chopped liver. But if you don’t like liver, well, you don’t like liver.
No milk soak. None of the recipes I read mentioned that. I trimmed the chicken livers, simmered them in some chicken broth then drained them and completed their cooking in butter where the diced onions had been cooking. I then cooled the liver/onions then puled them just so along with hard boiled egg.
It tasted/looked exactly like what I remembered from my distant past, and the first bite was heavenly. It went downhill from there.
Perhaps you cooked them for too long? Liver gets horribly dry and uneatable if cooked too much. If it is prepared just right it is heavenly. Funny how one thing can be one of both the best and worst foods around.
I guess traditional Jewish liver and onions wouldn’t be soaked in milk, anyway, with the whole meat and milk thing going on. I guess saying I’m not Jewish goes without saying after the milk tip I gave.
But, yes, overcooking is another problem which will take your liver from heavenly to mealy yuck.
Strange. Perhaps chopped liver just isn’t for everyone, then? I have never tried it but I just found a few recipes online that look just like your description. I think it sounds wonderful. I think I’ll make it one of these days - and let you know how it was received by the family.
My mother’s liver recipe: Place cast iron skillet on burner. Turn burner on high. Throw in slab of liver and fry until the neighbors call the fire department. Spend three hours trying to eat it or use as roofing shingle replacement.
You know, I thought this thread would draw out other folks to share their cooking failures, thus making me feel a little less miserable.
Actually, the dogs liked it so much, I’m tempted to make it again. And it gave my gf the chance to wonder about the phrase, “What am I, chopped liver”?
Well, it wasn’t recent, but we did recently reminisce about it and laugh again. I made chili for dinner one night, and gave my cat a little bit of it, thinking it was a nice, meaty dish, and she’d enjoy it. She tried to bury it, while my husband and I looked on and howled with laughter. “Kitty’s a food critic!” That actually may have been the turning point for me and cooking home-made chili (I’m thinking of attempting low-sodium chili now, though).
You shouldn’t feed the dogs onions. It’s not good for them.
I’ve never eaten chopped liver, but I like to cook chicken livers pan fried in butter and olive oil. Mmm! They are on the menu this week.
Failures - I’ve had plenty. Most recent one was trying (for the second time!) to grill steaks on my new propane grill. Blacken one side, barely cook the other to get them medium. Blech. I can’t figure out the temperature yet.
I also grilled some baby backs a while back, and after three hours they should have been falling off the bone, but they weren’t.
I’ve tried some recipes that looked good on paper, but we had to throw out - after giving the dogs some!
A few weeks ago I threw together some sort of shepherd’s pie cassarole. Recipe? I don’t need a recipe. Ground beef, onions, cream of whatever soup, and potatoes. Sure.
It tasted okay, but it was watery.
And grey.
Food should never be grey.
Really grey. And the texture was mushy meaty lumpy. Plus, it was grey.
This is how I make it: Clamp the cast-iron meat grinder to the counter. Slice up leftover leg-o-lamb and run it through. Add some frozen mixed veg, and the leftover lamb gravy. Top with leftover mashed potatoes or colcannon. Bake.
Chicken livers: Coat in seasoned flour and fry in some oil. Eat with Tabasco. (Next time I’ll try Crystal for a change.)
Beef liver: Not kosher, I’m afraid. Fry up some bacon and chop it up. Cook some onions in the grease. Coat the liver with flour and put in with the chopped bacon and onions and grease.
What does this thread look like, chopped liver? I actually like chopped liver, with ketchup. I don’t cook, or else I’d post a cooking fail. I guess my entire cooking non-career is a fail.
Not exactly a cooking fail, but I was trying to warm up some mashed potatoes in a pot and I accidently poured in way too much milk, resulting in something between mash and soup.
I happily ate it spread on toast, much to the disgust of my boyfriend.
I was making buttermilk biscuits a few weeks ago and ran a little short of flour. I rummaged around in my cupboard and found some whole wheat flour.
Whole wheat flour, I discovered, does not make good biscuits. It makes good projectiles. Yes, I accidentally found the secret ingredient in dwarf bread.
