One of the bars I used to hang out at had a pretty good chef who was mostly allowed to decide the specials specials. However, there were a couple old time barfly “friend-of the-owner” types who requested liver as a special every Thursday. Every Tuesday they sold exactly two plates to those guys, and it only stopped when the bartenders all refused to take a Thursday dinner shift, tired of all the people complaining, and other people cancelling their orders and walking out when the stinky stuff was placed on the bar.
I think that on really old ovens, there was a single heating element. It was below the “oven” part, but above the “broiling” part. But every oven I’ve used in the past couple of decades has had two elements in the main compartment, one on the bottom for baking and one on the top for broiling.
I assume liver was a common main dish in the past because (at least around here) it’s sure as hell a common main dish in the present. Every supermarket I’ve been to in my city carries at least beef and chicken liver, and many of them also have calf, pork, and turkey liver. Lamb liver is harder to come by, but probably available in the Turkish shops. Duck liver is never sold separately but is always included with whole duck (along with the heart, neck, and gizzard), which is also easy to find (though not all supermarkets carry it all the time).
We cook some sort of liver ourselves about once a month—usually beef, calf, or chicken liver. And pretty much every restaurant here serving local cuisine will have at least one liver dish on the menu.
I’m surprised by all these comments about how bad it smells to cook. Liver has an odor, of course, but it’s not as pungent as fish. And for that matter, the odor I have the most trouble with at home is “fried” and most restaurants serve deep fried foods.
When I cook liver I run the vent fan and no one has ever complained. I don’t cook fish when my husband is home, but when I do, the odor dissipates in a couple of hours (with the help of the fan.) I’ve pretty much banned my husband from deep-frying, except maybe once a year for Hannukah (if we can’t go to a relative’s for the latkes) because it takes a few days to get away from the odor of oil everywhere.
Where do you live? 1960?
@psychonaut lives in Austria, IIRC.
Yes, that’s right. Obviously we haven’t yet caught up to our more culinarily cultured American friends. Give us another half-century or so and I’m sure we’ll be cured of our vile fondness for liver.
I loved it as a kid. My parents had little money and per ounce it was a pretty good thing to feed kids once every week or two. I still love it. Haven’t made it in decades. I believe my Dearly Beloved™ is horrified enough at the prospect of liver and onions for dinner that I’d be cooking for one were I to prepare it. Must remember this thread when she’s on the road !!
YES- Overcooking it is rough eating. You learn the timing so it’s tender but not pink. Once a year for many years I would cook 3-4 pounds of chicken livers and hand-crank them through an old-school grinder clamped to the edge of the table at my ex’s parents’ house. Along with hard-boiled eggs, sauteed onions and the dried out heels of a few loaves of real Rye bread it made for a hell of a chopped liver.
My wife makes a wonderfully light, tasty chicken liver pate every Passover. We eat it with caramelized onion jam on matza.
It’s even better if it’s pink, but not red.
I remember my mother would serve my sister and me liver every few weeks. It wasn’t my favorite meat, but I did like it. Good memories!
Yeah, lightly pink is what we would aim for. Man, I’m craving some liver now! Problem is, nobody in my family really eats it, but I can probably get away with making chopped chicken liver for myself.
I make a rough approximation just using a knife. I don’t spend long enough on it to get quite the classic texture, but it’s close.
What’s in your mother’s recipe that can’t be halved or quartered to make a smaller quantity?
Back to the original question - liver was considered very healthy to have in your diet until they decided it was too high in cholesterol. It is a good source of iron, several B vitamins, and Vitamin A. Calf and beef liver gets into ridiculous amounts of Vitamin A, and large amounts of some B vitamins:
https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/lamb-veal-and-game-products/4672/2
The real problem is how much liver I have to buy - I’d like to buy a 1/4 pound but currently I can only find pre-packaged frozen packs of 2 or more pounds which is way, way more than I can comfortably eat by myself. I suppose I could thaw out a frozen package, take out what I want, and refreeze the rest but Og knows what that would do to the taste.
One of the annoying things about being single is how everything seems to come in “family packs” that are way more than I can consume on my own. And I don’t want to just throw out half or more of something, especially meat.
At least I figured out how to make my own schmaltz - can’t get that for love or money around here. I think the local Jews wind up driving into Chicago for that if they don’t make their own.
needscoffee: “No, liver isn’t high in fat”
Unless the creature you obtain the liver from is morbidly obese or abuses alcohol. 
The smell of liver (especially the fresh, uncooked kind) is not my favorite scent in the world.
Ah. That must be a problem of the particular stores in your area. I see pound packages here, and also there are stores around here that still have somebody working in the meat department who can pack you smaller quantities if you ask.
If you have a good enough knife, you might be able to cut the meat while still frozen; but that’s likely to depend on what tools you have, plus I can understand not wanting to get into it.
I’ve never tried freezing the chopped liver after I’ve made it, and don’t know whether that would work well.
I didn’t even realize they sold frozen liver. Here, it’s just in the refrigerated section in trays for larger livers or lidded plastic containers for chicken livers (usually around a pound).
ALL the stores in my area - I work in the grocery business, I know whereof I speak.
We did have a small butcher open up in town a few months ago, but I haven’t checked them out yet - maybe I can get a small amount of liver there.
Once I figure out how to broil in my current oven… 
Sorry – I didn’t mean to imply only some of the stores in your area, I just meant that stores in other areas sometimes sell smaller quantities, and/or have a butcher on site who will produce them.