How to Cook Liver for Liver-Haters
I'm compelled to comment on this as well because I consider myself a specialist in getting LIVER-HATING people to eat and enjoy liver! It's too bad that so many people have been turned into haters by people using toxic-as-all-get-out feedlot liver, cooking it all wrong, and not slicing it thin enough! Sadly, the liver-haters of the world (thanks to crappy cooks) have turned off so many ofour 100% grass-fed beef customers that we have to dump the majority of our delicious liver into the pet food recipe (lucky dogs and cats!) Here's my secrets:
HOW TO COOK LIVER FOR LIVER-HATERS:
Absolute Rule #1: You have to start with good liver! I'm going to aggravate some readers here, but you gotta call a spade a spade: Avoid eating all feedlot liver (which is pretty toxic in all ways!). Grass-fed or calves liver is best, try for "organically-raised" or "beyond organic" if possible. Also Pastured Pig liver is fantastic and and mild and I also try to get lamb or even goat liver it you can find it. These animals are typically killed when very young, which means a sweeter, more-tender and more-delicious eating experience. The out-gassing of poisons, toxins and sickness of commodity feedlot liver is the "liver smell" which people mistake for food. No wonder they hate it. The liver of a typical feedlot steer is so filled with pus and poison that they are in a state of pre-death just before they are harvested. The liver takes the heat for an abusive lifestyle. All feedlot cattle, due to the push of excess grain have Hepatic Lipidosis (fatty liver syndrome). You don't want to be eating it. If they are on antibiotics, hormone implants or other drugs, guess where these drugs are concentrated? Deer or Elk liver is awesome if it's harvested and field-dressed properly. Never waste it.
#2 Cut it into very, very thin strips, I mean like 1/3" thick, maybe 1/2", and only a few inches long. Be sure to de-vein if there are some large ones (this step is for neophyte eaters only). Cutting the liver into fine strips is the most important part if you are trying to make converts.
#3 Roll the wet strips in flour until covered (Optional) roll in raw egg first to create an extra-crispy crunchy KFC crust- I don't do this myself but it is delicious! (optional) If you don't know theactual source of your liver (not a good thing, but sometimes necessary) you can pre-soak your liver in fresh milk for about 20 minutes to detox it and make it taste better. Easy and simple.
#4 In a skillet with a bit of bacon grease or lard, caramelize some onions, that means cook them until they are translucent then put them aside.
#5 Fry the floured liver strips quickly in a cast-iron skillet with about 1/4-1/2" of very hot lard or bacon grease. For liver-haters, cook it almost well-done, for the rest of us, rare or medium-rare is ideal. (Optional) I like to add fresh crushed garlic (or minced garlic from a jar) to the lard before I fry the liver). This is good for your own liver and digestion, plus it adds an amazing flavor. Seasalt and fresh-ground black pepper are nice additions as the liver fries.
#6 Spoon the fried onions over the top of the right-out-of-the-skillet liver and serve hot. (Optional) I love rare liver cooked this way, then served with a dollop of fresh horseradish, yum! A good SIDE DISH to liver is a helping of sweet potatoes or yams drenched in butter. The obvious secret of chefs everywhere is that everything tastes great when breaded and fried in lard! Ha ha. Making the strips thin is key for neophyte liver eaters.
WHY SERVE LIVER: Liver is one of the "super foods" of the world! We need to eat this powerful food. Again, it must be from drug-free, free-range non-toxic animals (feedlot liveris not healthful to eat). Children need to eat liver even more than adults. Get them started on liver very young, like 2-3 years of age. You would be hard-pressed to find anything healthier to put into your body. Try to eat one good meal of liver (home-cooked, don't trust any restaurant!) every week. Some people I have cooked liver for in this manner start gobbling it right out of the skillet and their body deficiencies are so profound they will consume a pound of it or more, without any other side dishes. I quite often crave it and will also eat it like this. By the way, the less you cook it, the better. Over-cooking destroys nutrients in all foods. If you are recuperating from a serious chronic illness, auto-immune problems, or if you are detoxifying, one of the best ways to get healthy is to add raw liver to your blender drinks. The liver of a healthy animal, contrary to popular belief is not a "bag of poisons", it's the organ in the body that stores vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and other powerful nutrients. Polar bear liver is the only species of liver that you cannot eat. Why? There is so much Vitamin A stored in it that one serving can be fatal. The Innuits know this and cannot eat it. The polar bears live at the top of an oceanic food chain of vital foods and therefore concentrate it like no other animal.
WHY FRY IN LARD: There are only 4 cooking oils that will hold up under fry heat, LARD, TALLOW, COCONUT and PALM. These are good oils, in spite of what the P.C. doctors try to tell us.All the so-called vegetable oils (they are not from vegetables!), canola, soy, corn are the most prevalent breakdown quickly under heat. Don't heat butter either, it is quite fragile under heat. OK tolightly cook and egg under low heat, but nothing more. The now-popular oils are also all GMO products and they are all loaded with the inflammatory Omega 6. Saturated fats are the only way to go, we need them in our diet. Heart attacks and even strokes were virtually unheard of before Crisco and Margarine came into the american diet. Crisco is an acronym for hydrogenated cotton seed oil, a waste product that clever marketers turned into "pure white" death in a can. The solid oils are hydrogenated too, another killer processing of food, and unless you know the source of the lard, be carefulbecause grocery store lard is usually hydrogenated and therefore turned into junk food.
For more information about cooking with oil and which ones to eat, I can send you articles or just go to the website westonaprice.org. We've all been sold a nasty bill of goods. No wonder 1/3 of all Americans are taking statin drugs!
