Liver as Food

[stellar]

I cook all innards sauted in lots of leek and garlic in plenty of lard. It seems to remove the 'smell' if you want to call it that and it is really tasty.

Chicken liver and lamb or pork brains are light and very filling with some sweet potato fried or mashed.They are actually much cheaper than most cuts of meat from the butchers and quick to cook.

 

[realitybugll]

I ate liver for the first time. It wasn't bad. I didn't love it, but it was edible. The buckwheat and vegetables which are part of the recipe was the good part. :)

I saw this picture of "buckwheat and liver" dish and could not find this combination anywhere, so I emailed the person/chef and she wrote the recipe up on her blog.

_http://nami-nami.blogspot.com/2011/06/recipe-request-buckwheat-and-beef-liver.html

 

[Meager1]

My favorite is Deer heart and liver cooked "lightly" in butter with onions.

Deer is sweeter then beef, but when I don`t have the deer meat, calves liver will do.

And no, you can`t over cook it, just throw it into the hot pan and turn it over once, it should still have some blood showing. ( don`t know if it`s the iron in the blood or what, but what a boost you get!)

I like steamed asparagus on the side but even without it, I still love liver!

It`s the one thing I can eat when I feel really fatigued and without energy that can make me feel 100% better in no time at all! Everyone should at least try it.

 

[mabar]

I used to like beef liver fried with onions and lemon juice and salt, BUT since there has been intoxications in human beings due to addition of clenbuterol (illegally drug to enhance athletes as well as animals) in this country, I had been avoiding since 1999. I had not tried the chicken liver though, maybe one of these days.

 

[doublea1535]

I have been thinking of trying liver again, as I have not since I was a child. I didn't much care for it then. However, I LOVE liverwurst. That stuff is amazingly delicious.

 

[Nienna]

I used to like beef liver fried with onions and lemon juice and salt, BUT since there has been intoxications in human beings due to addition of clenbuterol (illegally drug to enhance athletes as well as animals) in this country, I had been avoiding since 1999. I had not tried the chicken liver though, maybe one of these days.

Have you thought about trying to find organic, grass-fed beef and liver?

 

[mabar]

I used to like beef liver fried with onions and lemon juice and salt, BUT since there has been intoxications in human beings due to addition of clenbuterol (illegally drug to enhance athletes as well as animals) in this country, I had been avoiding since 1999. I had not tried the chicken liver though, maybe one of these days.

Have you thought about trying to find organic, grass-fed beef and liver?

I have been thinking ...yes, already pinpoint at least two stores in this city, I found also a website selling organic meat but it is from the other side of the country-too expensive in shipping (pretty much or more than the product itself). Meat is expensive, organic ones are more, perhaps one day I will allow myself that kind of luxury :)

 

[mcb]

I am having chicken liver this week, along with one of my cats who looks like she could use some real food. The chicken liver looks a lot like beef liver, but it tastes better. That may partly be because I am getting used to it.

I said earlier that I wouldn't want to eat liver from conventionally (CAFO) fattened cows because there was no telling what might be in it. Here is a quote from The Vegetarian Myth that tells what happens to the liver when the cows are fed grain:

...The acid eats through the rumen, letting bacteria into the cow’s bloodstream. Since the liver’s function is to clean the blood, the microbes end up in the cow’s liver, causing abscesses. Somewhere between 15 and 38 percent of beef cattle have abscessed livers at death...

So be careful where your liver comes from.

 

[stellar]

I am having chicken liver this week, along with one of my cats who looks like she could use some real food. The chicken liver looks a lot like beef liver, but it tastes better. That may partly be because I am getting used to it.

I said earlier that I wouldn't want to eat liver from conventionally (CAFO) fattened cows because there was no telling what might be in it. Here is a quote from The Vegetarian Myth that tells what happens to the liver when the cows are fed grain:

...The acid eats through the rumen, letting bacteria into the cow’s bloodstream. Since the liver’s function is to clean the blood, the microbes end up in the cow’s liver, causing abscesses. Somewhere between 15 and 38 percent of beef cattle have abscessed livers at death...

So be careful where your liver comes from.

Weeell I was born with it so I dunno... buuut ( :P sorry ,couldn't resist) I only eat chicken and pork innards. They seem safe from my local organic butcher.

 

[RedFox]

And no, you can`t over cook it, just throw it into the hot pan and turn it over once, it should still have some blood showing. ( don`t know if it`s the iron in the blood or what, but what a boost you get!)

Heart is full of Co-Q10 and L-Carnatine, so if you are on a low carb/high fat diet it gives you all the things you need to metabolise fat into usable energy. Beef heart has the highest concentrations as far as I know.

We had beef heart and pork kidney buckwheat stew a few months back and it was delicious and Extremely filling. It did give my parents a boost too.

I have been thinking ...yes, already pinpoint at least two stores in this city, I found also a website selling organic meat but it is from the other side of the country-too expensive in shipping (pretty much or more than the product itself). Meat is expensive, organic ones are more, perhaps one day I will allow myself that kind of luxury :)

It took me a while but I found several local organic meat farms, and that they have there own shops. Shipping is expensive (even though they are local) so I'm planning to save up and take a drive out there and load my car up ever month or so.
One of the places sells organ meats too, and you can get organic lambs heart/kidney for next to nothing. Combine that with lambs neck and you have a really filling organic meat stew that costs less than I'm paying for organic meat in the supermarket and will undoubtedly be way more nutritious.

Increasing nutritional density seems to bet he way to go, hence consuming (organic) organ meat. It will cost less too because not only are they cheap to buy, I find I don't need to eat as much organ meat as regular meat.
If your eating organ meat you won't need hardly any supplements either.

Had liver and bacon at the weekend and it really gave me a boost of energy, even compared to eating organic meat.

 

[rrraven]

I love pate and/or liverwurst and my mum used to make her own exotic ones like duck liver pate or goose or rabbit and we even have the fancy ceramic dishes where the lid is a duck or rabbit

I don't know how is it there, but organic chicken here usually bring the liver. I keep a collection into the freezer to make pâté once there are enough :D

my mum made her pate in what she called 1 to 1 ratio,using pig liver as well
that is not one part duck to one part pig...its one pig to one duck :P
so you don't have to wait until you have enough chicken livers ,most pates contain pork and lard as a base
back in WW2 they even made mock-pate with just lard and basil and some kind of pearl barley(graupen)

 

[skycsil]

rrraven, that's a great idea! I cooked beef patè once but it wasn't that tasty (too strong), but pig liver sounds yummy! ;)

 

[Ollie]

Heart is full of Co-Q10 and L-Carnatine, so if you are on a low carb/high fat diet it gives you all the things you need to metabolise fat into usable energy. Beef heart has the highest concentrations as far as I know.

Based on this type of information, I recently tested lambs liver, and heart (pork, other than cured is out for me as is beef), and unfortunately I tested sensitive to them. So, organ meat is out for me. :(

 

[AdamJM]

this is funny, i was reading about the benefits of eating liver last night and came on to ask if anybody knew from personal experience whether it is good or not, then found this thread straight away, it must be a sign! i was reading a bodybuilding forum and one of the guys recommended taking desicated liver tablets as a way to get much needed b vitamins and iron to cleanse the blood. apparently its an old school bodybuilding trick. this particular guy had noticed great benefits from taking it but i wanted to see if it was an all round thing, obviously it is.
the problem i have though is that i cannot stand the texture of liver, thats why i considered taking the tablets. one person even recommended cutting a piece of raw liver into capsule size pieces, freezing, then ingesting on a regular basis like tablets, meaning that you weren't substituting a synthetic product for the real one. i dont think thats the way to go for me, so i will likely opt for the liver tabs, but i was wondering if anybody else had tried them and found them useful, or tolerable? and can recommend any decent products.
cheers Ad.

 

[RedFox]

Heart is full of Co-Q10 and L-Carnatine, so if you are on a low carb/high fat diet it gives you all the things you need to metabolise fat into usable energy. Beef heart has the highest concentrations as far as I know.

Based on this type of information, I recently tested lambs liver, and heart (pork, other than cured is out for me as is beef), and unfortunately I tested sensitive to them. So, organ meat is out for me. :(

Hi Trevrizent, can I ask about how you determine your sensitivity to them?

the problem i have though is that i cannot stand the texture of liver

Try chopping the liver really finely into small chunks, do the same with the same amount of bacon (you can chop this more roughly), add both to a pan and fry in some fat for a few minutes, then add a little water and cover and simmer gently for about 20-30 minutes. You end up with a rich gravy that you shouldn't notice the texture of the liver so much with (due to the gravy and the bacon masking it).
:D