Take a fresh liver - or half a fresh liver in this case . This one came from a sheep , who was using it until less than a day ago


Slice into about 3/4" / 20mm strips.


Dredge in plain flour and fry in a hot pan. Dont over cook - first side is done when juice starts coming to the surface. Flick over and do other side - do not over cook.


Get some good bacon - I use local butcher-made , free-range pig , middle loin bacon , cut into chunks



Cook the bacon until it is browned but still soft and flexible. Dont cremate it!


Grab a sachet of mushroom cup-of-soup powder and mix with about a cup of water. I used 300 mls which is a cup and a bit.



Pour the soup mix into the pan with your bacon , and add the liver that you have diligently kept warm in the oven. You should now have something that looks like this


Simmer to reduce the volume of the soup mix. This is making your gravy. Should look a bit like this now .


Dish it up and enjoy

The more diligent amongst you will have seen that the soup mix was , ahem, past its best before date . That date is only a guide and means very little in the blokes cooking world. Just ignore it ......

Glad you like it. Last liver on my plate was in the early 1960s. And it was stuffed in my pocket when my parents were not looking. It was properly disposed after dinner.

I kind of thought that would be most guys reaction :-)

I would have commuted the sheep's sentence. The bacon part sounded excellent......so the pig gets it.

You guys are so predictable.

Be brave and try it - you might surprise yourselves.

You can use a deer liver , probably wouldnt use a pig liver personally but each to their own.

A little bit different recipe, but similar. My dad would take deer liver cut about 3/8" to 1/2" thick, dredge in flour seasoned heavily with salt and pepper. Cook in bacon drippings. He thought it was the best thing ever. I'd eat it if I diden"t have anything else and was starving.

Years of being force-fed crap at fast food restaurants has ruined you guys ability to appreciate good , wholesome , country food.

I am dismayed ... :-(

Liver and onions (or bacon) is good by me, but the liver can't be overdone or underdone...

If I would try and reduce a gravy with the liver in it, I am convinced I'd end up with overdone liver, which is about as tasty as shoe leather.

Liver to me is the most touchy think I can cook... and I end up throwing out the first piece more often then not!

I dredge my calf's liver in plain flour and fry in bacon grease. Once it is nicely brown, I set it aside and saute some onions in the grease. These are taken out and I then make a nice skillet of gravy and add the onions and liver and simmer for a bit. Make about 5 pounds of mashed potatoes and some crusty bread to push things around with and go to it.
If you've a whole liver, if you kinda half freeze it, it will slice a lot easier.

ah - enlightenment at last

We used to eat the deer liver at hunting camp. Cut into slices, we parboiled in salted water for a few minutes just to get some of the blood out, then brown in butter with onions...may have been a dusting of flour on the liver before frying. It was as good as any beef liver I ever had and we'd eat it with gusto...

UNTIL that year we cut into a liver that had liver flukes....my dad never fixed it again and I never saved another liver.

FWIW info.When you collect your wild liver,deer etc. Remember to remove the gall. That is a small greenish piece about the size of a pea.If you don't remove it, it will give the liver a bitter taste.DO NOT break it while cutting it out or you might as well throw it all away.I love liver myself;sounds like a great recipe.

That looks it would go great over a few scrambled eggs for breakfast!

Or mashed potatoes for supper......


.

Love bacon, hate liver. Enough said....

Thats why they make Fords + Chevys.

I like LIver and onions fried in bacon grease, also heart..Also Im not much on ketchup but on Liver n onions I like lots of ketchup..nothing added but salt and pepper if you must. I like the bacon best.

I also like liver and onions with heart. It was a hunting tradition that when our deer was taken, the liver and heart was "supper". Damn I miss that.

I like liver + onions just as is with no condiments,just some mashed potatoes on the side.

Hogbreath.it is more than missing it for oneself,it is passing on the tradition to the next generation. Just like blooding the face or cutting off the shirt tail.Tradition is paramount to keep these things alive.I've gone through sons + grandsons (+one granddaughter [Annie Oakley] that shamed them all.)

There is a lot of difference between fresh liver and what most think of when they hear the word liver. I've found that liver is very sweet and mild when it is eaten within 3 days of removing it from the animal. After 3 days, it becomes a bit more tender, but the flavor is quite a bit stronger. I like it aged or fresh, but for those who have only tasted store bought liver, you likely will be surprised if you eat it right after killing the donor.

I drive across town to the only restaurant that I know of that has liver and onions on the menu.

Dave

I love it but wife does not.Her mother ,101 yrs young does but getting her out of the assisted living center is not worth the effort.Years ago when she could still function,she would tell me me that that was the best she had ever tasted.

I love it too. My wife, not so much!

I used to love deep fried chicken livers w/ gravy. Used to hell,still do but when I eat them I can feel my heart pounding in my chest.This aging is not for the timid.

Lambs fry and bacon. The wife loves it, I don't mind it but have to be in the mood.

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
Hogbreath.it is more than missing it for oneself,it is passing on the tradition to the next generation. Just like blooding the face or cutting off the shirt tail.Tradition is paramount to keep these things alive.I've gone through sons + grandsons (+one granddaughter [Annie Oakley] that shamed them all.)

NC, unfortunately, I don't have any kids to pass it on to and other than one brother I have, no body else in my family hunts. I will have the opportunity to try that in a couple of weeks though. I have a 4th season cow tag and a late season doe tag so I will savor it when I harvest!

Hogbreath,just a thought here,do with it what you will. When I was a kid my Dad did'nt care about hunting,my mother had a phobia about guns in general.My uncle Warner took me shooting for the 1st time w/ an old single shot .22. Our next door neighbor was a big bird hunter + took me out to shoot skeet.Those men changed my life. Perhaps you could find a young man that needs guidence + bring him into the fold + a lifetime of pleasure in Man's noblest sport.

If we -as the older generation - dont take youngsters out and teach them to hunt there wont be enough hunters to have a voice when we need to fight for our rights.
Its our duty to teach others , as our forefathers taught us - and teach those kids to like liver and bacon while we are at it

Lightly brown onions in olive oil. Salt, pepper, and dredge liver in flour. Remove onions, fry liver to medium-rare, medium at most. remove liver reheat onions and serve. most times with mashed, but often as tacos.


By tradition, it's the first thing I eat off my deer. capt david

I hope you do remember to remove the gall. You know ,that little green sack in the liver.Remove that + it's God's gift on eating;leave it + you would not feed it to your dog.

I can eat liver and onions anyway its cooked, I pretend it doesn't taste like Dove!

Me too. As stated before,I still love chicken livers + gravy but I can't eat them anymore.Well,I can but I might like to be alive tomorrow.

For a thread that only got bad press to begin with ,this one just keeps on giving ... ;-)

Just a little update! I got my deer in December (had a late season private land doe) Kept the liver and have to say, it is the mildest liver I have ever eaten. I always "skin" the liver before I cut it, which makes a lot of difference in texture. This liver is absolutely the best tasting liver I've ever had. Makes me wish I had another tag.

I agree. I prefer venison liver over beef.Never tried Elk. Don't know if this is true but for years the rumor went around that you could not eat bear liver as due to the amount of salmon they ate gave a high concentration of mercury in their liver that does not disipate. Anyone know the truth of this?

Elk liver is just as good but I stopped eating it about 8 years ago. Got my elk, kept the liver and heart. Soaked them in water for an hour before I started to clean them up. I had sliced the liver into slices and was getting ready to package them when I noticed something moving in the liver slices. It had liver flukes, confirmed by the game warden. Not healthy if ingested.

The liver(and kidneys) are nothing but a bloodstream filter, designed to remove trash. Anything bad in blood is going to be removed and stored in the liver, including parasites. At least kidneys have a way to offload impurities. The liver doesn’t. No thanks.