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Baked Liver and Bacon
Select liver, wash it well, rub it with Crisco, and place it in vinegar with 1 chopped shallot, a little chopped parsley, and salt and pepper to suit taste. Let it stand overnight; roast it, adding strips of bacon. Baste it frequently with the vinegar mixture. When done, make brown gravy, and serve very hot.
The original gives no oven temperature, no weight and no time, which was normal for 1915 — the cook was expected to know. Here is what the gaps mean in practice.
- The hinge: do not overcook itLiver goes grainy and metallic the moment it passes medium. Roasting a whole calf's liver at around 350F and pulling it at 145-150F in the centre suits modern taste; for a 2 lb piece that is somewhere in the region of 30-40 minutes, but go by a thermometer rather than the clock. It should still be faintly rosy when sliced.
- Which liverThe recipe does not say which liver; a whole calf's liver, the mild pale kind sold whole, is the likely intention and the best choice here. Beef liver is much stronger and coarser; lamb's liver is a workable substitute at roughly half the size. Ask for a single whole lobe rather than slices, since slices will dry out under this treatment.
- CriscoThe book was written to promote Crisco, then a new hydrogenated vegetable shortening. Any neutral oil or softened butter does the same job here — it is only there to help the seasoning cling and to keep the surface from drying.
- Marinate cold"Let it stand overnight" assumed a cold larder or icebox. Marinate in the refrigerator, covered. The vinegar does not make the liver safe to hold at room temperature.
- Vinegar quantityNone is specified. Enough to come halfway up the liver in a close-fitting dish is sufficient — perhaps a cup for a 2 lb piece. Use cider or white wine vinegar rather than distilled, which is harsh at this concentration.
- ShallotRead this as the modern shallot rather than a scallion. Some books of the era used the two words loosely, but a true shallot is what suits the marinade.
- Basting and baconLay the bacon strips over the top so the fat renders down through the roast. Baste with the strained vinegar mixture two or three times, no more — repeated oven-door opening will overshoot the liver's narrow window of doneness.
- The gravy"Make brown gravy" means deglaze the pan: pour off most of the fat, whisk a spoonful of flour into what remains, cook it to a nut colour, then add stock and the remaining marinade and reduce. Strain before serving.
- YieldA 2 lb liver with bacon serves four to six. Serve immediately; liver reheated is much the worse for it.
This comes from A Calendar of Dinners, one of the recipe collections issued to promote Crisco after its introduction in 1911 — which explains why shortening appears in a marinade where it does no obvious work beyond carrying the seasoning. Roasting a whole liver, rather than frying slices, was the older and more formal treatment: the overnight vinegar bath with shallot and parsley is a plain domestic descendant of the French marinade, used both to season and to soften the slightly assertive flavour of offal. Liver was cheap, quickly cooked and thought strengthening, and it appears constantly in household cookery of the period for all three reasons.