Fried Liver
Cut in thin slices and place on a platter, pour on boiling water and immediately pour it off (this seals the outside, takes away the unpleasant flavor, and makes it much more palatable); have ready in skillet on the stove, some hot lard or beef drippings, or both together, dredge the liver with rolled crackers or dried breadcrumbs rolled fine and nicely seasoned with pepper and salt, put in skillet, placing the tin cover on, fry slowly until both sides are dark-brown, when the liver will be thoroughly cooked. The time required is about a quarter of an hour..
A plain nineteenth-century treatment of liver that hinges on two things: the scalding rinse and the slow covered fry. The first is worth keeping; the second is worth shortening.
- Which liverThe recipe does not say. Calf's or veal liver, milder and paler, suits this method best; beef liver is stronger and coarser, and lamb's liver is a reasonable substitute.
- Thin slices means thinAim for a scant half inch. Anything thicker will still be raw in the centre when the crumb coating has gone dark.
- The boiling-water rinseA quick pour of boiling water over the slices, tipped straight off, rinses away surface blood, which carries some of the metallic taste; it does not 'seal' anything. Pat the slices completely dry afterward or the crumbs will not adhere.
- Rolled crackersPlain soda crackers or water biscuits crushed fine. They give a coarser, sandier crust than breadcrumbs; either works, and seasoning the crumbs rather than the meat is the correct order here.
- Lard or beef drippingsBoth still work and both add flavour a neutral oil will not. Use enough to film the pan generously and get it hot before the liver goes in.
- The fifteen minutesFar too long by current practice. Liver toughens and turns grainy once it passes medium; two to three minutes a side over medium-high heat, until the crumbs are brown, is enough.
- The tin coverCovering the skillet traps steam and softens the crust you have just built. Leave it off unless the slices are unusually thick, in which case cover for the last minute only.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantities; scale to the number of slices you cut. Onions fried in the same fat afterward and piled on top are a common accompaniment.
Buckeye Cookery came out of Ohio in the 1870s, compiled by Estelle Woods Wilcox from contributed receipts -- it is usually said to have begun as a church fund-raising collection -- and its meat chapter reflects a household economy in which nothing from a slaughtered animal was wasted. Liver was cheap, perishable, and eaten quickly, which is why it appears here in a fast skillet preparation rather than a stew or pie. The scalding trick recorded in the parenthesis appears in other American and British cookery books of the century; it rinses off residual blood rather than 'sealing' the cut surface, and cooks still soak liver in milk or acidulated water for a similar purpose. The confident claim that a quarter-hour renders the liver "thoroughly cooked" reads oddly now, when tastes have turned back toward pink.