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Pig's Liver, Fried
Soak the liver of a freshly-killed pig, and cut it into slices less than half an inch thick. Sprinkle a little pepper and salt over these, and fry them in hot fat until they are brightly browned on both sides. Take them up, put them on a hot dish, and mix a tea-spoonful of flour smoothly with the butter in which they were fried. Moisten with two table-spoonfuls of boiling stock or water and two table-spoonfuls of claret. Stir the gravy over the fire until it is on the point of boiling, add pepper and salt, if required; pour the sauce over the liver and serve very hot. If liked, one or two sliced onions may be fried with the liver. Time to fry the liver, a quarter of an hour. Probable cost, 1s. 2d. Sufficient for two or three persons.
A straightforward fry-and-deglaze that survives translation intact, with one number worth ignoring: the quarter of an hour.
- The frying timeFifteen minutes will turn thin slices grey and grainy. Two to three minutes a side over fairly high heat is enough to brown the outside and just set the centre of slices cut, as directed, under half an inch thick. Pork liver should not be served rare, but it reaches a safe internal temperature (about 70C/160F) long before it reaches fifteen minutes.
- "Freshly-killed pig"The recipe assumes liver from an animal killed very recently. Buy the freshest pork liver you can find, keep it refrigerated, and cook it within a day of purchase; it deteriorates faster than muscle meat and turns bitter and metallic as it does.
- The soakThe soak is not seasoning: it draws out blood and tames the strong edge of pig's liver, which is stronger-tasting than calf's. The recipe does not say what to soak it in; milk is the usual modern recommendation, and many cooks find it gives a milder result than water. Half an hour to two hours in the refrigerator, then pat thoroughly dry so the slices brown rather than steam.
- ClaretNineteenth-century English shorthand for red Bordeaux, and by extension any dry red. Any tannic, unsweetened red will do; avoid anything oaky or jammy, which fights the iron in the liver.
- "The butter in which they were fried"The recipe says hot fat at the start and butter here, so the terms are being used loosely. If the pan fat has burnt or blackened, discard it, wipe the pan and start the roux with fresh butter, otherwise the sauce carries a scorched taste.
- The sauce quantityTwo tablespoons each of stock and claret against a teaspoon of flour gives a scant, glossy pan gravy, not a pourable sauce. Doubling both liquids for four servings is reasonable; keep the flour proportional.
- Flouring the slicesModern practice usually dusts liver in seasoned flour before frying, which gives a better crust and helps thicken the pan sauce. The original seasons bare and thickens afterwards; either works, but do not do both or the gravy will be pasty.
- YieldTwo or three portions, as stated; the recipe gives no weight, only the whole liver of one pig. Serve immediately; reheated liver is uniformly bad.
Cassell's places this among the plain, thrifty meat cookery that filled the middle of a Victorian household dictionary: liver was cheap, perishable, and traditionally the first thing eaten after a pig was killed, since it could not be salted or hung like the rest of the carcass. The stated cost of 1s 2d for two or three people marks it as everyday food rather than company fare. What lifts it slightly is the claret in the pan gravy. The instruction to use the liver of a freshly-killed pig is a reminder that the book was written for readers who might still keep a pig, or buy from a butcher slaughtering on the premises, rather than for anyone shopping from a chilled case.