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SHEEP'S LIVER (a la Francaise)
Cut some slices of liver half an inch thick, and lay them neatly in a stewpan slightly buttered; sprinkle pepper and salt over the upper sides. Slice two ounces of fat bacon as finely as possible, chop a tea-spoonful of parsley and a small shallot very fine, and spread them evenly over the liver; cover the stewpan closely, and set it on a fire so moderate that it will draw out all the juices without simmering--the least approach to this hardens the liver and spoils it. If the range is too hot, set the stewpan on an iron stand. When the liver has thus stood for an hour and a half it will be done. Take it up, put it on a hot dish, and cover it closely whilst you boil the bacon and the gravy together for two minutes; then pour the sauce over the liver, and serve immediately. Liver cooked thus is digestible, and can be eaten by persons who could not venture upon it when it is fried.
A slow, self-basting braise in which the liver cooks in nothing but its own juices and the fat rendered from the bacon. The whole method turns on heat control.
- The hinge: never let it simmerThe pan should stay below a simmer for the full hour and a half, so the liver poaches gently in its exuded juices. The moment bubbles break the surface the protein tightens and the liver turns grainy and dry, which is exactly the fault the recipe was written to avoid.
- The "iron stand"That is a Victorian trivet used to lift a pan off the hot plate. A heat-diffuser mat over the lowest gas flame does the same job; on an induction or electric hob, the lowest setting with a heavy pan is usually enough. If your hob will not go low enough, the very lowest oven setting you have, with the pan covered, may hold the heat more steadily - but check that the juices are not bubbling.
- Check the temperature before servingLow-temperature cooking is fine, but liver should reach 160F/70C throughout. Slices half an inch thick held in a covered pan for 90 minutes will normally pass that comfortably; an instant-read thermometer in the thickest slice settles it.
- Sheep's liverSold today as lamb's liver, and much milder than the mature mutton liver the book assumes. If yours smells strong, soak the slices in milk for half an hour and pat them dry before they go in the pan.
- Fat baconUnsmoked streaky bacon or fresh pork belly, sliced as thin as you can manage, is the right substitute. Modern smoked, sugar-cured bacon will dominate a dish whose whole point is delicacy, and wet-cured bacon will release water and start the pan simmering.
- Shallot and parsleyA "small shallot" is roughly a tablespoon once chopped. Chop both fine enough that they melt into the fat rather than sitting on the meat as a raw garnish.
- The two-minute sauceThere will be surprisingly little liquid, perhaps a few tablespoons of rendered fat and juices. Boiling it hard for two minutes with the bacon concentrates it; if it looks too thin to coat, reduce a little further rather than adding stock.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantity: "some slices" of half-inch liver. About a pound, four or five slices, would serve three as a main course with the sauce spooned over. Serve at once on a hot dish, as the recipe says.
The closing sentence of the recipe gives away its purpose: liver "can be eaten by persons who could not venture upon it when it is fried" is the language of nineteenth-century dietetics, in which fried food was held to be the enemy of weak digestion and slow, moist cooking its remedy. Liver was cheap, and cooks needed a way to serve it that would not repel a delicate appetite. The a la francaise label attaches to the technique rather than to any particular French dish: gentle covered cooking in butter and bacon fat with shallot and parsley, close kin to the etuvee of the French kitchen, a shorthand for careful, unhurried method. That such a dish was worth an hour and a half of watched, damped-down fire is a reminder of how a coal range worked, with hot spots, trivets and iron stands standing in for the dial on a modern hob.