Home › The Principles of Cookery › Veal--Calf's Liver, Fried
Veal--Calf's Liver, Fried
Take two pounds of calf's liver. Cut it into slices, and soak these in water for half an hour. Dry them in a soft cloth, and dip them into flour. Fry them with a little fat, and turn them about that they may be equally cooked. When they are lightly browned, sprinkle over them a savoury powder made with equal quantities of chopped parsley and finely-shredded young onions, and a little pepper and salt. Pour a little stock over the liver, let it simmer a few minutes, add the strained juice of a lemon, and serve the liver on a hot dish with the gravy poured over it. If liked, this dish may be enriched by adding a pinch of thyme, a bay-leaf, and a glassful of light wine to the stock. Fried bacon may then be served with it. Time, from ten to fifteen minutes to dress the liver. Probable cost of calf's liver, 10d. per pound. Sufficient for four or five persons. (See also BACON AND CALF'S LIVER.)
A straightforward pan-fry finished with a quick pan sauce; the only real risk is overcooking, since calf's liver turns granular and bitter the moment it goes past pink.
- The hinge: cook it brieflySlices about 1/2 inch thick need roughly 1 to 2 minutes a side over fairly brisk heat, and the ten to fifteen minutes given here most likely covers browning plus the simmer in stock rather than the frying alone. Pull the liver out while the centre is still rosy and return it to the pan only to warm through in the sauce.
- The soakingHalf an hour in water draws out blood and softens the mineral edge. Milk is the more common modern choice and does the same job; either way, dry the slices thoroughly or the flour will slide off and refuse to brown.
- "A little fat"Clarified butter, lard or dripping all suit. Plain butter alone will burn at the heat you need, so cut it with oil if you want the flavour.
- "Savoury powder"Here it means nothing more than the chopped parsley, shredded spring onion, pepper and salt mixed together. Add it after browning, as the book directs, since parsley and onion scorch quickly in hot fat.
- Quantities for the sauceFor 2 lb of liver, about 1/2 cup of stock and the juice of one lemon give a light pan gravy. The optional "glassful of light wine" is not defined in the book; a Victorian wineglassful is usually reckoned at around 2 to 4 fl oz of dry white. Reduce it briefly before adding the stock.
- SlicingAsk for the liver sliced, or freeze it for 20 minutes to firm it before cutting. Peel off any tough outer membrane, which contracts in the pan and curls the slices.
- Yield and priceFour to five as written. The "10d. per pound" is Victorian retail pricing and has no modern equivalent; calf's liver is now a specialist butcher's item rather than a cheap cut.
- ServingWarm the plates. Liver loses its texture fast as it cools, and the lemon-sharpened gravy is thin rather than thickened, so it wants something to sit against the suggested fried bacon, or mashed potato.
Fried liver with a lemon-sharpened pan gravy belongs to a broad European family of quick offal dishes the Venetian fegato alla veneziana with onions, the Austrian and German liver fried with marjoram and served with vinegar or lemon. Cassell's places this among its veal entries because calf's liver was understood as part of the veal carcass rather than as generic "liver": milder and finer-grained than ox liver. Offal appears constantly in nineteenth-century household books, and the enrichments offered here thyme, bay, a glass of light wine, bacon alongside are often said to be a characteristically Victorian way of turning a plain fry into something fit for a dinner course.