Home › Meat and Poultry Pies › Fried Liver (English)
Fried Liver (English)
Cut 1 pound of liver into slices a quarter of an inch in thickness, and dredge some flour over them. Take an equal number of slices of bacon, fat and lean together. Fry the bacon first, and when it is done enough, draw the rashers from the fat, and place them on a hot dish. Fry the slices of liver in the same fat, and when lightly browned on both sides, dish bacon and liver in a circle, a slice of each alternately. Pour the fat from the pan, and dredge a little flour into it. Add a quarter of a pint of broth, a little salt and pepper, and a tablespoonful of mushroom ketchup. Stir smoothly together until the sauce boils, and pour it into the dish with the liver. Garnish with sliced lemon. If liked, a tablespoonful of finely minced gherkins or pickled walnuts may be added to the sauce. Time, a quarter of an hour to fry the liver. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A straightforward liver and bacon with a pan gravy. The one thing to change is the frying time: a quarter of an hour will turn quarter-inch slices grey and grainy.
- Cook the liver brieflyQuarter-inch slices of calf's or lamb's liver need about 1 to 2 minutes a side over fairly brisk heat, until browned outside and still faintly pink within. A quarter of an hour, whatever the original intention, yields dry, mealy liver.
- Which liverThe recipe does not say which liver is meant. Calf's or lamb's liver is mildest and best suited here; ox (beef) liver is strong and coarse and benefits from a soak in milk for an hour, drained and patted dry before dredging.
- A quarter of a pintThat is 5 fl oz in imperial measure, about 142 ml, so a generous half cup. Beef or veal stock suits it; add it off the heat to the flour-thickened fat, then return to the heat.
- RashersA rasher is simply a slice of bacon; British bacon is often the leaner back cut, though the recipe's "fat and lean together" suggests something closer to streaky. Use as many slices as you have slices of liver, and if the bacon is very fatty you may need to pour off some fat before frying the liver rather than after.
- Mushroom ketchupA thin, dark, salty mushroom-and-spice liquid, not the tomato sauce. It is still sold by British specialists; Worcestershire sauce or a mushroom-heavy soy-based seasoning will stand in for the savoury depth, though both are sharper, so start with less than the tablespoonful called for.
- DredgingFlour the liver just before it goes into the pan. Floured in advance it goes damp and the coating slides off instead of browning.
- The saucePouring the fat from the pan leaves the browned bits; the flour should be cooked in what clings to the pan for half a minute before the broth goes in, or the gravy tastes raw and pasty.
- YieldOne pound of liver plus bacon serves three or four generously by modern portions rather than the four or five claimed, and wants mashed or boiled potatoes to take the gravy.