Home › Cookery › Bewitched Liver
Bewitched Liver
3 pounds calf's liver, chopped fine. 1/4 pound salt pork. 1 cup grated bread crumbs. 2 eggs well beaten. 2 teaspoonfuls salt. 2 teaspoonfuls black pepper. 1/2 teaspoonfuls red pepper.
Mix all well together, and put into a tin mould; set it in a pot of cold water and let it boil two hours. Then set the mould in a cool oven to dry off a little; when thoroughly cold turn it out.--Mrs. J. H.
This is a steamed liver loaf — a country pâté in all but name — meant to be eaten cold in slices. The whole success of it rests on gentle, even heat and on grinding the liver fine enough that the loaf slices cleanly.
- Chop fine means grindHand-chopping three pounds of liver to a paste was the original labor. Pulse trimmed liver in a food processor, or run it twice through the fine plate of a grinder, along with the salt pork. A coarse mixture will crumble instead of slicing.
- The salt porkQuarter-pound of salt pork is the fat that keeps the loaf from turning dry and grainy — liver has almost none of its own. Modern salt pork is very salty; rinse it, or substitute unsmoked fatback or fresh pork belly, in which case keep the full two teaspoons of salt.
- Seasoning is assertiveTwo teaspoons of black pepper plus half a teaspoon of cayenne in three pounds of liver is deliberate, not a misprint — heat and pepper are what tame the mineral edge of liver in a dish served cold. Still, cold food tastes flatter, so taste a small fried spoonful of the raw mixture before moulding if you want to adjust.
- The mould and the water bathA "tin mould" here is any covered tin or lidded loaf pan; a 9x5 loaf pan with foil pressed over the top works. Set it in a pot with water reaching two-thirds up the sides. "Let it boil" should in practice be a bare simmer — a hard boil rocks the mould and can make the loaf coarse and weeping.
- Time and donenessTwo hours is generous for a loaf this size. Judge by an instant-read thermometer at the center: 160F is done, and much beyond that dries the liver out. Since the mould starts in cold water, as directed, the timing will vary with how fast the bath comes up; begin checking well before the two hours are out.
- "A cool oven"A low one, somewhere in the region of 250-300F, for perhaps 15 to 20 minutes, uncovered. Its only purpose is to evaporate surface moisture so the loaf turns out cleanly rather than slipping about in its own liquid.
- Chill under weightThe instruction to turn it out only when "thoroughly cold" is the hinge. Cool it in the mould, refrigerate overnight, and set a weight on top if you want a dense, sliceable terrine. Turned out warm it will fall apart.
- Yield and servingThree pounds of liver makes a substantial loaf — 12 to 16 slices, enough for a supper table or a picnic basket. Serve cold with mustard, pickles or a sharp relish, and use within three or four days.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia, compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree and published in 1878, was assembled from the manuscript receipts of some 250 Virginia housekeepers, which is why so many entries close with a set of initials rather than a name — "Mrs. J. H." is one of those anonymous contributors. The dish itself is a familiar type: a forcemeat of liver, pork fat, crumbs and egg, steamed in a mould and eaten cold, the same logic that produces a French pâté de campagne. Cooking it in a covered tin inside a pot of water is often said to have been a way around ovens that could not be trusted to hold a low, even heat, and it also gave a loaf that kept well in a cool larder. The name is a puzzle with no documented explanation; "bewitched" seems to be a housekeeper's joke about liver, an unpromising and cheap organ meat, coming out of the mould as something unexpectedly fine.