To Fry Liver
The slices must be cut thin, as they require some time to fry; brown both side; when taken up, add butter and salt to taste. Fry in hot lard.--Mrs. P.W.
Four lines of instruction with no quantities, no pan size and no timing — typical of the contributed recipes in this book, which assume the cook already knows the dish. The one thing worth overturning is the assumption that liver needs a long time in the pan.
- Cook it fast, not long"They require some time to fry" is the instruction modern practice has firmly reversed. Slices cut about a quarter-inch thick want roughly 1 to 2 minutes a side over medium-high heat, until the surface is browned and the center just faintly rosy. Held longer, liver turns grainy and dry, which is the whole reason it has a reputation.
- Which liverA nineteenth-century Virginia kitchen might have meant calf's or beef liver, or pork liver at hog-killing time; the recipe does not say. Calf's liver is the mildest and the most forgiving; beef liver is stronger and coarser. Pork liver is an exception to the pink-center rule and should be cooked through.
- Slice thickness"Thin" is undefined here; around 1/4 inch is a reasonable modern reading. Ask the butcher to slice it, or firm the lobe in the freezer for 20 minutes and cut it yourself with a long thin blade — liver is slippery and hard to cut evenly at room temperature.
- The lardThis recipe calls for hot lard, which works better than butter for the initial sear, since butter's milk solids scorch before the liver browns. Bacon fat is the usual substitute; a neutral oil is fine. Get the pan properly hot before the liver goes in and do not crowd it.
- Butter and salt at the endThe recipe adds butter and salt only after the liver is taken up. Whatever the reason, it works: butter added off the heat melts into a quick pan sauce rather than burning, and salting after cooking avoids drawing moisture to the surface.
- Dredging and soakingThe recipe omits both, but a light dusting of seasoned flour gives a better crust, and half an hour in milk before cooking is the traditional way to soften the mineral edge of beef liver. Pat the slices thoroughly dry either way.
- YieldAllow about 5 to 6 ounces of liver per person. A pound serves three, and it is best served straight from the pan — reheated liver toughens badly.
This is one of the hundreds of short contributed recipes in Housekeeping in Old Virginia, edited by Marion Cabell Tyree and published in 1878, a book assembled from contributions by some two hundred and fifty Virginia housewives. The initials at the end — Mrs. P.W. — are one of the forms of credit used in the book, and the terseness is characteristic: the contributors were writing for other experienced housekeepers, not for beginners. Liver appears in period cookbooks as a matter of course because it is highly perishable and, before refrigeration, had to be eaten within a day or two. In a household that killed its own beef or hogs, fried liver would often have been among the first meals after butchering.