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Braised Calf's Liver
Ask the butcher to cut a 2 or 3-pound piece of calf's liver so that it may be rolled into oblong roll. Trim, scald in boiling water, season with salt, pepper, chopped pickles, scraped or minced onion and paprika. Roll, skewer it into roll, and cover the whole top with thin slices salt pork fastened in place with toothpicks. Place on rack in pot-roasting pan, sear in hot 450 degrees oven 10 minutes. Prepare 1 cup each of diced carrots, sliced onion and strips of celery, mixed with 1 bayleaf crumpled up and 1 tablespoon minced parsley. Lift meat and rack out of pot-roasting pan, and place vegetables in bottom. Then lay the roll of liver on top of the vegetables, pour 3 cups boiling water over all, and braise in oven at 300dg. (slow) for 3 hours.
A whole braised liver roll is a period technique that has almost vanished, and the timing is the part that needs rethinking. The oven temperatures are already given in numbers, which is unusual for a book of this vintage and makes the rest straightforward.
- The cut to ask forWhat is wanted is a single slab of calf's liver butterflied or cut lengthwise so it lies flat enough to roll, not a chunk. Few butchers will do this without notice; order ahead, or buy two large flat lobes and overlap them.
- Three hours is too longLiver has almost no collagen to break down, so extended braising only drives out moisture and turns it grainy and chalky. A 2-3 lb roll is done at 155-160F internal, which at 300F takes roughly an hour to an hour and a half after the sear.
- The scaldDipping the liver in boiling water firms the surface and makes the membrane easy to peel. Do it briefly, seconds rather than minutes, and pull off the outer membrane and any tubes before seasoning or the roll will contract unevenly.
- Salt porkThe sliced salt pork is barding, there to baste lean liver as it cooks. Blanch it first if it is heavily cured, or substitute thin-sliced unsmoked fatback or pancetta. Streaky bacon works but brings smoke the original did not intend.
- Skewers and toothpicksButcher's twine tied at intervals is easier to remove than skewers and holds a better shape. Whatever fastens the pork must be counted going in and coming out.
- The braising liquidThree cups of boiling water over vegetables makes a fairly bland bath; stock gives a better result for the same effort. Strain the liquid at the end, reduce it hard, and it becomes the sauce the recipe never quite specifies.
- YieldA 2-3 lb roll serves six to eight sliced across into rounds. It carves far more neatly after fifteen minutes' rest, and cold leftovers slice thinner still.
In 1926 George Minot and William Murphy showed that feeding large quantities of liver reversed pernicious anemia, then a fatal disease, and the discovery brought them a Nobel Prize in 1934; through the late twenties and thirties liver was prescribed to convalescents and the anemic in quantities that strike a modern reader as punishing. Cookbooks of the period often tried to make it palatable in every form they could devise, which is one reason a plain organ meat ends up barded with salt pork, stuffed with pickles and onion, and braised on a bed of aromatics like a joint of beef. The vitamin B12 responsible was not isolated until 1948, so at the time of writing the mechanism was unknown and the remedy purely empirical.