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Casserole Liver and Bacon
1 lb. sliced liver 3 slices fat bacon pepper 4 slices onion 3 cups mashed potatoes salt 1 1/2 teaspoons powdered sage 3 bouillon cubs 1 cup water Fry liver and bacon to light brown color. Add onions to bacon fat and brown them. Line a casserole with the mashed potato, put in alternate layers of bacon, liver and onions. Sprinkle with the seasonings. Dissolve the bouillon cubes in hot water and pour over the contents of casserole, covering all with layer of mashed potato. Bake 1 hour in moderate (375 degrees) oven. Serves 6.
A thrift-era liver and bacon baked under a mashed potato crust, closer to a shepherd's pie than to a stew. Two things need attention: the liver is cooked twice, and the seasoning liquid is extremely concentrated.
- Don't cook the liver through in the panThe liver gets a full hour in the oven afterwards. Fry it only until the outside is coloured, 30 to 60 seconds a side over good heat, or it will be grey and grainy by the time it reaches the table.
- Which liverThe recipe says only 'sliced liver' and does not specify which. Calf's is milder and more tender; beef liver benefits from a soak in milk for an hour, drained and patted dry, before frying.
- Three bouillon cubes in one cup of waterCubes are conventionally dosed one to a cup, so this is roughly triple strength. Taste before adding any further salt, or use one cube in a cup of water, or a cup of unsalted stock.
- SageA teaspoon and a half of powdered sage is assertive by current taste. Rubbed sage at the same volume is gentler; measure by the label rather than by eye.
- The casseroleA deep baking dish of about 2 quarts. Line the bottom and sides with roughly two thirds of the potato, keeping the rest for the lid, and press it firm so the stock does not run underneath.
- Mashed potatoThree cups is about 1 1/2 lb of potatoes before cooking. Mash it stiff rather than loose; a wet mash will slump into the liquid instead of forming a crust.
- Oven and finish375F as printed is correct for an hour. If the top is still pale at the end, five minutes under the broiler will brown the crust, though the recipe does not ask for it.
- YieldServes 6 as written, though it is a substantial plateful; a green vegetable or a sharp pickle cuts the richness of the bacon fat.
Liver and bacon with onions is old British household cooking, cheap protein cooked fast in a frying pan and eaten straight away. This version reworks that dish for the covered baking dish: the components are browned, layered, sealed under potato and sent to the oven, so the cook is free while it bakes. The bouillon cubes are a commercial convenience product standing in for the meat stock an older kitchen would have had simmering, and the precise oven figure in parentheses is the kind of instruction that became possible with thermostatically controlled ranges.