Broiled Liver
Cover with boiling water slices of liver cut one-half inch thick, let stand five minutes to draw out the blood; drain, wipe, and remove the thin outside skin and veins. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, place in a greased wire broiler and broil five minutes, turning often. Remove to a hot platter, spread with butter, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
A short, plain method from Fannie Farmer that hinges on two things: buying liver thin enough to cook fast, and not overcooking it. Everything else is seasoning.
- The scald is optionalThe boiling-water soak is described here as drawing out the blood; with fresh liver from a butcher it does little. If you want a milder flavour, a soak in milk is a common modern alternative. Either way, dry the slices thoroughly or they will steam rather than sear.
- Which liverThe recipe does not specify. Beef liver is strongly flavoured and best sliced no thicker than the half inch called for here; calf's liver is milder and more tender, and is the easier buy today.
- Membrane and veinsPeel the outer membrane off while the liver is cold, starting at a corner with a paring knife; it shrinks in the heat and curls the slice if left on. Cut out the larger tubes with scissors.
- The wire broilerA hinged double-sided wire broiler was held over coals and flipped. A ridged cast-iron grill pan over high heat, or a very hot gas grill, reproduces it. Under an overhead broiler, put the pan close to the element and turn once rather than often.
- Five minutes is the outside limitHalf-inch beef liver is done at roughly two to three minutes a side, still faintly pink at the centre. Past that the proteins tighten and it turns grainy and dry, which is the whole reason liver has a bad reputation.
- Season after, not only beforeFarmer seasons twice, and the seasoning added on the platter is the one that stays on the surface. The butter spread over the hot slices melts into the juices.
- YieldAllow about 5-6 oz per person; a pound of liver serves three. Serve immediately, since it cools and stiffens quickly.
Liver was cheap, quick and everywhere in nineteenth-century American cooking. The 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cook Book was written for households buying by the cut from a butcher, where organ meats were a matter of economy rather than fashion. The instruction to cover it with boiling water "to draw out the blood" reflects a conviction, said to be general in period cookbooks, that blood in meat was both unwholesome and coarse in flavour. Bacon, the near-universal partner today, appears in the fried version rather than this one; here the enrichment is simply butter melted over the hot slices.