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Calf's Liver Larded (Pass strips of larding pork) (II)
Pass strips of larding pork, firm, white and fat and two inches long, in rows along the surface of a calf's liver. This must be done with a larding needle and the stitches must be about one-quarter of an inch deep, leaving the ends of the pork projecting equally above the surface. Lay the liver in a dripping pan on one ounce of carrot, one ounce of onion and one ounce of salt pork. Add seasoning and such herbs as you like, and over all pour a gill of brown gravy. Cook in a moderate oven about an hour, add a half pint of gravy to the vegetables in the pan and strain over the liver.
A straightforward braised-and-larded liver, but the technique it assumes — running strips of back fat through the surface with a larding needle — has largely disappeared from home kitchens. A few points make it workable.
- Larding porkThis means firm, unsalted back fat (fatback), chilled hard so it can be cut into clean lardons and threaded. Salt pork is a poor substitute for the stitching because it is softer and will make the dish salty; the recipe already calls for salt pork separately in the pan. If no larding needle is available, lay thin sheets of fatback or unsmoked bacon over the liver and tie them on.
- A gillHalf a cup, four fluid ounces. The later "half pint" is one cup.
- Moderate ovenRoughly 350F (period 'moderate' covers about 325-375F). At that heat a whole calf's liver of two to three pounds should be through in about an hour, as the recipe states.
- Do not overcook itThis is the hinge. Calf's liver goes grey, dry and grainy the moment it passes medium; the larding exists precisely to buffer that. Pull it at 145-150F internal, when the centre is still faintly rosy, and let it rest before slicing.
- Brown gravyIn a book of this period this means a brown sauce or reduced stock — veal or beef stock cooked down, often with a browned roux. Good unsalted beef stock, lightly thickened, does the same work.
- The vegetable baseOne ounce each of carrot, onion and salt pork is a small aromatic bed, not a garnish. Dice them fine so they soften and give up their flavour within the hour; they are strained out at the end.
- Seasoning and herbsUnspecified, as was normal. Thyme, a bay leaf and a few peppercorns suit it; salt lightly, since the salt pork and reduced stock both concentrate.
- Yield and servingA 2-3 lb liver serves roughly six to eight, sliced across the grain and napped with the strained sauce.
Larding — threading strips of fat through lean meat with a hollow needle — was standard practice in professional and ambitious domestic kitchens well into the twentieth century, where long roasting or braising would otherwise dry a lean joint. Calf's liver held a more genteel place than beef liver: milder, paler and more expensive, it was often treated as a joint rather than as offal to be disguised. The method here, with its small bed of carrot, onion and salt pork moistened with brown gravy, is a scaled-down braise in the French manner, of a kind American household books of the period drew on.