What’s the best way to reheat liver? In a saucepan with a sauce is the best way to reheat beef liver. How long do I cook liver? Liver is best when it’s cooked to a temperature between 145°F and 160°F, visibly pink and juicy when cut.
I love liver and onions, but it is one of those meals I only crave now and then. Back in the day, we could purchase fresh beef liver from the butcher in any amount needed. Now it is sold in frozen packs of one pound each, at least where I shop. If you are cooking for one or two people, you will have leftovers. Liver is not my favorite thing to just reheat, as I do with many other foods. One alternative is to use a good, sharp knife to cut the still frozen package into two portions before storing in the freezer. However, I found a solution for using the leftovers that is really very good and tastes like a brand new dish. I have also posted a great idea for liver pâté shared by a contributor. My recipe for liver and onions is in the similar and related recipes.
The Original Philadelphia Neighborhood Cookbook is a delightful collection of ethnic family recipes, hand collected by the authors, Irina Smith and Ann Hazen – with just enough interesting background info, to make for an enjoyable casual reading. as well as for its useful recipes. And on page 77 is a recipe for Kalbsleber mit Wien, German of course – not surprising in Philadelphia. However, sauces for liver is a little surprising, at least for me. Liver has always seemed to me to be best rather conservatively cooked and served -at least in my home- which usually meant quickly fried, and if accompanied by anything, it was always onions, and sometimes bacon as well. I never remember my mother serving liver with a sauce.
Personally, as much as I love calves liver, I don’t think leftover liver makes for a decent dinner! I just don’t enjoy the experience. It’s especially bad if you have to apply too much heat to it – overheated, recooked liver brings out all kinds of bad stuff out. Additionally, I’m well aware that the liver of any animal is perhaps the most delicate and fragile of that animal’s organs – so I resist gambling on continued refrigeration for later cooking – I just cook it all and usually wind up throwing out the leftovers.
It’s hard for me to overstate my joy at finding out how wonderful this sauce is with liver – I’m not sure if this is because I’ve simply missed this wonderful dish all my life, or if suddenly, at this advanced age, my taste buds have made me ready for this experience! Maybe both are true.
I’m going to give you the original recipe from the book without any changes, and then I’ll tell what changes I make for our dinner – as you may know, I use recipes for inspiration and seldom use one verbatim – sometimes it works; sometimes it don’t! However, my changes here are slight, but in fairness, you may wish to follow the original as printed.
I thinly sliced the onion and briefly sauted it in the butter (I liked the idea of having onions in the sauce – remember that I was using leftover liver, so I wasn’t sauteing the liver in this pan. And I simply added the cloves right with the sliced onions – simple enough to remove them later. BTW, I halved everything since I was only dealing with ½ lb of liver slices. I also added 1 Tbs of Balsamic Vinegar with the sauce ingredients. If you dredge your liver slices in flour, as I do, your sauce with be nice and thick – I love that, but not all would, so adjust accordingly. Next time I think I’ll sub some fresh finely minced sage leaves for the bay leaf – that’ll be a nice touch,
Eating LIVER (7 Myths BUSTED) 2024
FAQ
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