Calf's Liver with Bacon Gravy Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How long do you cook liver and bacon? ›

Add the sliced liver and cook for 1 minute on each side, no longer. Remove the liver from the pan and toss it through the bacon and onion mixture. Bring it all back up to a simmer for no more than a minute. Serve the liver, onions and bacon on warmed plates, with mashed potato and mustard on the side.

Do not wash or rinse raw meat or poultry before you cook it. Washing can cause bacteria found on the surface of meat or poultry to be spread to ready-to-eat foods, kitchen utensils, and counter surfaces. This is called cross-contamination. Rinse fruits and vegetables before eating.

While we are used to soaking liver in vinegar or lemon to get rid of the bad smell and kill any remaining toxins, American and European chefs advise to soak liver in milk. Yes, that's right: Milk! They claim that in addition to getting rid of toxins that usually are present in raw liver, milk helps tenderizing it.

Liver is extremely nutritious and less expensive than most beef products. It's very lean, so it's most often pan-seared quickly to brown and keep it from drying out, although it can also be baked, braised, grilled or made into paté or liverwurst.

Since a raw liver has high water content, you have to cook it rapidly with medium to high heat. If you try slow cooking a liver, the meat will become dehydrated, leading to tough fibers and dry, chewy meat. Cook liver and other organ meats until they reach a minimum internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

Do Not Overcook It. In fact err on the side of just undercooked. Even though the lemon juice makes the liver a bit more tender, overcooking can really ruin it. I cooked mine until it just had a hint of pinkness left, and then removed it from the heat.

Gently rinse liver slices under cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Place in a shallow dish; pour in enough milk to cover. Let stand while preparing onions, or set aside for longer if you have time. Soaking will remove any bitterness.

Soak the liver in a dish or bowl of milk for 30-60 minutes. This is an important step in removing the bitter flavor from the liver. Salt and pepper the liver generously, and leave it out at room temperature while you prepare the remaining ingredients.

It is often said that milk improves the taste, purges blood, lightens the color, or affects some other property of the meat.

Tips for cooking

Start with the liver at room temperature, and do not crowd the pan! Skillet size should match quantity and heat source. Liver should be pink in the middle and is done when juices run clear. Meat and poultry livers are typically interchangeable.

Do you wash blood off the liver before cooking? ›

Soaking liver in milk or saltwater can pull out any leftover blood and improve the flavor.

This will draw out the blood and impurities leftover in the meat which will lessen the metallic taste and soften the meat. In terms of cooking, liver can be tricky to get right. Cook it too little and it is mushy, cook it too much and it is tough and bitter.

Two of the most prized livers are calf's liver and chicken livers. Both are on the sweeter end of the offal spectrum, mild in their meatiness and relatively tender and delicate, though for obvious reasons, chicken livers are much, much smaller than the other meats mentioned here.

Calf liver comes from cows under 1 year of age, while beef liver comes from older cows. The difference in age means that calf liver has a more tender texture and better flavor than beef liver.

They disintegrate even if you fry them sometimes. If I were going to put chicken livers in stew, I'd roast them in the oven, tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper, then add them to the stew right before serving. That way, they stay intact, they are properly seasoned, and you can cut them into appealing pieces.

Drain milk from liver and coat liver slices in flour mixture. Melt remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in the same skillet; increase heat to medium-high and fry coated liver slices until lightly browned, about 3 to 4 minutes on each side.

If the slices of liver are about 1-inch thick, liver will cook over medium-high heat in about 3 to 5 minutes per side. If the slices are thinner (¼ to ½-inch thick) it should cook in just 2 minutes per side. Once the meat is done cooking, let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing.

Cooking Instructions

Place the liver in the cooking pot and add 1 cup of water and salt then let it cook for 40 minutes until the colour turns brown or its tender. If some water are remaining you can drain and put aside. Then add oil and onions to the liver. As you heat the mixture stir it.

Slice liver into 1/4- to 1/2-inch-thick slices. Dredge liver in flour. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon butter in the same skillet over medium heat. Add liver and cook until browned, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes per side.