So I got this beef liver....Now what?

[Subsailor]

I raised button quail for a couple of years and had a couple of bins of waxworms and mealworms. My kids all know of my eating adventures when I was younger and traveling around and would dare me to eat the little wriggling things. I have had them raw, fried (my favorite), dried and sauteed. I have done the same with earthworms, crickets/grasshopper (remove them long jumping legs), ants and ant larvae and a scorpion.
I figure I love Shrimp, Crabs and Escargot and they look like sea going bugs; why can't I eat land ones?

 

[CreamyGoodness]

I have been bested.

 

[Subsailor]

I have been bested.

Not trying to best you mate! Just expand your horizons! AND TASTES!

 

[porcupine73]

I raised button quail for a couple of years and had a couple of bins of waxworms and mealworms. My kids all know of my eating adventures when I was younger and traveling around and would dare me to eat the little wriggling things. I have had them raw, fried (my favorite), dried and sauteed. I have done the same with earthworms, crickets/grasshopper (remove them long jumping legs), ants and ant larvae and a scorpion.
I figure I love Shrimp, Crabs and Escargot and they look like sea going bugs; why can't I eat land ones?

Wow very nice! That sounds awesome. I'm going to have to work up to that. Ok I've had a lot of homebrew so far this evening ... Ah your descriptions, they make me yearn for Alaska though I've never been there. There's a guy around her who has a seafood store who is from Alaska and he and his son actually catch their own salmon under permit and some other types of seafood to sell in their store. He has some videos of people he's taken on a tour up there, and it just looks amazing.

 

[Subsailor]

Having said all of that, there is just one thing (so far) I haven't been able force myself to try and I had the opportunity, twice.

Baluts: a fertilized duck embryo that is boiled and eaten in the shell. It is commonly sold as streetfood in the Philippines.

I just cannot get past the appearance of it.

 

[porcupine73]

Um yah I can envision maybe what that must look like ... so ... hm .. ok ... maybe lots of homebrew ... don't look at it ... smell something you really like while you ingest it ... and then gulp! it's done! Ok maybe not that easy ...

 

[CreamyGoodness]

How funny, one of the things I am excited to do sometime between now and when I am too old to chew or digest things is try balut. I can wrap my head around that, albeit with some effort. Bugs? Much more difficult.

 

[Goofynewfie]

And I was told it was weird that I tried porcupine

 

[Subsailor]

And I was told it was weird that I tried porcupine

Good stuff, that and racoon and squirrels when I was growing up. My grandpa told me skunk was good but I never had the opportunity to find out and I ain't never seen a skunk up here..

 

[basilchef]

I agree with this thought also. My pork has to be purchased fresh from one of the farmers up here but it sure is tasty!

At my restaurant we set it up with a local farmer so that we have our own set of pigs raised. We choose what we feed it, how big/ old we want it, then kill and butcher it ourselves. Completely human and as little environmental impact as possible. Pretty sweet.

 

[Thundercougarfalconbird]

Glad i am not the only adventurous eater out there I'm often more intimidated by cooking something rather than eating it. I feel a certain degree of knowledge must be necessary to make intimidating/unfamiliar foods well.
No bugs yet, but I do make a point to go to hole-in-the-wall restaurants. I love being surrounded with people speaking other languages and ordering unfamiliar things.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Glad i am not the only adventurous eater out there I'm often more intimidated by cooking something rather than eating it. I feel a certain degree of knowledge must be necessary to make intimidating/unfamiliar foods well.
No bugs yet, but I do make a point to go to hole-in-the-wall restaurants. I love being surrounded with people speaking other languages and ordering unfamiliar things.

Attaboy! ... I have gotten a huge amount of enjoyment in life doing just that.

 

[basilchef]

Glad i am not the only adventurous eater out there I'm often more intimidated by cooking something rather than eating it. I feel a certain degree of knowledge must be necessary to make intimidating/unfamiliar foods well.
No bugs yet, but I do make a point to go to hole-in-the-wall restaurants. I love being surrounded with people speaking other languages and ordering unfamiliar things.

Personally i can only do "local" places like that. How ever im not afraid to drop $300 on a meal for two either. LOVE those places.

 

[Thundercougarfalconbird]

Personally i can only do "local" places like that. How ever im not afraid to drop $300 on a meal for two either. LOVE those places.

For me, the hole-in-the-wall places in my area have the best food, so it could be a geography thing. Southern food like low-country boils, good bbq, and legit soul food are staples.
I would blow the cash for five-star but I'm a student and don't have much of an income yet.
I go to a bunch of foreign food places, but tend to return to places I see members of that nationality eating at. I go to these great Mexican and Turkish grocery stores (both have small restaurants in them) and a really great Caribbean food-shack all the time.

 

[yummybeer]

I've never tried eating beef liver. My dad would have liver and onions every once in a while when I was growing up--it was usually when nobody else was home. I've been going in on getting a side of beef with other family members for the past several years and have stocked up on the liver. So I'm willing to give it a try. If I don't care for it too much, then I like the idea of using it as catfish bait.

 

[porcupine73]

With nicely caramelized onions the beef liver goes down pretty easily. There's many ways to prepare it. It's such a great food that used to be consumed by people pretty often (among other organs and glands) that seems at least in the west to have really fallen out of favor.

 

[pigsaarz]

In China I tried lots of different foods though I did prefer not to know what I was eating, I could not eat dog and made this quite clear to the person I was with, when I left China I was given a bottle of spirits, It had an unusual flavour and I had drank about half of it when I asked a Chinese person to translate what was in it I was told it was made with dogs dicks! Getting back to the liver I tried the Creamy Goodness version with the wine using calves liver, but I sliced it and fried it with onions before adding the red wine served it up with snow peas new potatoes and spring cabbage, all fresh out of the garden(it is spring over here) and it was magnificent, everyone enjoyed it, I fried the leftover cabbage with bacon and blackpudding for breakfast (Irish breakfast)

 

[drchris83]

With nicely caramelized onions the beef liver goes down pretty easily. There's many ways to prepare it. It's such a great food that used to be consumed by people pretty often (among other organs and glands) that seems at least in the west to have really fallen out of favor.

What do you mean by "in the west"? Offal is considered a delicacy in mans western European countries (along with much of the rest of the world), and there are a gazillion tasty recipes out there...

 

[porcupine73]

What do you mean by "in the west"? Offal is considered a delicacy in mans western European countries (along with much of the rest of the world), and there are a gazillion tasty recipes out there...

I agree. Pretty much I meant the U.S., though there do seem to be some dedicated fans here. Organs, glands and offal are a delicacy and very healthy if from properly raised animals. Yes there many tasty recipes for it.

 

[drchris83]

Back to the topic at hand:

1.5lb liver, cleaned and cut in strips or bite-size pieces
1, cut in stripes
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons fat for frying
Salt
Pepper
Marjoram
Dash of high quality white vinegar

Melt fat and lightly brown onion and liver in it. Careful not to overcook the liver. Add wine and spices to taste. After evaporating the alcohol, thicken sauce with flour. Finish with vinegar according to taste. Serve with potatoes prepared to your liking.