Tuesday, February 12, 2013

"liver" is the new "oysters"

If the fashion industry can do it, i can too!  :-D  "Red is the new black" -- PLEEEEEASE...!  (Even though red IS my best color.)

Just recently broke my fast on a liver-bacon-onion stirfry, and now i'm enjoying that glow i described a few posts ago, when discussing how good i feel eating oysters on the half-shell.  It really is a wonderful discovery!  When oysters are out-of-season, liver will ALWAYS be there.

Why does my body seem to be able to absorb the nutrients it wants from liver and oysters, better than from muscle meats?  Can't tell ya....  Could be the sheer volume of nutrients in them, or it could have something to do with nutrients COMPETING for absorption, who knows?  (And that IS a real question, not rhetorical.)

I find it so ironic -- a food i've avoided most of my life because of my dislike of its texture is transforming my life NOW....

38 comments:

  1. Liver a true wonder food, and dirt cheap in the UK. Most do not want to eat the stuff, a once a week meal for me and my non diabetic slim lowcarb ex PE teacher Wife.

    Kind regads Eddie

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    1. thank the gods she's supportive! :-) my respects to you both!

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  2. I am always looking for different ways to get it in me. Palatable ways, that is.

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    1. palatable has got to be in the eye of the beholder.... :-) it definitely grows on ya -- well, on me it did, at least. the secret, i think, is LOTS of bacon!

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  3. My Wife is the brains in our relationship, dumping starch and sugar made perfect sense to her. A pity I had to become a diabetic for us both to see the light. We live and learn eh.

    Regards Eddie

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    1. sounds like you got a good one, you lucky dog!

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  4. I have tried & tried & tried...I just cannot tolerate liver (have tried beef and lamb). NO CAN DO. Funny thing is, I didn't mind it at all as a child, we regularly ate plain ol' fried liver & onions. Can't do it now- I know it's very middle-class and spoiled of me, but I just can't. sigh.

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    1. according to Sally F., if you just can't bring yourself to eat it, you can still benefit from tablets of desiccated liver....

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    2. Kim,
      Calf liver is the mildest in taste.

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    3. Desiccated liver??? (Aside: Why doesn't "desiccated" have just one S and two Cs? Doesn't make sense!)

      How much would you need to take, and how often?

      I've tried liver a couple times, but can't stand the texture. Very mealy.

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    4. I imagine the package would have recommendations for dosing... "Desiccate" comes almost straight from a latin word, dictating its spelling i guess!

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  5. Liver is great. The only downside - it is not a good idea to eat it everyday. I remember Peter mentioned it in his blog, sharing his observations about stupid cats who sometimes refuse to eat anything else,as a result get a massive a Vit.A overload and a limited joints mobility as a consequence.
    Does it really matter when oysters are out of season?I am almost braced myself to eat raw oysters soon. Ones in a while I got a dissident recipe not full of carbs from a CHOW website - Oysters with Prosecco Mignonette , https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/13ccf68c0dcddaa7 . I subscribed there when I was researching the famous American heritage cast iron.

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    1. yes, it's a challenge to not have it too often when it's most easily found frozen in one-pound packages, and my husband is out of town! my casserole recipe, cooked and refrozen in single-serving sizes are my plan for dealing with THAT issue.

      i talked to the guy at P & J Oyster Co. in N'Orleans about seasonality, and i'm trying to remember exactly what he said.... i THINK it's size and quality which is affected by the seasons in the Gulf -- the water is too warm for oysters to be at their best between May and October, I THINK. it's not a safety issue ... and of course in the NE and NW the water is colder all the time.

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    2. The nearest "bite @ shrimp" place advertises its Apalachicola oysters. I will get it a try. I keep my fingers crossed I wouldn't get any allergic reaction.

      I usually cut liver while it is still half frozen but soft enough to cut and wrap portions individually in a plastic wrap, then keep it frozen. Lever pate(cooked but not overcooked liver+sauteed onions all minced in a food processor+ butter) is very tasty. I also keep it in small portions frozen. Pate is especially mild in taste if liver is gently cooked in a water, not in a butter or fat.

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    3. a lot of recipes i've seen call for soaking liver in milk awhile before cooking -- supposed to tame the taste a lot. the biggest problem with pate is wanting to put it on toast!

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    4. I never tried to soak liver in a milk. Pork liver could test too strong. I eat pate with a spoon or on slices of a hard-boiled egg. May be slices of fried zucchini will work?

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    5. on egg is a great idea! i'll have to try that!

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  6. I loved liver as a child! My mother used to make them with noodles with clear broth as a comfort food on cold days. Liver is so cheap compared to muscled meats/oysters - more organ meats, please :))

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  7. Also, from an evolutionary point of view, we probably evolved eating a lot of organ meats/animal body parts that most people find too "gross" to eat today - ie. animal ears/feet/hearts...etc - eschewing all the yummy nutrients for muscle meats instead. Not that there's anything wrong with meat, of course :)

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    1. hmmm, i need to look into making soup with it, i guess.... frankly, i've gotten very attached to "cheap cuts" -- they frequently cook up SO-O-O-O-O tasty after low-slow cooking! :-D a lot of people DO seem to be pretty wimpy about their food these days, with bland flavors are so popular (mac&cheese -- gag). oxtails and chicken feet [sigh of content]!

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  8. Our lives will change drastically over the next few years, the UK and USA are going down the tubes. We will soon be glad of any food we can get. Sorry to be the voice of doom, but we are heading for totally un-chartered waters. I hope I am 100% wrong, but plan for the worst and hope for the best.

    Regard Eddie

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    1. the political corruption just makes one SICK, doesn't it? well, it doesn't help to imagine the worst.... "plan for the worst and hope for the best" is the only way I know to cope!

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    2. Eddie,
      I am just curious, not trying to mock you. Could you give us some timeline for your predictions?

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    3. If I knew the time scale I would be e very rich man. The fact is the life styles we have enjoyed for decades are rapidly disappearing. The US and UK are covering the cracks with quantative easing, i.e. issuing worthless paper to lumber on month after month. Meanwhile the national debt gets ever higher. Young people are leaving Universities with massive debts and wages are frozen. Inflation is way above the published figures and interest rates at an all time low. If interest rates went up to the average over the last 20 or 30 years everything would collapse like a pack of cards. The US and UK built their wealth on manufacturing and Banking. The Banks are a Ponzi scheme corrupt to the core and we have lost most of our manufacturing to China. Unemployment going up, especially for the young, and an all time high for people needing help regarding basics such as food. We have been living in a dream world for decades and I believe we have not even seen the tip of the iceberg yet. Apart from that everything is hokey cokey.

      Regards Eddie

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  9. We will see, Eddie.Future will tell. Humanity keeps waiting for an absolutely disaster all the time, but life is going on. I experienced the disintegration of Soviet Union at the beginning of 90-s, there were absolutely empty store shelves, people had no money, but after hitting the total bottom, life started getting better. Usually things do not stay horrible forever.

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    1. the words of a survivor! :-D i'm glad you comment here, Galina -- your point of view is very interesting to me!

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    2. I am not a survivor, just a witness. It is sort of normal that sometimes things get worse, than everything gets better, then something happen again.Magnitude of troubles scale could be different. Many people in my neighborhood in Florida lost or had to short-sale their houses, some of people I know got divorced.
      I think squirrels in my area are eating normal for them food like acorns, fruits in a season, some grabs. What to do in a tight times? In Russia people planted potatoes everywhere. Probably, life in US and West Europe will not deteriorate as much as Eddie predicted. We will see. People who don't mind organ meats have some survival advantage.

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  10. Liver is an essential food imo, I make sure I eat 100-200g once per week which I think is about optimal.

    Usually its lamb liver, I have to say the taste of liver is too strong and its palatability is poor, I soak it in lemon juice for a few hours before cooking, then tip the liver and lemon juice into the pan then lightly pan-fry it in 50g butter for 5 mins or so until inside is pink. Medium rare. I then tip the whole contents of the pan into a bowl and eat it like that, using the butter/lemon juice as a kind of dipping sauce.

    I found that you need to cook liver just right for it to be edible, under-cooked and over-cooked are both disgusting. Liver needs to be medium-rare melt in your mouth texture.

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    1. Yes, it is all about being cooked to the right consistency. I don't soak my liver. I like to reduce some cream on a skillet where liver was cooked while liver is already removed from the skillet. It is not a bad idea to add some spices(bay leaf, ground cloves, black pepper) in the cream while it is being reduced. Then I slice liver (usually with scissors - I use it a lot in my kitchen)and put it back together with some juices which were oozing out from the resting liver on the skillet to mix it briefly with the reduced cream.

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    2. I cook kidneys in a similar way. However , I give sliced kidneys a good soak in a water with a splash of vinegar. When I mix cooked kidneys with a reduced liquid and cream, I add there sometimes chopped raw onion and a chopped pickle.

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    3. you two have given me LOTS of great ideas ... and i hope Kim will find something that appeals to her, too!

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  11. Well, I appreciate the suggestions, but I've tried cooking liver the old way (dipped in flour & fried with onions-didn't like the texture or the taste). Soaked in milk overnight (supposed to take away the strong liver flavor- not so much). I tried an Indian dish with lamb liver-yuck. I've ended up throwing out about 3 lbs of liver (high quality, grass fed stuff too!)in the past few months. If the world comes to an end I'll probably be able to stomach all kinds of things I don't currently consider edible-in the meantime, bon appetit & to each his/her own!

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    1. well, don't let it get you down, if you don't like the stuff -- don't worry about it, and don't eat it. :-) there are plenty of good nutritious foods in the world. and those PNW oysters were GREAT!

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  12. p.s.
    oh yeah...it probably helps if you can cook- I'm not a good cook, don't have the patience or the energy for it right now...maybe someday. (:

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  13. Just a little bit more on the organ subject. Tess probably noticed that I like to use in my cooking the meat which was previously cooked by boiling or pressure-cooked. It is what I do with a beef heart. It could be grounded later and added to grounded raw meats and onion and garlic to make patties or a meat loaf. Usually some adsorbing ingredient(old bread, cooked rice) is added to the mix for patties or a meat loaf in order to soak juices and fats liquidated during cooking. Ground cooked meat can work for such purpose just fine.
    I also add ground raw heart to the raw ground meats, no one is able to tell the difference, but my budget.
    I don't spend too much time making food from the scratch. When I cook, I do it in big quantities (like I never make less that a gallon of soup), and freeze in small portions or put in sealable jars most cooked food while hot. I usually make a lot of ground meat and freeze it in small portions, or boil one big piece of meat till it is ready and keep it in the broth.It is possible to put a piece of just cooked meat in a one cup mason jar, add boiling bullion and immediately close with the sealable top. I usually do it at the beginning of the hurricane season, then I will not need to rush to the store when the hurricane readiness is announced.

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    1. these are things our great-great-grandmothers used to do, too! very practical!

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  14. @Kim,
    just, please, don't feel intimidated with all that sharing of cooking tips. I hope you don't feel it like we put a pressure on you to do something you can perfectly live without.

    I only continue the routine I adopted when living busy life in a fast-free food environment when I was young. We had to cook all food and make much of our clothes. I dropped the making clothes part all together, especially knitting (totally out of use in Florida), but cooking stays with some exceptions (like the fruit preserves making is not the part of my routine any longer).

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  15. Nah...if I can't stand the heat, I know to leave the kitchen...(:
    I really WANTED to like liver again, and thought it would be easy since I did like it many years ago. But I'm okay with it-there are lots of other things to eat and I probably won't be too malnourished either way. I used to cook more, but I don't have much interest or energy for it these days. Life is long, things may change (maybe when I retire). Once in awhile I get the cooking bug. I rendered my own beef tallow last year from my grass-fed beef. And, I finally turned out a couple of decent batches beef bone broth a few months ago.

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