Happy National Liver and Onions Day
There's a a day to celebrate everything and May 10th proves it! If you love liver and onions, I bid you a tasty dinner with these cooking instructions. If not... here's a fun family story.
I grew up eating liver and onions without the vaguest notion of where it came from. As my love for food and culture started brewing (pun sort of intended), I began to understand where certain familiar foods likely originated. Liver and onions was something my German family cooked often so, in my mind, it was German.
And, it is… sort of. It’s also French and British and definitely part of the American foodscape.
When Chili and I first visited Freiburg, Germany in 2012, we fell in love with the food. I, however, was on the hunt for dishes that my mom and grandma made. The genealogist in me was seeking a connection between my German heritage I knew so little about and the food I grew up eating.
The one dish that surprised me the most was liver and onions. I sat in a small eatery surrounded by my close friends discussing the menu. There it was… liver and onions. When the server delivered my meal, what sat before me on the plate looked exactly like what I had eaten my whole life. The first bite was almost intoxicating (albeit, I’d had a little wine by then). I had found my connection and I felt at home.
That single experience pushed me toward launching Rooted in Foods in 2013. I’m still hunting, but it’s a delicious adventure!
Enjoy this story from my mom and, if you’re so inclined, fix liver and onions this week!
You either love it or hate it!
As I begin to write this article, I must visit the freezer and take out something special for dinner! What could it be?
Moms of the 1970s, like me, raised their children feeding them well but also supplementing their diets with vitamins. Ours were fruit flavored and shaped like cartoon characters! My mother always bought them so I wouldn’t forget.
Moms of the 1950s depended on their diets to provide necessary vitamins. At that time, my mother wouldn’t have dreamed of spending money on vitamin tablets, because she put food on the table that provided the necessary nutrition. We didn’t have much opportunity to ever say we didn’t like something or didn’t want to eat something. My teenage sister got by with that trick occasionally, but Daddy would tell her to eat a bologna sandwich and keep quiet. We ate what was put in front of us and fortunately my mother was an excellent cook.
I can remember, however, not especially enjoying some foods. Spinach was not on my list of favorites. Beets and turnips made me frown. Cooked cabbage didn’t smell good to me. I have never enjoyed eggs, but to this day eat them because I think I’m supposed to. Then, there was liver.
Mother’s beef liver and onions was delicious. Nobody in the family liked it but my dad and my mother. We five children ate it but didn’t like it. She made a couple mistakes in menu design, in my opinion. When we had liver and onions, we also had spinach right out of a can. It was slimy and looked horrible. We had pickled beets and none of us had acquired a taste for those. She always pan fried potatoes to go with that menu, so if you ate a bite of potato with a little spinach on the fork, you could force it down. How pitiful? Today, I love all these things. Fortunately, my husband loved all these things, and my daughter still begs me to fix liver and onions. Our favorite menu, however, includes mashed potatoes and peas.
Where Did Liver and Onions Come From?
Food historians have trouble agreeing on the origins of beef liver and onions recipes. I think any culture that eats beef surely eats liver. We, especially in our Midwest U.S. region, don’t like to waste anything. Some believe that liver and onions originated in England. It might have, but I associate it more with German culture and know that our German ancestors have made it popular in the Midwest.
I have a friend who loves to tell the story that he ate his way through college cooking liver and onions, served with rice, from his dorm room hot plate. It was all cheap. We cannot discount the fact that the low price makes it especially popular with our home meal planners! These days, what you save by buying liver might help you afford a chicken!
How to Cook Liver and Onions
Onions are served with beef liver in order to cut the metallic taste in the liver. Of course, it is the metallic taste that proves that liver is filled with the minerals we need. This recipe is for a pound of thinly sliced beef liver. When you prepare liver, you should always wash it and then soak it in milk for about thirty minutes before preparing it.
While the liver is soaking, sauté sliced onions in canola oil in a heavy skillet. I sauté slices of a big sweet white onion until they begin to caramelize, then remove them from the oil. At this point, remove the liver slices from the milk, dredge them in flour and sauté them in the same pan and oil that you used for the onions. The onion infused oil will add flavor to the liver. I prefer thin slices of liver. I sauté them for about four minutes on each side. I like for them to have a brown crust, but not too dark so I watch them as they cook. Liver is best if it is still a little pink inside.
When the liver is done, add the onions back to the pan and cover it with 3 cups of beef stock (right out of a carton), put a lid on it and let it simmer about ten minutes. Most of the oil will have been soaked up by the liver, but if you need to remove some, just spoon it out of the skillet before you add the stock. Finish your liver and onions by thickening the broth to a nice brown gravy. That will take a slurry of 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and 1/3 cup of cold water. Let the broth continue to simmer until it is thick.
I love liver and onions made just like this, but there are some ways to make it even better. As you are caramelizing the onions, fry pieces of bacon and remove them with the onions when they are done. The bacon grease will add even more flavor to the liver, and plating the liver and onions with crumbled bacon on top makes it more appetizing! Serve what you love with this. Mashed potatoes, fried potatoes and white rice are our favorites. I highly recommend leaving canned spinach off this menu, but a crisp spinach salad would be great!