by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: January 12, 2010

How to cook liver in the best fashion will depend more than anything else upon the type of liver one wishes to cook. There are several types of liver which are commonly eaten by human beings, perhaps most notably ox liver, lambs’ liver and chicken livers. It is most likely appropriate therefore in an article of this nature to examine how to cook each of these three very different types of liver.

Ox liver is the most robust of the three types of liver mentioned above. It is entirely possible to consider frying ox liver but ox liver is particularly suited to casseroling. In order to casserole ox liver, one should first put one’s oven on to preheat to 350F/180C/Gas Mark 4. The ox liver should then be dusted in seasoned flour and fried in a little oil for around about a minute each side, purely in order to seal it, along with some chopped onion and diced, streaky bacon. The liver should then be laid in a casserole dish, atop the bacon and onion, and enough hot beef stock added to cover the liver completely. The casserole dish should then be covered and placed in to the oven for around forty-five minutes. Allowing the uncovered dish to rest for around five minutes after cooking will ensure the liver is served at its most tender best.

Lambs’ liver is more delicate than ox liver and while it too can in theory be casseroled, it is far better to cook lambs’ liver by gently frying it. A little oil should be brought up to a medium heat in a non-stick frying pan before some onion and crushed garlic is added and stirred around for a moment to sweat off and flavour the pan. The lambs’ liver - dusted in seasoned flour - should then be added and gently fried for just two to three minutes each side. The cooking time will depend upon the thickness of the slices but it is possible to effectively judge same by simply looking at the slices from the side. When the lambs’ liver is cooked, it cannot of course be served with anything other than its legendary accompaniment, mint sauce.

Chicken livers are naturally considerably smaller than their ox or lamb counterparts. For this reason, chicken livers are most often purchased whole, as opposed to in slices, as is likely to be the case with lamb or ox. It is not absolutely essential but it is advisable to cut the chicken livers in half horizontally and cut out the fatty white membrane in the centre prior to cooking them. They are best of all thereafter quickly stir fried in a half and half, butter and sunflower oil mixture, with some onion and garlic, for at most two to three minutes.

These are but three different options regarding how to cook liver but one should know that as well as being extremely rich in iron and a number of other essential vitamins and minerals, liver is also extremely low in saturated fats and can provide a very healthy evening meal for all the family.

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