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There are many threads on here about how some folks just cannot learn to like beef liver no matter how they prepare the organ---masking recipes and marinades, spicy raw shakes, holding the nose and just choking it down, or even slipping it into the wife's chili unannounced (har har).

Read this blogpost by Barbeygirl, who hated the texture but in the spirit of knowing that liver is highly nutritious, chopped cooked liver into smaller bits, froze them and then swallowed them like pills! She credits a Chris Kresser podcast for the idea.

http://inthenightlife.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/liver-pills/

Have any of you tried this? Or will you try it? Cooked or raw?

Swallowing a quarter pound of frozen liver a week might be a tall order, so I guess I will continue to acclimate my palate to the taste for now, but it is an interesting idea that I had not found mentioned on paleohacks.

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swallowing a quarter pound of liver a week is NOT a tall order. liver is gelatinous enough to hardly need any chewing at all. 8 oz goes down in less than 30 seconds with NO PROBLEM. – dsohei Mar 28 2011 at 20:53
and theres no need to freeze it first. – dsohei Mar 28 2011 at 20:54
Wow you can really swallow 8 oz of liver? You win the prize! And the freezing is just to help mask the flavor :) – texasleah Mar 28 2011 at 22:45

7 Answers

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First heat coconut oil and add two bay leaves and let cook a couple of minutes. Discard the bay leaves. Add a little dried basil & thyme and some fresh garlic pressed. Cook this a couple of minutes. Then add the thinly sliced beef liver and cook quickly to med rare. It adds flavor. I have served to people who can't stand liver and they were amazed. Most people overcook their liver.

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Dexter, it's the texture (ha ha I made a rhyme!) I tried gently cooking it in bacon fat until medium rare and the creaminess of the meat made me yak. However, I have battered it with egg and coconut flour and fried the hell out of it as suggested in another thread and I almost enjoyed it. I will give your herbs a shot though. – texasleah Mar 28 2011 at 1:36
I had calves liver for the first time this week and it surprised me. It was like ground beef (not what I expected at all) just smaller particles. Was very tasty and the "liver" flavor was very subtle. – Oranges13 Mar 28 2011 at 3:04
DEXTER...when you say slice thin, do you mean like lunch meat thin or width of pinky thin? – paleoprimal Jul 13 2011 at 15:45
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I think in Nourishing Traditions Sally Fallon recommends freezing pill sized bits of liver. Of course this would mean making sure that your source is VERY clean.

I love chicken liver, but ruminant liver is too funky for me. I did this with a venison liver my hubbs brought home - rinse, chop finely, line cookie sheet with freezer paper, layer the bits onto the paper, put in freezer, next day break up the bits (pills) and put into a ziploc and take as pills.

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I used to always eat bison liver, but I just tried veal liver and it tastes SO much better. still not amazing, but totally edible

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Still tastes like liver, but its much more subtle and easy to drown in something like eggs or onions. – Oranges13 Mar 28 2011 at 3:06
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I do this, and it's cooked. I just cannot stomach it any other way. I haven't tried freezing it, but I think that might make it better. Next weekend I shall do that.

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What if this is worse in the long run? Bear with me for a moment. If the amount of liver that is optimal is X, and you are able to swallow (1/2)*x in the form of pills, that is not terrible. But if you stuck with it until liver was stomach-able, then for the remaining 87 years of your life, you'd be able to eat X amount of liver without problems. – Kamal♦ Mar 27 2011 at 23:12
You're absolutely right that it would be better to learn to like it in the long run. I am trying to do that, and every other time I prepare it normally. I do a small amount of liver and tons of onion and bacon. I've been gradually increasing the liver ratio but it is godawful. I do like pate though, because the flavor is very diluted. I use less liver and more vegetables than the recipe calls for though. – mari Mar 28 2011 at 0:21
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I was thinking of trying it. I like liver only enough to tolerate it if it's cooked with other food like eggs. On one hand, I know the benefit of liver, but on the other, there has got to be a reason why my taste buds tell me "Um, no thanks."

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Offal is a really aquired taste - its one thing to be able to palate liver. Try eating kidneys - its like liver x a million. Eugh. – Oranges13 Mar 28 2011 at 3:05
I tried kidney once, and it was soooo terrible I can't bring myself to try it again. It tasted like grassy urine. Some people tried giving me cooking tips (like soaking it overnight), but that smell and taste are now deeply embedded into my memory. My grass-fed source sells it for $1/lb, so I was hoping to like it. – Carl_Stawicki Mar 28 2011 at 11:51
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I want to try this! I also going to try slugging it down raw uncooked like a raw oyster perhaps? w/ a lot of spice. P.S. I do like it cooked; always have.

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very cool idea. could be a brilliant hack leah. i support your quest.

what do you all think about the fact that we would be swallowing 'unchewed' whole food?

would our stomachs digest the meat sufficiently?

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This should answer your question: paleohacks.com/questions/24387/… – Kikilula Mar 28 2011 at 5:24
Hi Kikilula. yes i'm on that thread, but i'm not convinced that just because there's a story about the eskimos that it's healthy to swallow unchewed bites of meat. maybe the eskimos has digestive issues with that but we never got wind (ha. get it?) of that part of the story. – Jack Kronk Mar 28 2011 at 14:02
I have absolutely no idea if it matters. My two cents: prolly not gonna hurt to swallow a few pieces of unchewed livvvvver :) but if you have digestion problems it might be an issue. Just try it to find out I suppose. I don't mean to micromanage or be obsessive, but since many ppl are eating liver as a megavitamin dose rather than for enjoyment, it makes sense to be certain that you are getting the most out of it that you can. So is it less nutritious to fry the hell out of it? Or should it be raw? – texasleah Mar 28 2011 at 15:34

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