The Most Maligned Meat
Liver! Oh the very sound of the word can cause shivers to run up and down your spine in some, in others the word can cause a cold sweat to occur, and in still others the very thought of the pungent meat will cause automatic gag reflexes to kick in.
Now don't get me wrong. It hasn't always been this way for me. Let's face it, when I was a child and my mother would make liver I couldn't understand what I had done to humanity that was so horrible that it would require punishment by liver. I wracked my brain trying to find out what unpardonable sin I had commited that would bring such wrath down on my head. She'd place the plate in front of me and immediately my mouth would begin to water, the room would begin to spin and I knew that I would pass out at any moment. No amount of ketchup could hide the awful taste of this shoe leather looking thing lying on my plate waiting for consumption. The look on my face evoked my mother to her duty of telling me how good it was for me and how it would make me healthy and grow up strong. Right, mom, go tell it to the kid next door and see if you can fool him into eating fried cardboard on the pretense of health. Sure!
If I may digress here for a moment, this is right up there with the turnip deception. Do grownups really think that children believe that turnips taste like potatoes let alone look like them. That's like being a badly dressed cross-dresser. Give the kids a break. We knew better. Turnips are not potatoes nor do they taste like them. Another insult to the child's intelligence.
Anyway, after getting married I one day found my self actually hungry for this obscene piece of animal innards. So off to the store I went. I picked the smallest amount up I could and went home feeling as though something wonderful was about to happen. I cooked that liver up like it was the most expensive piece of steak around. I tenderly seasoned it and slowly fried it adding bits of water from time to time. In a very short time it looked quite done and I slowly took a bite to see if I had succeeded in doing what my mother was unable to do. It was wonderful. Somehow I had learned the secret of making liver. You simply treat it with decency and respect in the pan and it will do you justice. I swear the hallalujah chorus broke out in my tiny kitchen that day as I fell to my knees and vowed to be the "liver advocate". I would be the redeemer of the liver. I would crusade for it to be "the other dark meat". People would swarm to the meat counter to buy this wonderful culinary delight as I taught them my secret of perfect liver making. Move over, Martha Stewart and Emeril, Anna was on the scene and I wasn't going to budge until liver was no longer demonized.
Well, time has passed and liver is still not on the top ten list of things you really want to eat. I wanted to be its redeemer. I wanted to loose it from its bonds of unjust hatred simply because people didn't respect the tenderness in which it needs to be treated. I now know it will never replace a good sirloin or roast, but I'll still try to tout its goodness to those who will be fearless enough to try "the other dark meat".
By the way, I like turnips now as well.
Now don't get me wrong. It hasn't always been this way for me. Let's face it, when I was a child and my mother would make liver I couldn't understand what I had done to humanity that was so horrible that it would require punishment by liver. I wracked my brain trying to find out what unpardonable sin I had commited that would bring such wrath down on my head. She'd place the plate in front of me and immediately my mouth would begin to water, the room would begin to spin and I knew that I would pass out at any moment. No amount of ketchup could hide the awful taste of this shoe leather looking thing lying on my plate waiting for consumption. The look on my face evoked my mother to her duty of telling me how good it was for me and how it would make me healthy and grow up strong. Right, mom, go tell it to the kid next door and see if you can fool him into eating fried cardboard on the pretense of health. Sure!
If I may digress here for a moment, this is right up there with the turnip deception. Do grownups really think that children believe that turnips taste like potatoes let alone look like them. That's like being a badly dressed cross-dresser. Give the kids a break. We knew better. Turnips are not potatoes nor do they taste like them. Another insult to the child's intelligence.
Anyway, after getting married I one day found my self actually hungry for this obscene piece of animal innards. So off to the store I went. I picked the smallest amount up I could and went home feeling as though something wonderful was about to happen. I cooked that liver up like it was the most expensive piece of steak around. I tenderly seasoned it and slowly fried it adding bits of water from time to time. In a very short time it looked quite done and I slowly took a bite to see if I had succeeded in doing what my mother was unable to do. It was wonderful. Somehow I had learned the secret of making liver. You simply treat it with decency and respect in the pan and it will do you justice. I swear the hallalujah chorus broke out in my tiny kitchen that day as I fell to my knees and vowed to be the "liver advocate". I would be the redeemer of the liver. I would crusade for it to be "the other dark meat". People would swarm to the meat counter to buy this wonderful culinary delight as I taught them my secret of perfect liver making. Move over, Martha Stewart and Emeril, Anna was on the scene and I wasn't going to budge until liver was no longer demonized.
Well, time has passed and liver is still not on the top ten list of things you really want to eat. I wanted to be its redeemer. I wanted to loose it from its bonds of unjust hatred simply because people didn't respect the tenderness in which it needs to be treated. I now know it will never replace a good sirloin or roast, but I'll still try to tout its goodness to those who will be fearless enough to try "the other dark meat".
By the way, I like turnips now as well.
posted by Gammys Perspective at 5:09 PM
3 Comments:
http://vanessalea.tripod.com/blog/
I love the liver! and turnips too. You blog is great!
Oh Don you sure know how to get a lady excited!
V
How gross. I have no idea how people eat this stuff. Thank goodness, my father did like this. Otherwise, my mother would have cooked this. So, I am glad to say, that I never had the pleasure of eating this crap! LOL!
Thanks for stopping by my blog.
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