Liver, Anyone?
During a recent post by Holly over at NorCalCazadora, she mentioned that she and her boyfriend are great believers in eating the entire animal after a kill, and while I am all for eating as much meat as possible from a kill – I was a little concerned that she might have been including eating even the liver. I’ll eat all the meat off an animal, but when it comes to organs…well, this Norwegian stomach can only handle so much! This did remind me of a story that was frequent in elk camp as I was growing up, though.
My grandfather loved to be camp cook on these elk hunting trips, and he loved liver – so naturally, when an elk was shot, Grandpa would always ask the hunters to keep the liver. The problem seemed to be that Grandpa was just about the only one in camp that had any kind of love for liver. Each day when a hunter would come in with an elk he’d ask if they kept the liver. “No,” the reply would always begin, “I shot it right through the liver. Couldn’t salvage any of it.” One year, one of the hunting party returned to camp and Grandpa asked him if he’d kept the liver. The answer came back the same way it always did – “No, I shot it through the liver.” Grandpa asked, then, “On the first shot?”
There was a pause, and then, since it was impossible to lie to my grandfather the hesitant reply came back, “No, I had to stick it on a stump and shoot it three or four times to make sure there wasn’t anything left!”
i thought seriously about keeping the liver from my recent elk, but try as I might, i couldn’t bring myself to do it – even though I knew that MY grandpa would be highly dissapointed in me!
Would you be shocked that I like chicken livers but never had an Elk liver. Not sure I would want to try it either.
I just can’t do organs either. I gave my recent deer liver to my friend Dan and the heart to another friend. I have eaten Elk and Deer heart in the past yet just the thought makes me whince. I even used to eat Duck and Goose hearts. Would fry them in butter and garlic in a cast iron skillet. They jumped a lot in the pan and were a bit chewy and I leave them for the Magpies now days.
Liver is nasty. My dad always ate it when we were growing up, but there is just no way that I am eating an organ that is responsible for filtering all of the nasty out of the animals system. Sick.
Funny story though.
I’d be shooting the liver to pieces too!
Liver is not my favorite either. I think I’d be on the side of shooting it a few times so we wouldn’t have to eat it.
[...] Tom has approached this subject I really need to clarify my stance. Yes it was true that Dad was one of the few that loved liver [...]
I’m with ya on the liver thing… usually (see my comment on your dad’s liver post), but have you ever tried heart? Yummy.
Hilarious post! It reminds me of the first time I celebrated Thanksgiving with my wife’s family in backwoods Texas, where I was introduced to giblet gravy for the first time. While I’m absolutely smitten with Southern cuisine, I was having a tough time stomaching the various organs strewn about my plate. I sat for a minute, just staring at my plate, when my wife’s grandmother reached over with her fork and, jabbing it into a hard little organ, asked “You gonna eat this heart?” “Nope,” I said, but she had already polished it off by the time I replied.
As far as liver goes, I’ve only tried it once. It was while camping, and I actually liked it. But like I said, it was while camping. Things always taste better camping.
OMG, I don’t know how I missed this post. That is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.
Seriously, though, Boyfriend’s duck liver ravioli is FANTASTIC.
NorCal – I’ll take your word for it!
Well, actually, I don’t really detest liver – I’d be willing to try it!
Bonneville Mariners – that’s awesome! I guess your wife’s Grandma has no qualms with eating organs!
Cory – I read your comment on Dad’s article. That’s disgusting!
Arthur – That’s funny! I agree – I mean, it’s like wanting to eat kidneys or something! We’re talking about organs whose sole purpose in functioning is to trap and filter all the nasty toxins in the body!! Toxins = POISONS…that can’t be too healthy to eat!
As much as I love to eat innards, I too have a thing about liver’s texture — not the taste, but the texture. I will make a fabulous Umbrian liver sausage called mazzafegati with big-game livers (it’s 50-50 liver and fatty pork) so I use the thing, but I have a hard time with slab o’liver on a plate…