While working on a book that will feature a number of food-related stories from the newspaper columns of that beloved muse of the North Carolina mountains in yesteryear, John Parris, I was struck by the amount of attention he devoted to what are often collectively known as organ meats.
He exulted in a properly prepared meal featuring calf’s liver and onions, and clearly had a cultivated taste for livermush, souse meat, giblet gravy, pate, and other delicacies made from portions of the pigs, chickens, and cows that were integral to life in the largely rural scene that was his highland homeland. Similarly, he appreciated the fact that the supposedly inferior portions of game animals such as deer and bear, typically deemed offal and disposed of in today’s world, could, when properly prepared, make mighty fine table fare.
Parris’s was an era of “make do with what you’ve got,” and he would have readily identified with my Grandpa Joe’s admonition. When hog-killing time rolled around every November, he would opine at the start of the process that anyone in their right mind was going to “use everything but the squeal.” In today’s world, and amazingly to someone of my background who still harbors powerful memories of consuming the “lesser” portions of hogs butchered when my extended family gathered for arduous but cherished first light to twilight sessions of dealing with a half dozen or more fattened hogs, it is often difficult to find organ meats. You can usually find chicken livers and gizzards at your local grocer’s, but lights (heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, and the like) can be problematic.
When it comes to procuring organ meats, my suggestion is that you cultivate a good relationship with a local custom meat market or a butcher in your favorite grocery store. To do so opens a road to some fine dining, and it is worth noting that including such meat in your diet, in moderation, can be quite beneficial to your health.
You get a real bonanza of vitamins, with Vitamin A and various ones in the B complex (especially B12) being particularly noteworthy, along with zinc, iron, plenty of protein, and CoQ12. Moderation is advisable however, because you don’t want too much Vitamin A, the cholesterol content of organ meats is rather high, those afflicted with gout should beware, and this is a dietary situation where sourcing is of particular note. With those caveats in mind, here are a variety of recipes featuring the wonders of organ meats.
Chicken Paté
More often than not, giblets from the hens that ranked second only to pork as the meat served on mountain tables as I knew them while growing up, went into gravy. Occasionally though, the organ meats would be set aside and saved for use on their own. I love the rich taste of giblets and here is a simple way of enjoying them as an appetizer or snack when spread atop crackers or toast wedges. I personally prefer it to livermush from pork (and that’s a treat I thoroughly enjoy as the recipe below suggests).
Ingredients:
- Giblets (heart, liver, gizzard) from several chickens or a couple of turkeys
- Two boiled eggs
- 1 sweet onion, chopped
- 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
- Butter or olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:
Clean and chop the giblets into small pieces and sauté in a large frying pan with the chopped onion and minced garlic using butter or olive oil. Then blend thoroughly in a food processor and allow to cool. Boil two eggs then peel and chop them finely. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Mix minced giblets, seasoning, and eggs thoroughly and press into a bowl or mold. Chill until solid.
Livermush
Livermush combines two key ingredients—liver and corn meal—that featured in daily diet for what Horace Kephart shamefully described as “branch-water people” in Our Southern Highlanders. Folks who were treated shamefully by Kephart in what one highly respected student of regional history has described as “the nadir of Appalachian stereotyping” may have been impoverished, but they were hard working, proud, and most notably in the present context, knew how to turn foodstuffs some might consider on the lower side of ordinary into something extraordinary. Livermush offers a prime example, and a couple of slices of this poor man’s delicacy, fried in a bit of bacon grease until crispy (if you must, use olive oil, but the traditionalist will opt for lard) on the outside and steaming with nutrient-rich goodness on the inside, will, in the words of the late comedian Jerry Clower, “fling a craving on you.”
Ingredients:
- 1 pound of pork liver, with the silver skin (membrane) removed, cut into small cubes
- 1 pound of pork ham or Boston butt, chopped until fairly fine
- Fresh sage, black pepper, and red pepper to taste (spices are a key aspect of tasty livermush, and individual preferences vary appreciably, particularly when it comes to the use of sage)
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder or 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon onion powder or half a small onion, chopped fine
- 1½ cups cornmeal
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
Preparation:
Cook the liver and pork shoulder on medium low in enough water to cover until it is tender (perhaps 3 hours). Remove the meat, reserving the liquid, and add all the ingredients except the cornmeal and flour. Use a food processor to grind the meat until it has the consistency of hamburger or mincemeat. Then return the meat to the reserved liquid and stir to mix. Once mixed, bring to a boil and as the mixture simmers, stir in the cornmeal and flour a bit at a time. When finished you should have a “mush” (somewhere between a liquid that pours and a solid). Grease one or more loaf pans, depending on their size, and put the mush in the pan. Allow to set at room temperature and then refrigerate overnight (or if prepared in the morning, for at least 6 hours) before use. Cut into ¾-inch slices and fry in oil (which should be heated first). Cook until crusty brown on each side, turning only once.
Giblet Gravy
Considered a “must” with baked turkey at holidays, giblet gravy can actually be a main dish in its own right when combined with cathead biscuits, atop crumbled cornbread, or mashed potatoes. As gravies go, it is also easy to prepare, although making a proper roux in this case, as is ever true, is something better experienced and learned in person than described in print.
Ingredients:
- ½ pound or more of poultry giblets (heart, liver, and gizzard)
- ½ small onion
- 2 sticks of celery
- Flour
- Chicken broth
- Butter
- Herbs and spices of your choice, although salt and black pepper are essential
Preparation:
Cook the giblets in water or chicken broth until tender and then chop fine. Set the chopped giblets aside, reserving the cooking liquid, and sauté finely chopped onion and celery in butter until translucent. At that point add flour, salt and pepper (and other spices according to your tastes) stirring constantly with a whisk until you have a nice roux. Then pour in the reserved liquid, adding chicken broth if needed, and continue stirring until the gravy reaches the desired thickness. Keep in mind that gravy will continue to thicken some after you remove it from heat, and with giblet gravy you want it to pour readily.
Liver with Bacon and Onions
Ingredients:
- 4 slices bacon
- 4 to 6 slices liver (cut very thin)
- 1 onion, sliced thin
- 1 cup sour cream
Preparation:
Cook bacon strips in a large skillet until crisp. Remove and crumble, reserving the drippings. Sauté liver and onions in the drippings. Be careful not to overcook. Remove from pan and cover with tinfoil to retain heat or place in a warmed chafing dish. Add sour cream to the skillet and cook over low heat, stirring with a whisk, until heat through (do not boil). Pour over the liver and onions and sprinkle the bacon bits on top. Can be eaten as a stand-alone dish or atop rice or pasta.
Liver with French Dressing
Sometimes a seemingly unlikely ingredient can make for a dandy dish. Such was the case when my late wife, experimenting with organ meats as we worked on one of several cookbooks we co-wrote featuring venison dishes, came up with this. It works every bit as well with beef liver as it did with venison.
Ingredients:
- 8 thinly cut slices of liver
- ½ cup flour
- ¼ teaspoon garlic salt
- ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup commercial French dressing
- 3 tablespoons canola oil or bacon drippings
Preparation:
Combine flour, salts, and pepper. Dip thin slices of liver in French dressing and then dredge in the flour mixture. Cooking the prepared slices in hot oil until golden brown. Turn only once and do not overcook (liver cooks rapidly, especially when cut thin, so be on your toes).
Garlic Liver in White Wine
Ingredients:
- 1 pound liver, cut into thin (1/2-inch) slices or strips
- 1/3 cup of flour (seasoned with salt, pepper, and paprika as listed below)
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ cup dry white wine
- ¾ cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon paprika (divided)
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
Preparation:
Dredge the liver slices in seasoned flour (use half the paprika). Melt butter in a large skillet and add liver and garlic, browning for about 4 minutes. Remove meat from skillet and set aside. Add wine, and stir gently with a whisk to loosen all drippings. Add sour cream, other half of the paprika, and parsley. Heat thoroughly but do not allow to boil. Stir in liver and adjust seasonings to taste. Goes well with rice or barley.