Nov 01 2010
Offally Clever! How To Sneak Liver Into Your Families Diet
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Photo courtesy of Girl Interrupted Eating on Flickr.
Mmmmm, liver! Not quite what most people call delicious. Just the look of it makes people quiver in disgust. Organ meats, or offal, is what peasants would eat because they couldn’t afford the more expensive cuts of muscle meats. Little did they know how lucky they were. I bet their children had beautifully straight teeth! Liver, and other organ meats are tremendously high in nutrients, especially if it comes from grass-fed or pastured animals. It is a super food. Did you know that a lion, when it kills its prey, will eat the liver first? Organ meats were highly prized by traditional peoples all over the world. Dr. Price noted that among African tribes, “The liver is so sacred that it may not be touched by human hands.” Many native cultures feed liver to their babies as a first food. Wise, very wise indeed.
I used to believe that liver was not a good food to eat because of all the cholesterol it contained, and because the liver was a detoxifying organ. It was dirty. It contained toxins and poisons. But, I was misinformed. I now know that cholesterol is actually good for us, essential for the production of hormones, and for every cell in our body. According to Sally Fallon and Mary Enig, in their book Eat Fat Lose Fat, ”…toxins such as heavy metals and pesticides are generally stored in the fatty tissue, not the liver itself. The livers of animals raised in clean conditions, out of doors and eating green grass, are both safe and healthy to eat.” If you are unable to find grass-fed liver, you should be able to find young calves liver at the grocery store. The benefits of eating it far outweigh any negative effects. You can even find it in capsule form if you would prefer to take it that way.
NUTRIENT DENSITY
Why is liver considered to be one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet? Because liver contains vitamin A, and lots of it. You may have heard the warnings not to ingest too much vitamin A, because it is toxic. But, this actually refers to synthetic vitamin A, in which the body recognizes as a poison. But natural vitamin A, in its whole food form, is harmless. Remember, when you eat a food in its whole form, the way nature intended, the body knows exactly what to do with it! Natural vitamin A is essential for optimal health and protects against bone loss and birth defects. Think you are getting enough vitamin A from vegetables like carrots? Think again! Carotene is not vitamin A — it needs to be converted to vitamin A in the upper intestine. Many people have such compromised health that this conversion often does not occur, especially in vegetarians or children. It is interesting to note as well that our bodies cannot convert carotenes into vitamin A without the presence of fat in the diet. So, if you are relying on vegetables for your vitamins, make sure to cook them up and slather them in butter! Liver also supplies minerals and all the B vitamins in abundance, along with special, long-chain fatty acids. Another important nutrient that grass-fed liver contains is Activator X. This is the nutrient that Dr. Price discovered, or catalyst rather, that helps the body absorb and utilize minerals. Liver and other grass-fed organs also contain vitamin D, also needed for strong bones, healthy teeth and normal growth.
SERVE IT UP!
Liver and I have bad childhood memories. I remember my mother fixing it for dinner once in a blue moon. She cooked it with onions until it resembled shoe leather and we smothered it in ketchup. Umm, not so good. Today, I like to fry it up with pastured bacon, garlic and onions, medium rare. Or make a delicious pate to serve with butter and sourdough bread. When I began eating traditional foods, I craved liver. Just like I craved raw, whole milk. I couldn’t get enough. My body had been deprived of these precious nutrients for so long.
But here was my problem. Just because I enjoyed liver prepared this way, didn’t mean my kids did. So, I had to think outside the box. This food was just much too important not to include it in their diets. Include liver and other organ meats in your children’s diets, and they will be rewarded with good health. So, what did I do? Well, like most families with children, we are guaranteed to go through at least one meal a week containing ground beef, be it tacos, burritos, chili, spaghetti with meatballs, meatloaf, etc. Well, did you know that if you throw it into a blender or food processor with a little water and whirl it up, it liquifies! Add it along with the ground beef, just a small amount, and no one will even know. So I experimented by mixing other organ meats, and eventually increasing the quantity. It works. The whole family gets a dose of grass-fed organ meats once a week. That doesn’t mean that I have given up trying to get them to like pate, or simple fried liver with bacon, but this way is a sure thing!
METHOD:
I buy 1/4 grass-fed cow about once per year and I ask for all of the organs. Quite often I am gifted with the organs of other cows that were butchered at the same time as mine. For some odd reason, most people don’t want the organs with their order?! I gladly take them, and here’s what I do:
- 1 liver
- 1 kidney – optional
- 1 heart – optional
- 1 sweetbread (thymus gland) – optional
Now whirl it up!
Soak the organs in filtered water overnight with a splash of whey or lemon juice. The next day, rinse and cut into chunks. Remove any fibers, tendons, or excess fat. Place the organs into a food processor. Add a small amount of water and puree. If you are using liver only, it should practically liquify. If you have added the other ‘meatier’ organs, it will be chunkier. Just process it as smooth as it will get. Alternately, you can run the organs through your meat grinder if you have one. Scoop the mixture into ice cube trays or muffin tins. Freeze until solid and then pop out into a large freezer bag. Now you can conveniently add several frozen cubes or muffins into your ground meat dishes without anyone knowing. I have worked my way up to where I can now use 3 muffin size portions of organ meat to 1 lb. of gr. beef or pork.
Try to sneak liver and other organ meats into your families diet once per week. You don’t even have to tell them. When your kids grow up cavity-free, without needing glasses or braces, they’ll thank you one day! And, your wallet will thank your good senses (and the wisdom of traditional peoples)!
Click here to learn more about liver and read a great article with recipe ideas by Lynn Razaitis.
This post is a part of Kelly The Kitchen Kop’s REAL FOOD WEDNESDAYS. Go check out all the other posts!
This is an AWESOME post! Thank you for sharing your method for sneaking liver into your diet. I’ve started to eat liver 1x a week as I prepare my body for pregnancy. My ‘trick’ is very similar to yours but you’ve given me a new idea with freezing in ice cube trays (if I can get my hands on fresh liver.)
I’ve been buying liver directly from a farm that raises grass-fed cows and lamb but it’s frozen. I process 1/2-1 lb in my food processor and then combine with 1/2-1 lb ground meat and fry it all up together. I can’t taste it at all so it’s been really easy to introduce into my diet.
I’m happy to find another Canadian real-foodie
Hi Christine!!
Just decided to check out your blog!! It was great to meet you at the conference! This is a great post and a great idea to puree in advance and freeze it that way!!
I love all your pictures, do you raise all those animals??
Hi Lydia – it was so great to meet you as well! As for the animals, no I can’t take credit for raising them. That credit goes to a couple of the pasture based hero-farmers in my area!
Hi Crystal! I use frozen, not fresh. I de-thaw it to puree it, then I re-freeze it. I don’t see any harm in doing it that way. It is being cooked up in the end. Where are you in Canada?
[...] Offally Clever! How To Sneak Liver Into Your Family’s Diet, Christine at the Butter Belle blog spills her secrets for how she gets her family to eat more organ [...]
I love it! I just saw this on Cheeseslave and had to stop by. I’ve been trying to get organ meats into our diet on a weekly basis. The Coconut Baby loves beef liver! She eats it with eggs once a week. I also sneak it into our ground beef for burgers.
Hi Tiffany, thanks for stopping by! That is so wonderful that your baby loves beef liver. If we can start our children young eating organs, all the better! BTW, I love your blog – I’ve added it to my blogroll!
Lol My iPad decided that blogspot wasn’t a word so it changed it to Globally! My first comment is not linked to my blog :/
Thank you for adding The Coconut Mama to your blogroll! I just subscribed to Butter Belle =D
Great post! I just tried my first sneaking this week and it worked great (liver and heart). Question: why do you soak in water/ lemon juice first?
Thanks!
Hi Jenn – You don’t have to soak, but I believe it does help to draw out the excess blood and strong flavors, as well as toxins, if there are any in there. But again, not necessary!
I haven’t ventured beyond liver, but I’ll give it a try! Just had my first success with liver. We like anything that’s crunchy and dippable, it seems.
I’ve been trying to figure out how to sneak organ meats into my own diet. This sounds like a great way to do it. Thank you.
wow! i’ve had a bag of offal in my freezer for weeks now looking for a good home & i wasn’t sure this would work- you’ve done my homework! this is my first visit to your site (i stumbled onto this post) i must say- THANKS! you are officially my new favorite person in the world!
HELP! I defrosted the frozen liver. Soaked overnight in clear water (which I changed once or twice). I didn’t have whey so I used a tiny bit of bragg’s vinegar in the first batch of water. I just drained the liver, ran thought the food processor & ladled into muffin pans. There was a strong odor coming from some of the more solid pieces that didn’t puree up. Not good strong either. As a test I put it out for the chickens & they were hesitant to eat it. Was I supposed to do something else? BTW- my liver didn’t look like yours in the picture- could the processor not have removed another organ attached to the liver- mine was much bigger with smaller pieces on it. Wish I had taken a picture first, but then who thinks to randomly take a picture of a raw liver for evidence later!
Any advice or insight appreciated!
Hi rpl, it sounds like you’ve done everything right. The picture in the post is of a beef liver. Was yours chicken liver? They tend to be lumpier and in several attached pieces. Even if there was another organ attached to it, that would have been ok as well. You can eat all the organs and prepare them all the same way.
Have you ever prepared liver before? It does have a strong odor. But, if you feel that the odor is not agreeable, that is up to your discretion if you consume it or not!
Hope that helps!
I just read your article on liver and wanted to know if the same info applied to chicken liver? While I like beef liver, I LOVE chicken liver.
Sure thing Brooke, the liver from any animal, organic and/or pastured would be perfectly fine to use!
I always pour scrambled eggs on top of cut up liver and peppers.. It does change the taste a bit.
I thought I would mention to anyone that does not have a good source of grass-fed organic organ meats….I called 3 different meat processing companies in our area and asked that they call me if they have deer or elk to process and the owner does not want the organs meats. They told me if I come once a week, they always have free organ meats to give away, and usually they end up in the trash!
I have 14 deer livers
2 huge elk hearts
and 4 bear kidneys
in my freezer!
How cool is that?
Heather, thanks for the tip, that is cool! I will have to start calling around too to see what free finds I can get!
I’ve only tried this with beef heart (next I’m going to try liver). But if you’re first starting a great dish to try this on is chili since it has such a strong flavor anyways!
I agree Emily, in fact anything with a tomato base disguises the liver taste very well!
In general I agree and I think liver is a great baby food too. However, it is indeed possible to eat too much and get vitamin A overdose…if you eat polar bear liver. Most of us wouldn’t have access to that or even necessarily want try it but technically it is possible! http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/polar-bears/polar-bear-comprehensive/physiology