In My Mother's Kitchen: Liver & Onions / Liver Pate
If you've read the first six posts in this series, you would be excused for thinking that I loved every single thing that my mother made when I was growing up. While I was not a particularly picky eater, especially compared to my sister, there were definitely a few things my mother made that I was not a fan of. Unfortunately, she made them over and over again. The single most disgusting of these was fried liver & onions.
My mother's rules for eating dinner were pretty simple.
- You had to take some of everything on the table.
- You couldn't take seconds until you finished everything from your first round. I have always eaten pretty quickly, so that wasn't much of a problem for me.
- If you took it, you had to finish it. The corollary was don't take it unless you're actually hungry. Since I was always hungry, this rule rarely mattered.
For liver in particular, the combination of the first and second rule sometimes caused me problems. On several occasions, I ate everything on my plate except the liver. In those cases, my mother would save it and make me have it for breakfast before I ate anything else. On at least one occasion I can recall I made it all the way to lunch the next day before choking down a piece of liver. This was despite bacon often being fried up with it.
I told this story at supper club once, and one attendee said that this was flat out child abuse. I personally feel that's utterly ridiculous, but she was serious. In any event, of the things my mother made that I hated, liver was the only one that caused me to behave that way. Everything else I could choke down pretty quickly. I feel that the liver had some extra disadvantages that made it harder to tolerate. For starters, frying up liver and onions always made the house smell terrible, even with the kitchen fan going at full speed. This meant that you got to anticipate the dinner for a good half hour before it was served. Second, liver feels terrible on the tongue. For some reason, it just doesn't feel right. Third, the fried onions (which I would normally like) would absorb some of the liver flavor.
My father was the intended audience for friend liver & onions. I don't think my mother actually cared for it all that much either, but Dad loved it. The other major food that my mother made from liver was liver pate, but thankfully she didn't even try to serve that for dinner. Alone out of all the things my mother ever made, it was for Dad's personal consumption, and he was welcome to it. I'm pretty sure I never even tried it. Imagine pureed liver in a bowl chilling in the fridge, and you're about 99% there. It didn't smell as bad as friend liver & onions, but that's about all it had going for it.
I don't have a recipe for my mother's version of these dishes, and even if I did I would not be posting a recipe for either one. Some recipes can be lost to history. Pretty much everything else that I disliked as a kid I'll eat in at least some format nowadays. Sometimes that is enthusiastically, like chickpeas. Other times it is more willingly, like beets. However, even if I still ate red meat I cannot imagine a situation where I would willingly eat liver absent being tricked into it.
As to my mother's eating rules, I can't say that they are what kept me from being a picky eater. My sister was much pickier than me as a kid, and now she isn't. I know plenty of people who grew up on junk food who turned into gourmet diners, and others who grew up with a variety of food who now eat the same thing over and over again. If you try them on your kids, I make no guarantees on the outcome. And if you feed them liver, all bets are off.
EDIT: Commentary from my father - 6/14:
Your Mom did not buy liverwurst for me. I think it is awful. Although not purchased for many years, she used to buy it just for herself for sandwiches every now and then. She did not serve it to the rest of us.
Also, she emphatically does not recall ever keeping food to make you eat it overnight. She does remember that you had to eat some beets from supper before you could watch Dukes of Hazzard but that was all the same evening.
We have not had beef liver & onions for a long time. When available we had deer liver but we switched to chicken livers long ago. Yes, we still have them upon occasion. Always with fried onions, often with rice.
Me: I don't remember her ever purchasing liverwurst, just making it, and I could have sworn it was for Dad. I can even visualize the the bowls she put it in. Maybe I'm using the wrong name for it - it was certainly a liver based spread. Such are the problems with memory.
EDIT2: Additional commentary from my father - 6/19:
Revisiting your liver post, especially "Maybe I'm using the wrong name for it - it was certainly a liver based spread." you are probably thinking of the liver pate that your Mom sometimes made from chicken livers, mushrooms, wine, onion and more. She has not made it for several years.
Me: I've updated the title of the post and the bit in that paragraph has been updated from liverwurst to liver pate. Glad we got that cleared up! It's still gross.
My mother's rules for eating dinner were pretty simple.
- You had to take some of everything on the table.
- You couldn't take seconds until you finished everything from your first round. I have always eaten pretty quickly, so that wasn't much of a problem for me.
- If you took it, you had to finish it. The corollary was don't take it unless you're actually hungry. Since I was always hungry, this rule rarely mattered.
For liver in particular, the combination of the first and second rule sometimes caused me problems. On several occasions, I ate everything on my plate except the liver. In those cases, my mother would save it and make me have it for breakfast before I ate anything else. On at least one occasion I can recall I made it all the way to lunch the next day before choking down a piece of liver. This was despite bacon often being fried up with it.
I told this story at supper club once, and one attendee said that this was flat out child abuse. I personally feel that's utterly ridiculous, but she was serious. In any event, of the things my mother made that I hated, liver was the only one that caused me to behave that way. Everything else I could choke down pretty quickly. I feel that the liver had some extra disadvantages that made it harder to tolerate. For starters, frying up liver and onions always made the house smell terrible, even with the kitchen fan going at full speed. This meant that you got to anticipate the dinner for a good half hour before it was served. Second, liver feels terrible on the tongue. For some reason, it just doesn't feel right. Third, the fried onions (which I would normally like) would absorb some of the liver flavor.
My father was the intended audience for friend liver & onions. I don't think my mother actually cared for it all that much either, but Dad loved it. The other major food that my mother made from liver was liver pate, but thankfully she didn't even try to serve that for dinner. Alone out of all the things my mother ever made, it was for Dad's personal consumption, and he was welcome to it. I'm pretty sure I never even tried it. Imagine pureed liver in a bowl chilling in the fridge, and you're about 99% there. It didn't smell as bad as friend liver & onions, but that's about all it had going for it.
I don't have a recipe for my mother's version of these dishes, and even if I did I would not be posting a recipe for either one. Some recipes can be lost to history. Pretty much everything else that I disliked as a kid I'll eat in at least some format nowadays. Sometimes that is enthusiastically, like chickpeas. Other times it is more willingly, like beets. However, even if I still ate red meat I cannot imagine a situation where I would willingly eat liver absent being tricked into it.
As to my mother's eating rules, I can't say that they are what kept me from being a picky eater. My sister was much pickier than me as a kid, and now she isn't. I know plenty of people who grew up on junk food who turned into gourmet diners, and others who grew up with a variety of food who now eat the same thing over and over again. If you try them on your kids, I make no guarantees on the outcome. And if you feed them liver, all bets are off.
EDIT: Commentary from my father - 6/14:
Your Mom did not buy liverwurst for me. I think it is awful. Although not purchased for many years, she used to buy it just for herself for sandwiches every now and then. She did not serve it to the rest of us.
Also, she emphatically does not recall ever keeping food to make you eat it overnight. She does remember that you had to eat some beets from supper before you could watch Dukes of Hazzard but that was all the same evening.
We have not had beef liver & onions for a long time. When available we had deer liver but we switched to chicken livers long ago. Yes, we still have them upon occasion. Always with fried onions, often with rice.
Me: I don't remember her ever purchasing liverwurst, just making it, and I could have sworn it was for Dad. I can even visualize the the bowls she put it in. Maybe I'm using the wrong name for it - it was certainly a liver based spread. Such are the problems with memory.
EDIT2: Additional commentary from my father - 6/19:
Revisiting your liver post, especially "Maybe I'm using the wrong name for it - it was certainly a liver based spread." you are probably thinking of the liver pate that your Mom sometimes made from chicken livers, mushrooms, wine, onion and more. She has not made it for several years.
Me: I've updated the title of the post and the bit in that paragraph has been updated from liverwurst to liver pate. Glad we got that cleared up! It's still gross.