Christmas Chicken liver craziness?

[kozar]

LilBit and I have enjoyed this for years. MrsK used to shake her head and “ blech ” us. Indulge me please and feel free to “blech”
23 Dec, I get my lil tub o’ chicken livers out. Make a quick, garlic/basil butter, and combine in a bag and marinate livers over night.
Then, even this morn, a cast iron skillet, dry, no oil. And livers out of fridge,( yes, it’s a bit of sloppy mess in bag) into skillet.
Lots of turning involved, but it is only about a 15 minute process,
The flavor is a bit of a small crunch, creaminess of the butter, the richness of liver, and some bite of garlic and nice basil all along.
LilBit destroys them, loves them. I love ‘em also.
So Merry Christmas,
yay or nay?
What’s your breakfast tradition for Holiday Dinner breakfast?

KozandLilBit

[Karadeniz]

1. Sounds good to me !!

[RainCaster]

2. Cinnamon Rolls

My wife makes the best Cinnabon Rolls.

Though I do like the idea of your livers...

[kozar]

3. Yum on Cinnamon Rolls!

It is far easier for me to distract the women in my life to livers once a year than cinnamon rolls!!
LilBit’s procedure to eat a cinnamon roll,

“ yeah Dad, ok I see ya offering me a bite, no ty. WAIT! You at middle of roll? My Bite!”
Ty for the smile

Koz

[yellowdogintexas]

19. that was ours growing up. We usually made a big batch of yeast rolls for

whatever big family meal and my mom always saved enough for a pan of cinnamon rolls. Sometimes my aunt just brought over dough from HER batch and we made it into rolls.

I quite making them for us several years ago but it is a fond memory

[RainCaster]

23. They are just a happy, doughy memory

Yum yum

[elleng]

4. Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah!

My cousin made them! He clearly inherited Grandpa's kitchen/delicatessen skills. Thanks for the reminder, Koz!

[twodogsbarking]

5. Not eaten livers in years but my wife suggested them last week.

I'm in, but for dinner. Enjoy.

[SharonClark]

6. I love sauted chicken livers.

on spaghetti aka Spaghetti Caruso, as pate on crackers, or as liver mouse piped into a thin deli ham cone. Yum.

[kozar]

9. I'm not a pate guy

But the Italian flair thing you bring up interests me. How are the livers incorporated to the sauce, or pasta? LilBit loves Italian food.

Koz

[Warpy]

7. Blech.

Liver is an acquired taste that I never acquired.

Liver is how I knew by the age of four or five to stash some TP in my underpants, ready to receive the most offensive shit that hit the kitchen table, labeled "food" but I knew better. Once concealed within the TP in my underwear, it remained safely away from my digestive tract until I could get rid of it, into a cat or dog or down the toilet or under the shrubbery if it was still light enough to go outside after the meal.

To this day, I can't get liver down.

[kozar]

8. Lol

It’s how I remember liver also, Thank God the culinary world has evolved as well as technology.
This new world ain’t so bad, Thanks for the blech

Koz

[Warpy]

10. I used to buy chicken livers for the cats from time to time

The little furry morons would crouch and growl at their dishes for a full half hour before they realized the stuff was edible.

[mitch96]

15. Same here. As a kid My grandmother tried to force them down my throat.. Blech is right

To this day I look at cooked liver and they smell ok(if cooked with onions), look ok but the instant they get to my mouth the gag reflects takes over....I try but it's a no go..
Also loaded with pruines which is no good if you have a propensity for gout and some research it's no good for diabetes also..
So I'll pass for now..
m

[Warpy]

16. Being a table tyrant was a big thing with parents who had

gone through the Depression followed by rationing in WWII, even if those memories were a bit hazy. They bullied us over food from the 40s-60s and most of us have things we just can't face.

Liver is the one thing I absolutely can't choke down, not even cut into little pieces and swallowed like pills. Can't do it.

I've mad peace with all veggies, although I'd prefer not to have them slimy and out of a can. I can eat turnips, Brussels sprouts, and spinach, although I'd prefer to cook them myself. Ditto winter squash and yams, they can all be really good if bad cooks don't come near them.

But liver? No fucking way, no how, not ever. I tried to cook it once, I was in twoo wuv. When I leaned over and hurled into a trash can, my twooi wuv knew that wasn't going to happen again and he'd have to order it in restaurants. I was fine with that.

[hippywife]

27. Yes!!!

To all of this! My husband likes calves liver, and I've offered to prepare it for him, but he knows enough to decline the offer.

[The_REAL_Ecumenist]

29. I agree, Warpy... I REFUSE to eat ANY offal, don't care how you season it or how you cook it.

I don't eat liver, kidneys, sweetmeats, maw...& CHITLINS? NO MA'AM! I do want to try beef tongue & heart because from what I hear,when properly prepared, these cuts make some of the best roast beef EVAH! But for the rest of it, I'll starve first...

[Warpy]

30. Well, once you skin the tongue, it looks like a nice cut of beef

Leave the skin on, and it looks like what it is and no one will eat it.

However, if you eat sausage of any variety, you're eating awful, I mean offal, including eyeballs. Most people are cool with that as long as it's all ground up and unrecognizable. Unless it's labeled as such (and sold at a premium price for it), it doesn't generally have liver in it, so I can get it down and it will stay there.

I have eaten frog legs (a frequent item when I was growing up), fried grasshopper, fried rattlesnake and dog. Just don't ask me to eat liver. Can't do it.

[chowmama]

11. Some kind of sweet rolls

I've got the dough started for Swedish Tea 'Sticks' tomorrow. What is going to make them sticks is that with only the two of us, I don't want to have an entire large ring around getting stale. So, I'm making the full recipe, but will divide it in half, with half (undecorated) for the freezer.

Since I think a half recipe won't make an effective ring, the shape is going to have to be adapted. It's really just cinnamon rolls, but you stick the ends of the tube together into a ring, cut your slices not quite all the way through and turn them on their sides, alternating the directions. If I make two straight or curved tubes and cut and turn the slices, I can get something...vaguely flower-shaped? Maybe turn them all to one side and make one into a stem for something wheat-like. Whatever I do, it'll be edible.

As for liver, I've already got some chicken livers soaking for Sarah's chopped liver for the afternoon before dinner. It's another recipe from the Notorious Commune. Apparently it's really important to get all the blood out of the liver, so you soak it well. Then drain it and bake it till done, rinse it to get off any more blood that came to the surface, then make the chopped liver with the standard egg, onion and schmaltz. I can beat any deli at this.

[kozar]

13. Nice chow mama

You sound like a great cook, that has a lot more time in life than I do. Recipes noted. Thanks

[spinbaby]

14. Can't say we have a tradition

My late husband’s family used to make sauerkraut balls every Christmas, but we haven’t done that in years. Sauerkraut balls involve grinding up and cooking ham, sauerkraut, onions and some other stuff, then breading and deep frying the mixture. They’re a mess to make, but totally delicious. Apparently it’s an Ohio thing.

I love chicken livers, too, but rarely cook them because I’m the only one here who eats them. This year it’s a chuck roast in the slow cooker, a loaf of homemade bread, Nigella Lawson’s Clementine cake, and vegetables to be decided.

[Retrograde]

17. I had sauerkraut balls in Columbus

several years ago - I wish other places would make them!

[Marthe48]

21. I've made my own several times

There are recipes online. I use sauerkraut, bulk sausage (I make my own) and cream cheese. Instead of frying them, I bake them, saves a few calories.

Thanks for the reminder. I might make some for New Year's

[niyad]

18. Love chicken livers! I do mine as a stroganoff. Or turn it into pate!

[Retrograde]

20. Now you've got me craving chicken livers!

Didn't like them as a kid, but being married to someone who likes liver I've adapted. The stroganoff idea sounds good, as does a pasta with liver ragu I read about recently. Or just chopped livers with caramelized onions

I soak livers overnight in milk or buttermilk: it seems to remove some of the metallic tang.

[niyad]

28. Some people recommend steaming them at the end with cider vinegar to

take sway the liver taste. Never understood that myself.

[Marthe48]

22. I don't like liver

I ate goose liver sandwiches with sandwich spread when I was a kid, beef liver a few times, chicken livers a few times, just don't care for it.

[trof]

24. How bad was the skillet garbaged?

[kozar]

26. Not at all

It’s very well seasoned

[Emile]

25. Chicken liver is one of the best catfish baits I ever fished with.

That said, I can't stand to eat it!

Fried chicken gizzards I love.