The liver is an incredibly healthy product that you need to have in your diet, if only rarely. But, despite the benefits and low calorie content of the liver, there is one drawback - with improper preparation, the liver is bitter. Why is this happening? What to do about it? In this article we will find out why beef, chicken, pork and cod liver are bitter. We will share tips on how to get rid of bitterness and give practical recommendations for preparing this product.
Why the liver is bitter: chicken, pork, beef, cod
The liver takes an important part in metabolism. Any living organism needs this organ to cleanse the blood and the organism as a whole from harmful substances.
Why is the liver bitter? The unpleasant taste of the liver is to blame for the bitter enzymes that are in the body and are needed to break down fat. Experienced housewives know a lot of ways to hide an unpleasant aftertaste, or even get rid of it. But these methods do not always work, since the cause of bitterness may lie in another.
Bile is the cause of bitterness
Why is the pork liver bitter? She, like the liver of a cow, chicken and other animals, in addition to bitter enzymes, also has a gall bladder. Bile is a bitter substance, which, when improperly processed, comes into contact with meat, completely spoils its taste. It is very difficult to get rid of the taste of bile!
Even if you carefully remove the bubble while cutting the carcass or buy a ready-made, processed organ, there is no guarantee that bitterness of bile will not be present even with the most careful preparation.
Spoiled product
Why is the cod liver, bought in the form of canned food in a jar, bitter? Most likely, this is a spoiled product that is harmful to health to eat. If you felt an unpleasant aftertaste of bitterness after tasting a piece of the can, then hurry to throw the product away or return to the store where you bought it, for this you will need a receipt confirming the purchase.
Frozen cod liver, beef, pork or chicken is also often spoiled. This will be indicated by ugly dark blue or greenish spots located in some places. Unfortunately, before defrosting it is almost impossible to notice. Some cut out spoiled sections of the product, and the rest is cooked. But we would not recommend risking our health and the health of our households in this way.
Choose only chilled meat products for purchase; traces of spoilage in such products are simply impossible to hide. Inspect the liver before buying.
If nothing can be done with a spoiled product, then a number of culinary tricks will help overcome the bitterness of bile or eliminate the taste of a bitter enzyme.
Tips for eliminating bitterness in the liver
Having figured out why the liver is bitter, you can begin to eliminate the unpleasant taste. There are many methods for this, and everyone is able to save your culinary masterpiece!
- Do not cook freshly bought chilled liver. It has blood that tastes bitter. To get rid of it, you need to freeze the product, then cut it, removing all the films, and then rinse well under running water. Frozen blood is washed easier!
- Fresh liver has a uniform, slightly purple dark red color. if the product is pale, or vice versa, too violet, then this will indicate expiration, and you can’t cook such.
- Greenish spots on a good color of the liver are traces of bile, not delay. Such places you just need to cut, so you do not get a bitter aftertaste when cooking.
- If there are too many green spots, then do not cook the product, it is not of high quality, and bile has already spread throughout the liver.
Eliminating bitterness by soaking
Soak can be in milk, which must be previously cooled. To do this, first chop, rinse the product in running water, and then place in a bowl of cold milk for an hour. Fold the pieces so that they lie freely.
If there is no milk, then ordinary cold water with salt is suitable. The soaking method is simple:
- Slice and rinse the liver in cold water.
- Pour only cold tap water into the bowl, add a teaspoon of salt.
- Put the liver in water so that the pieces are not stacked on top of each other.
- After 30 minutes, rinse the pieces under running water.
Disguise bitterness
If you do not understand why the liver is bitter even after processing and soaking, then there is only one way out - to mask the unpleasant aftertaste. To do this, we suggest remembering a few tricks:
- Add more onions when frying, but do not take carrots. Fry, then add tomato paste, wait until it turns orange, fill with water and simmer until tender.
- Spicy herbs, spices with a pronounced aroma and taste will help hide the unpleasant taste.
- Walnut added to the dish will perfectly decorate the taste of the liver. He himself is slightly bitter, but this will hide the bitterness of the liver and give the dish a twist.
- You can sprinkle the finished liver with a small amount of lemon juice.
- Do not try to mask bitterness with sweetness, this will only aggravate the situation. It is unlikely that any of the eaters will like bittersweet meat.
Finally
Buy only chilled offal, and only from a trusted seller in a butcher's shop. Before buying, inspect the liver from all sides, twirling every bite without hesitation.
Avoid buying offal, and indeed meat products, frozen in supermarkets. Fresh products are sold only chilled. Freezing is something that did not sell on time in a chilled form, and had to be frozen. Or the products were transported for a long time, which means they are no longer fresh!
When buying a jar with cod liver, pay attention not only to the manufacturer, shelf life, but also to the quality of the jar itself. It should be without dents or scratches.