The main ingredients are liver, onions and a fat - oil or butter. Butter is DEFINITELY best. But liver should be cooked quickly, at rather high heat, so you have to be careful not to burn the butter. Plus seasonings to taste, like pepper, garlic, etc. I like to add a small glug of liquid smoke to the pan gravy, especially if I'm not including bacon. I recommend using butter generously to cook the liver and the onions.

One key is to use a LOT of onion, making sure the butter, when melted, is enough to coat each piece (much more than that is too much), and then brown it respectably well. Then move it aside (not recommended) or remove it, add more butter if needed, get it hot and add the liver (you will use more butter if the liver is floured).

The other key is to watch your liver as it cooks, so it cooks done, but not QUITE all the way through - there should be pink inside when you're done, as pink as possible without being like jelly. If any of it is still a bit like jelly, it needs more cooking. Above all, don't cook it till all the pink is gone. It will be grainy and bitter if you do.

If you include bacon, you can cook it crisp first, then drain off the excess and use the bacon fat for both the onions and the liver.

After it's all cooked, don't leave any flavor in the pan! You can make a regular gravy by adding some flour to the fat in the pan, stirring till the flour bubbles, then remove from the heat and whisk in water till it's all incorporated, then return to the heat till it thickens, then add seasonings. OR you can just add water and seasonings and make a pan gravy. Just be sure to get all those browned bits from the pan! Throwing them out is wasting a lot of flavor.

Add some water to deglaze the browned bits and make a pan gravy. To this, you add your seasonings, to taste. Adding a tiny amount of sugar won't be tasted, but it WILL cut down on any bitterness.

When I cook liver of any kind, I smother it in well-browned onions, PLUS lots of crisp bacon. Hard to beat that!

Liver is rich. Sides should be less so. I like noodles, and any vegetable side that isn't complicated or loaded with fat. Salads are extremely good. A side of applesauce goes great with liver.

Whether using chicken, beef, calves liver or some other kind, you CAN soak it in milk about 20 minutes. You CAN rinse them and pat dry. You can even flour them. None of these is necessary, really. The main reason people don't like liver is that it is usually overcooked. If you dust with flour, you'll be sautéing the flour, more than the meat. But these are common methods. Suit yourself.

Another very important point is that liver, alone, isn't very tasty. I like to drown my liver in well-browned onions and bacon. The bacon is optional, but not the onions!

Slice the onions and sauté them in butter until they are getting quite brown. Remove them from the pan. If needed, add more butter When hot, add the liver. Watch closely, and as one side is done, turn them over. The goal is to cook them done enough, but still distinctly pink inside. The reason for this is that liver is inherently slightly bitter. When liver is cooked too much it becomes more so, and acquires an unpleasant grainy texture.

When done, remove the meat, add a bit of water, your favorite seasonings, PLUS about 1/4 teaspoon of sugar and mix it all into the pan gravy. (If there's still bitterness, add more sugar, 1/4 teaspoon at a time, tasting each time). The sugar is not to add a sweet taste (you won't taste such a small amount), but to counteract bitterness. Sugar does this for many foods that can be bitter, like cucumbers, eggplant and even mushrooms when using a lot of them.

Cook liver quickly on high heat, watching every minute, to avoid overcooking, but to get all sides of it properly cooked, with the middle still pink. While butter definitely tastes better, novices should use oil till they get the "hang" of it.

Submitted by: Holly B.