Pork Liver

Pork Liver is the cheapest liver to buy.

It is the strongest tasting, most coarse and least tender liver, compared to lamb, calf or beef liver.

The Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications (IMPS) for North America lists Pork Liver as item 710 in the Pork Guide. It says, “The color of pork liver may range from light reddish brown to very dark brown (not bluish or black), with reddish shades predominating. Livers shall have the heavy connective tissue removed. The large blood vessel, lymph nodes, and ducts lying along the liver wall trimmed even with the surface.”

Pork Liver can be bought frozen or fresh. Use fresh within a day of purchasing, or freeze it. But, freezing seems to make it taste stronger yet. Some say frozen pork liver isn’t worth buying; that the taste will be far too strong once thawed. In fact, many recipes specify “fresh, not frozen.” Use thawed pork liver within a day of thawing it.

Pork Liver is used a good deal in pâtés, and in pet food.

Cooking Tips

Trim off any remaining connective membranes, fat and veins. Slice thinly, dredge in flour, and sear on both sides in a frying pan until the safe cooking temperature for pork of 160 F / 71 C has been reached.

If cooked too long, Pork Liver will get even tougher than it starts off. But, if not cooked enough, there may be other dangers (see Nutrition section.)

Nutrition

Some say there may be a growing health risk of contracting the E type hepatitis virus from undercooked pork liver, which can be fatal. Instances of this were identified in Japan in September 2004, at a restaurant where customers got to grill their own meats. Six people who preferred their Pork Liver rare contracted the virus; 1 died.