Calf liver color. How to choose the right liver? Useful and important tips. Use in cooking

Which liver is best to buy? Of course, fresh will be healthier, but this offal spoils very quickly. There is always a risk of buying something stale. As for frozen liver, it can be stored for up to three months. But during freezing, some of the vitamins (group B) are destroyed, and animal fats in the liver are oxidized and it begins to taste bitter. Therefore, you will not get a tender and tasty dish from frozen liver.

In addition, very often under the thickness of the ice it is impossible to discern what color the liver is. But this is the main indicator of quality. But if you still decide to buy frozen, you need to remember:

The cut of a high-quality frozen liver is smooth, with a thin layer of ice, which should melt within 15 seconds when pressed with a finger.
A sign of re-freezing is pink ice crystals on the liver. Don't buy this one.
Pieces of ice in the packaging indicate that the manufacturer pumped the product with water before freezing to increase its weight. Refuse to purchase.

Let's start with chicken

First of all, evaluate its color. High-quality chicken liver should be brown with a burgundy tint. Do not buy chicken livers that are light, yellowish, or very dark. This is the liver of a sick bird. It may be infected with salmonella or campylobacter - infectious diseases that can be transmitted from animal to person and cause weakness, headaches, fever up to 38 degrees, and diarrhea.

Never buy chicken livers that have greenish spots on the surface. They remain if the bird’s gall bladder was damaged during its removal. Such liver will be bitter. The danger of chicken liver is that it may contain substances such as tetrocycline and chloramphenicol. In humans, these antibiotics cause allergies in the form of skin rashes. Unfortunately, only a laboratory can check for the presence of antibiotics.

Fresh chicken liver has a pleasant, slightly sweet smell. If it is sour, the liver is expired.

About beef

Nutritionists consider it the healthiest and safest. After all, it is believed that antibiotics are used much less frequently to treat cows than to treat pigs and chickens.

The weight of a healthy beef liver reaches five kg.

High-quality beef liver has the color of ripe cherry. The older the cow, the darker the color and the more likely it is that the liver is diseased. The brick shade also indicates this. Do not forget that the liver, like a sponge, absorbs all toxins and infections. In addition, the liver of an old animal will be rubbery after cooking.

Do not take weathered liver with a gray coating. It's not fresh.

The peculiarity of beef liver is its white film. If the product is fresh it will separate easily. When cut into a beef liver, openings are visible - the bile ducts. On a healthy product, their edges are no different from the structure of the liver itself. When an animal is sick, the bile ducts are compacted and look like gray rings that crunch when cut.

Pork

The large one weighs about two kilograms. If the liver is suspiciously small, do not take it. Apparently, it came from a sick animal.

The liver should be shiny and moist, not dull and sticky. This applies to all types.

In color, just like chicken, fresh pork liver has a burgundy color. If it's too light, it's not fresh.

What should you do before you buy?

When buying fresh pork liver in bulk, ask the seller for a knife, pierce the liver and look at the color of the blood that flows out. If it is scarlet, you can take it - the product is fresh! If it's dark brown or dark red, don't buy it.

And the smell?.. Fresh liver has a sweetish smell. If the smell is sour, the liver is expired.

How to cook properly?

Even the highest quality liver, if cooked incorrectly, becomes hard, rubbery, and tastes bitter! But there are four ways to avoid this.

To make beef liver melt in your mouth, brush it with mustard and leave for 30-40 minutes.

To make it soft, any liver can be soaked for an hour in a soda solution (0.5 liters of water per 2 tablespoons of soda).

To prevent the liver from becoming rubbery, salt it at the end of cooking.

Nutritionists are categorical: if you want to get benefits from the liver, boil, stew or bake it. Fried liver will not bring any benefit, but on the contrary, the oil in which it is fried forms carcinogens when heated.

What to cook?

Classic pate from Jamie Oliver

Jamie, a world-famous chef for his 15- and 30-minute lunches, has four children. Therefore, he tries to adapt all homemade recipes to children’s tastes and needs.

Prepare a delicate and healthy pate that everyone will love! And if you add mushrooms, you get an even richer taste.

Rinse the liver well under running water. Place on a paper towel and let dry. Place a baking dish with a cup of butter (200 g) in an oven or microwave preheated to 100 degrees. After 10-15 minutes, when the oil has separated, remove the container. You only need the clear creamy part. Pour it into a bowl. Place the liver, chopped onion and garlic into the pan, sprinkle with thyme, cover with a lid or foil and place in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Then blend with a blender until smooth, add butter, salt and pepper. Place the pate in a container, pour in the clear oil that was simmering in the oven, and place in the refrigerator. Deliver in 2-3 hours!

Beef liver, enriched with vitamins A and B and amino acids, makes this product indispensable in baby food. In addition, the liver is also indicated for the prevention of anemia. However, in order for the product to really bring benefits, you must first make sure that it is fresh and unspoiled. Therefore, before choosing beef liver, it is simply vital to know some of its properties. A poor quality product will result in poor quality food.

What should you pay attention to first when buying a liver? It is better to buy chilled semi-finished products than frozen ones. The fact is that the latter loses many of its beneficial properties. The taste and value of the finished food, of course, will not improve from this. Therefore, you need to carefully examine the offal before cooking. Fresh cod liver, as mentioned above, is difficult to buy. But beef is almost always available in the store. You need to carefully examine its surface. The piece should have a shiny and smooth surface.

A matte color indicates that the liver has been sitting for some time. Color depends on age. Veal liver has a rich red color, while beef liver has a cherry tint. The paint should be the same throughout. A change in color on one piece warns of a low-quality product. Many housewives remove the veins from it before cooking the liver in a frying pan. But this can be avoided if you know that there are fewer ducts in the anterior part. Therefore, already in a store or at the market you can select the desired piece.

As for the aroma, it should be slightly sweet. A sour smell, reminiscent of ammonia, indicates that the liver is stale. In general, it is better to buy this product, of course, on the market. Since the liver is often packaged in the store, it is sold in plastic packaging. Looking at it, much less smelling it, is quite problematic. Therefore, in order not to rack your brains later on how to make cutlets from liver that is not the first freshness, it is better to protect yourself and choose liver of excellent quality.

You can test the product by pressing it with your finger. If there are no traces left, you can take it. You also need to pay attention to the cut. A good product should not be rough when cut. Sometimes dishonest sellers, wanting to correct some flaw and add weight to the product, soak the liver. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure that it is not watery. Only by choosing a quality product and knowing how to properly prepare pork or beef liver can you get an appetizing, tasty, healthy dish.

You should not give up a valuable by-product - liver. But choosing it at the market or in a store should be taken very seriously. Knowing what to look for, you can easily buy a quality product.

In addition, very often under the thickness of the ice it is impossible to discern what color the liver is. But this is the main indicator of quality. But if you still decide to buy frozen, remember:

The cut of a high-quality frozen liver is smooth, with a thin layer of ice, which should melt within 15 seconds when pressed with a finger.
A sign of re-freezing is pink ice crystals on the liver. Don't buy this one.
Pieces of ice in the packaging indicate that the manufacturer pumped the product with water before freezing to increase its weight. Refuse the purchase.

Let's start with chicken

First of all, evaluate its color. High-quality chicken liver should be brown with a burgundy tint. Do not buy chicken livers that are light, yellowish or very dark. This is the liver of a sick bird. It may be infected with salmonella or campylobacter - infectious diseases that can be transmitted from animal to person and cause weakness, headaches, fever up to 38 degrees, and diarrhea.

Never buy chicken livers that have greenish spots on the surface.. They remain if the bird’s gall bladder was damaged during its removal. Such liver will be bitter. The danger of chicken liver is that it may contain substances such as tetrocycline and chloramphenicol. In humans, these antibiotics cause allergies in the form of skin rashes. Unfortunately, only a laboratory can check for the presence of antibiotics.

Fresh chicken liver has a pleasant, slightly sweet smell. If it is sour, the liver is expired.

About beef

Nutritionists consider it the healthiest and safest. After all, it is believed that antibiotics are used much less frequently to treat cows than to treat pigs and chickens.

Pork

The large one weighs about two kilograms. If the liver is suspiciously small, do not take it. Apparently, it came from a sick animal.

The liver should be shiny and moist, not dull and sticky. This applies to all types.

In color, just like chicken, fresh pork liver has a burgundy color. If it's too light, it's not fresh.

Hi all. Recently, this topic has become very relevant, as more and more scammers are appearing in markets and stores, selling, frankly speaking, products that are far from fresh. Beef liver is in this risk zone, since the product is highly perishable and needs to be properly stored.
Let's find out!

How to choose the right beef liver. Photos, videos of fresh liver
Beef liver is a very popular product. Many peoples of the world love to cook a wide variety of dishes from it. In France, liver is cooked with raspberry vinegar; in the “east” and North Africa, they like to properly pepper the liver with various spices, garnish with lemon and coriander; in Germany, the liver is stewed with apples, and in Canada, it is fried with maple syrup.
What can we say about Russia and Ukraine - we love this product and we cook everything from it: cutlets, cakes, various meatballs, rolls, salads and pates.
Of course, someone may object and say that they cannot stand beef liver because of the smell, taste and overall image of the liver. Once upon a time, I didn’t like dishes made from this product, until my uncle, having arrived from a flight (after that there was always a feast at our house), prepared strip-fried liver with onions. Mom had never cooked like this before that moment =)
I was little then, 6-7 years old, and I was very intrigued by the pleasant aroma coming from the kitchen. When I walked in, I asked: “What does this smell so good about?” - they told me it smelled like beef and let me try it, but I didn’t refuse =)) I really liked the dish, I even asked for more. Imagine my surprise when they told me that it was BEEF LIVER. But that is another story.
It's no secret that liver dishes are very healthy: they contain many vital amino acids, vitamins A, B, C, D and a bunch of microelements such as iron, zinc, sodium, calcium, selenium, phosphorus and others.
One of the secrets of preparing and preserving the vitamins of this delicate product is its freshness and healthy appearance. These are perhaps the most important factors that all chefs adhere to.
Let's find out how to choose the right fresh beef liver at the market or in a store, watch an informative video and photo material.
What you need to know about this organ as a functional part of the body.
Any animal liver is a natural filter that cleanses the body of toxins and harmful impurities in the blood. Therefore, the animal’s diet and lifestyle significantly influence the quality of the product.
Selection instructions
Fresh beef liver has the following organoleptic characteristics:
The outer surface of the liver should be smooth, uniform, without tears, cuts or cracks, strange yellow or other spots;

The smell of the liver should be slightly sweet, pleasant and in no case sour, without the smell of medicine or foreign odors;

The color of a healthy, fresh beef liver should be like that of a sweet cherry or cherry - that is, burgundy, SLIGHTLY brownish. In no case is it dark brown or brick in color - this is evidence of an old or diseased liver;

There must be blood in the liver, its presence is like a litmus test of its freshness;

In cross-section, the liver should have a dense, homogeneous structure, not a loose one;

The bile ducts should be white or slightly yellowish, but not yellow or darkened. This is a sign of a stale product;

The liver film should be dense and fit well to the liver itself.

We can draw some conclusions.
Bad, old, stale liver:
smells unpleasant, often sour, with foreign odor or even medicine;

has a loose, heterogeneous structure;

bile ducts are yellowish or yellow;

the color of the liver is pronounced brown, brown, dark brown (not to be confused with the color of calf liver, which is usually light brown and sometimes brick);

there are windiness, gray coating;

expired liver is sticky, lacking blood and outer film.

In addition to organoleptic characteristics, there are measuring indicators of liver quality. These include determination of the chemical composition of the liver, optical density, mass, composition and other chemical, microbiological and physical properties. Naturally, not every home has its own full-fledged working laboratory =)).
However, you should know that healthy beef liver:
1. Weighs approximately 4-5 kg;
3. When lightly pressed with a finger, it quickly restores its shape at the point of indentation.
There are also a bunch of other physical and chemical indicators that characterize the qualitative composition of the liver. If anyone needs it, I can post it here, write it in the comments.
Naturally, the product must be stored exclusively in the refrigerator, must be checked by the sanitary service and have documents certifying the success of the check. You can safely ask the sellers to verify the quality of the offal.
To reinforce the material, I provide an educational video about choosing beef liver and a couple of photos of what it should look like if it is healthy.
This is what beef liver looks like.

One of the most useful foods is undoubtedly liver. All types of liver contain a huge proportion of vitamins A and B and minerals. Let's look at three types of liver: chicken, beef and veal.

When choosing chicken liver First of all, we pay attention to its color. If it is of high quality, then its color will be brown with a burgundy tint. Its surface should be shiny and smooth, the smell should be pleasant and slightly sweet (stale liver has an ammonia smell). If the liver has acquired a light or yellowish color, it is not fresh and this indicates that the bird was sick. Most likely, the bird's liver was infected with salmonella, an infection that is transmitted from birds to humans and causes headaches, high fever, diarrhea, and weakness. Chicken liver also poses a danger if the bird is fed with antibiotics, such as chloramphenicol and tetracycline; they protect the bird from disease, but cause allergic reactions in humans. Visible blood clots and blood vessels in fresh liver are unacceptable. Do not forget that any liver is bitter, but if it is very bitter, then the liver is old. There is no need to buy chicken liver if spots with a greenish tint are found on it, this means that the gallbladder was damaged during its removal and it will taste bitter. At the time of buying frozen chicken liver pay attention to its appearance and the presence of ice. If the liver has already turned orange, then it has been frozen. And if it has been frozen and defrosted many times, it will fall apart. A lot of ice is unacceptable; pieces of fresh liver are always covered with a thin and uniform layer of ice.

Approach responsibly defrosting the liver. Defrosting should take place in the refrigerator at a temperature of +5, then the taste of the liver will be preserved. After thawing, the liver is washed with cool water, the film is removed and the bile ducts are removed.

Of particular value belongs calf liver. It is very tasty and at the same time, the most dietary, tender and pleasant to the taste. The weight of fresh and healthy calf liver ranges from 1.5 to 3 kg. Its color is usually light brown to reddish. The color of the liver depends on the age of the animal; the older it is, the darker the color, thus increasing the likelihood of buying the liver of a sick animal. A brick-colored liver also indicates the presence of a disease in the animal. The smell of fresh liver is pleasant with a slightly sweet taste. It looks moist, juicy, elastic and shiny. If it is weathered and has a gray coating, it is stale. Fresh veal liver is elastic and does not fall apart.

A very useful product is beef liver. The color of fresh liver is red-brown, resembling the color of ripe cherries. But, you should also pay attention to the color of the blood under the liver, it should be scarlet; if it is dark, then the liver is stale. If the smell contains notes of ammonia, then this is a sign of staleness, the smell should be sweet. Fresh liver should be smooth, without scratches. The main feature of beef liver is the presence of a white film. It comes off easily if the liver is fresh. In a section of beef liver, bile ducts in the form of holes are visible. If the liver is healthy, then the edges of the holes do not differ in color from its structure itself, and if not, then the bile ducts take on a grayish appearance, they are compacted and make a crunching sound when cut. The weight of fresh beef liver is 5 kg.

To summarize, it should be noted that when choosing any type of liver, you should pay attention to fresh, not frozen liver. In this case, there is more confidence in the quality of the product. Be sure to pay attention to the color and smell of the liver, it should not be too dark or light, the color of a healthy liver is even, without spots, it looks elastic, smooth and moist, without dry places. The smell is pleasant, slightly sweet.