Would acid in a marinade adversely affect liver? Will the acid “cure” the liver in any way? The liver will be grilled and is goat liver, if that matters.
it won’t cure it, but it will affect the protein strands in the same manner as heat – it will also make the liver turn brown.
Keep it short (30 min-1 hour) – otherwise the acid will just turn it to mush.
What are you trying to accomplish? A soak in milk is recommended if the goal is to temper the strong flavor of liver, and milk is also a tenderizer.
Sunshine842, thanks for the lesson. That’s exactly the sort of tidbit that gives me a starting point for further reading.
greygarious, I’m just trying to add flavor, not tempering the flavor or tenderizing. Isn’t liver tender enough already?
On a side note, milk has never worked to temper the flavor for me. I’ve soaked in plenty of milk overnight on multiple occasions. Wish I could figure it out.
My mom marinates liver in Italian aalad dressing before sauteeing with onions and mushrooms and finishing with a splash of sherry. Freakin awesome.
IME, chicken livers stay tender, but beef liver is fairly tough even if you saute it only to a pink center. Since that’s not objectionable to me, I’ve never attempted to tenderize it. I like it seasoned with garlic powder and pepper, then sauteed with bacon and onion, plus a splash of soy or teriyaki sauce, and deglazed with red wine. I doubt that I would care for grilled liver since I love the overall sear accomplished with a cast iron pan.
Thanks for the assistance. The acidity worked very well with the other spices we used. We grilled the liver (and heart) on our charcoal grill. Never had liver disappear that fast before.
I’ll have to try the recipes you offered. Since we are the designated food lovers, family members are always dumping their offal on us. Plenty of opportunities to experiment.
Family members dumping their offal on you sounds messy
or your in a Monty Python sketch
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Ha, it’s such a common occurence for me, I didn’t even think about how that might sound. My relatives often get whole lambs or goats (yes, that’s a thing). On the way back from the slaughterhouse, they’ll stop by and give us a bag of goodies. Livers, kidneys, lungs, hearts, gizzards, etc.
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