I remember eating liver as a child and loving it. Mom would fry it up and I would eat mine with yellow mustard. Some time after that I found out what liver was and stopped eating at all. I was appalled that my parents would have fed me that and couldn't believe that people would eat such a thing. I was 6 or 7 years old at the time and my next experience with liver didn't come until I was in the Navy and it was served to me at the Hospital in San Diego. Cafeteria style liver and onions didn't do anything to get me back on the liver wagon.
It wasn't until after I got out of the Navy that I had my first taste or liver from a wild animal. I started trying the livers out of the duck and geese I was shooting and really enjoyed them. on the recommendation of my uncle I kept a liver out of one of the white-tail deer I shot and ate it. It was an eye open moment for me and suddenly I was liver crazy. I kept all the livers from every animal I shot and started taking livers from friends who didn't want them. Several years ago I came across a recipe for Mazzafaggeti which is an Italian liver sausage traditionally made with wild boar livers and flavored with coriander and orange. It is an amazing way to use up livers.
I have used livers to make different pates and terrines and really like to add livers to stuffing's. I went Antelope hunting a few years ago and really fell in love with antelope liver. In my opinion it is the best tasting liver out there. That is until this year. My buddy Ben decided he was going to go to a ranch in Montana and shoot a buffalo. He had asked me if there were any parts I wanted and I jumped at the opportunity to get a buffalo heart and liver and tongue. I figured a buffalo liver would be big but I had no idea that it would be ten pounds.
Now I am scrambling to come up with ways to use all that liver. I think I am going to try my hand at Braunsweiger for the first time and am thinking about making a liver sausage as well. But the first thing I needed to do was fry up a couple of pieces to see how it tasted. I took a couple of 1/4 inch slices and gave them a quick dredge in flour and Tony Chachere's creaole seasoning. I fried up some onions in bacon fat and then fried the liver for about 2 minutes per side on high heat. I hate to say this but I have a new favorite liver. Buffalo liver is one of the cleanest most beautiful tasting livers I have ever eaten. Served simply with fried onions and some Gulden's Spicy Brown Mustard It was quite a treat.
