Flavour Exploration

Fresh Lamb Liver and Other Interesting Things

Well, here I am again writing about yet another food experience I've had in my life. I guess I shall start off this blog by realizing that I always find a way to return to my past life of being a psychopathic Italian butcher( any good chef knows all Italian butchers are a little bit crazy) and I guess that is where this story will begin. 

As a young boy I was always a very picky eater. I stuck to what I knew was good and never explored any other avenues of food. This consisted of pasta, pasta, sandwiches, and pasta, and every once in a while a sausage roll from my British side of the family. Now as any great human being has once done on his path to greatness I broke free from my pasta jail cell and began trying to new things. This mostly took place at my place of work as my mother would never cook or even allow any foreign animal parts in the house, except that one year I scared her with the head of a lamb, but I digress. 

Now it goes without saying that working in a small butcher shop you are bound to see many deceased animals coming through the door, always freshly slaughtered. This one particular time quite recently the slaughterhouse delivery guy walked in with a freshly slaughtered lamb over his shoulder and proceeded to hang it up in our cooler. My boss, being the old school psycho that he is, took out the liver, and the brains of the lamb. He sauteed the liver quickly in a hot cast iron pan and breaded and fried the bits of brain. I can truthfully say the liver was one of the best tasting things I have ever eaten in my life. The brains, because breaded and fried, tasted like anything else that is breaded and fried. But, that liver was undeniably fresh tasting, with a very distinct flavour profile which I now know is called umami. It had a distinct smooth, tender, meatiness to it like nothing I've ever eaten before. 

I ask myself, would I ever eat this food again? The answer is, absolutely, but it would have the be under the same conditions as the first time. It has to be just as fresh and simply sauteed with a little bit of salt and pepper to highlight the distinct flavours of the liver. This experience has definitely changed my perspective on what is good to eat and what is not. So far, it seems that there is a cornucopia of wonderful flavours and things to eat in the world just waiting for me to try them all. 

The moral of the story here kids is to always try new things. It can only benefit you as you go on to become a culinarian. 

Ciao Regazzi! ( Bye Guys in English for you non-italians)