Sweet-Sour Liver and Onions (Sauer Leberle)

German Home Cooking, p. 38

2 medium onions, peeled and thinly sliced

5 to 6 tablespoons butter or margarine

3 tablespoons salad oil

1-1/2 pounds calf or beef liver, sliced ¼ inch thick and cut into 2- by ½-inch strips

Salt, white pepper and flour

¼ cup white wine vinegar

2 teaspoons sugar

Chopped parsley, for garnish

Cook onions in ¼ cup of the butter and 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large frying pan over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 25 to 30 minutes until they are transparent, limp, and golden. 

These onions are just beginning their frying pan tour.

With a slotted spoon remove onions to a shallow pan, and keep them warm. Meanwhile, sprinkle strips of liver with salt and white pepper, then coat them lightly with flour. In the same pan in which onion were cooked, add 1 tablespoon more of both butter and oil, and increase heat to moderately hot. Quickly cook about half the liver at a time, browning it on all sides (liver should be pink and juicy in the center). Remove cooked liver to a warm serving dish, then brown the remainder in the same way; add it to the serving dish. 

The liver looks less like food before it's cooked, but afterward it just looks like regular ol' meat.

Add vinegar and sugar to pan in which onions and liver were cooked, stirring over heat to reduce liquid and incorporate brown bits. Mix in the onions. Spoon onions and sauce over liver. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve with noodles or Spaetzle.

I served mine with elbow macaroni, which is less authentic than noodles or Spaetzle but it's what I had on hand.

My Rating: 3/5 "This was something my Oma supposedly liked to make, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. The sweet-sour onion element of this is great - it adds nice flavor to the overall dish. I should also add a shout-out to eating liver in general, because it's damn cheap and damn good for you, especially if you reduce the amount of butter and oil in this recipe. (I discovered while eating this, though, that although I'm generally just fine about eating chicken liver I have a hard time getting used to the texture of beef liver. Don't ask me why I react differently to each of them.) This is pleasant - surprisingly so if you're not normally into organ meats - but it's not exactly a culinary symphony. Just a nice chance to try some liver."