Food Aversion

One dish that really disgusts me is liver. My opinion on liver may be slightly skewed from my childhood memories. I vividly remember my dad telling me stories about his grandmother and how she used to make him eat liver every time he would visit. She would serve liver and give him the ultimatum; if you do not eat your dinner then you will just have to go to bed hungry. She pretty much required him to eat his liver dinner. My dad, however, could not stand eating it though, so he would excuse himself from the table and go spit it out in the toilet. Eventually, the toilet got clogged up and his grandfather would have to unclog it. He would tell me dad’s grandmother to stop feeding him liver because he cannot stand it. My dad’s stories affected my opinion of liver.

I can honestly say that I have never actually tasted liver and do not plan on trying it anytime soon. I can only imagine what it would taste like. However, I do not think that it would actually taste that bad. It seems to me that it would be similar to many other cuts of meat. Plus, I love to eat sausage and the casing used to form the shape of the sausage link in typically made from either pig or sheep intestines, so I do have an appreciation for food that may be labeled as disgusting; just not liver!

The smell of liver while it is being cooked is absolutely horrendous though. The smell is simply indescribable and cannot be related to anything you have ever smelled before. We typically butcher our own cows for beef as it cheaper than buying it at the grocery store. When the butcher shop returns the meat to you, they normally ask about stuff that people do not typically want, like the brain, tongue, and liver. My mom is not a very wasteful person so she generally accepts these cuts of meat. Then in the winter, when it gets really cold, she will barbeque this meat and give it to my dogs so they have a warm meal to eat. My dogs will generally eat anything and are always grateful for the meal, but I cannot stand the smell.

Liver just looks like any other piece of raw meat and does not initially produce a horrific odor. Once you begin cooking it though, you realize that it is no ordinary cut of meat. Liver seems to dry out really quick as it is cooked. I am not exactly sure why liver dries out quicker the other cuts of meat like steaks. Perhaps it is the thickness of the meat because liver does tend to be significantly thinner. Some other senses that could have been incorporated with my disgust for liver are sound and touch. I have never associated any sounds with the cooking of liver, nor have I ever touched as piece of liver because I do find it disgusting.