Pig liver soup

My late Dad was off of southern stock, so he was well-acquainted with various foods that northerners tend to shy away from. I’ve always remembered how he once told me, “I don’t care for pig liver. It tastes like pig shit smells.”

I guess there’s no accounting for taste. The author of “Foodie Paradise” states that the Singaporean pig liver soup pictured below – breakfast fare in that part of the world – was “delicious.”

Recipes: Liver Mush & Hog Lights Stew

These are genuine down-home recipes, taken from The Treasury of White Trash Cooking, by Ernest and Trisha Mickler.

LIVER MUSH

• 1 hog liver, cut up, washed and picked clean of the membranes
• 3/4 cups of coarse ground cornmeal
• Salt & black pepper
• 1 Tbsp thyme
• 1 Tbsp sage
• 1 tsp flake red pepper

Cook liver in salted water until tender. Drain and mash to a paste. Make a sluice of the liver and one cup of the liver juice. Put in a pot and bring up to a boil while adding the cornmeal, till it gits (sic) good and thick. Add seasonings. Scrape into a mold of some kind and let it get cold. Remove and slice. It’s a meal in one.

Comments: Sick. When I was a kid, my mom used to boil liver for the cat, and I can personally vouch for the fact that it stinks.

HOG LIGHTS STEW
(“lights” are the lungs and the liver of a pig, cooked together)

• 1 set of hog lights
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 toes garlic, chopped
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• Flour

Chop your lights up into bite-size pieces. Fry down in a heavy pot with the onion and garlic till it is brown. Add water to cover, salt and pepper, and stew till tender. If it’s not thick enough for you, use a little flour to make it thicker. Spoon that over rice and some Scratch Backs* on the side, and you’re fixed.

* Scratch backs are pig skin and attached fat, salted, rolled in cornmeal, and fried. They turn out very crunchy, thus the name “Scratch Backs” – they “scratch your back” going down.