My conclusions about liver and toxins

Last week I mentioned that I purchased over 20 lb of beef liver with the intent of including it as a regular part of our diets, and why.  Because the liver is the organ that processes the toxins of the body, for a long time I avoided it since I don’t have any option of getting organic or grass-fed beef liver and I didn’t want to ingest any additional toxins. I kept reading about all the nutrients liver was rich in, and it was a little frustrating trying to weigh the options: was it better to eat liver as a high nutrient food even though there would be toxins along with it, or don’t have any of the nutritional benefits but avoid the toxins?

The nutritional challenge that I often encounter is that what I see recommended tend to be ideals, and not helpful when the options aren’t fitting into those ideals.  For example, the ideal dairy is raw milk (which can also be fermented into kefir/yogurt or made into cheese) from grass fed cows (and that’s without touching on the A1/A2 cow issue).  But what if you can only get raw milk from grain-fed cows, or organic pasteurized milk – then what’s better?  What if you have a limited budget and/or the options for ideal foods aren’t accessible for you?  Questions like this are hard to determine since there’s not a lot of information out there on these in between kind of questions, but these are the kind of discussions that I think are would be so helpful to have, so that people can make educated choices about what is the best choice in a non-ideal situation.

I’ve contacted the company where I get kosher grass-fed beef from (Golden West Glatt), and they don’t sell liver.  I let them know that as a customer I would be very interested in seeing that become an item that is offered, and added that I’m sure there are others that share my interest.  Then I contacted the only other company in the US (that I’m aware of) that sells kosher grass-fed meat (Kol Foods), and they told me they only have chicken liver (frozen).  I specifically wanted beef liver because of its nutritional composition, and I also specifically wanted fresh liver, not frozen liver.

Then I spoke to two local butchers.  One just began offering grass-fed beef from a local farmer, but said he can’t get the livers from him.  The other told me that: a) if I wanted organic liver, I could buy it for about $7 lb and I would have to buy a forequarter.  I asked how  much that was, and he said, “A lot!”  I reminded him that I wanted 20 lb and asked how much more a forequarter would be, and he said, “A lot!”  I think he told me the amount in pounds – perhaps 80??  It wasn’t feasible for me financially or practically so it didn’t stick in my mind.   Though he usually sells only frozen liver, he told me he buys it fresh and freezes it immediately, so he could call me as soon as his order came in and I’d be able to have it fresh.   This was the option I finally settled on.

Here are a couple of important facts about liver for the kosher consumer: 1) since it’s an organ meat that is filled with blood, and the laws of kosher eating forbid eating even a drop of blood, it has to be prepared in a special way called kashering.  There are a few steps involved in that, and even when preparing it in the proper way, you can’t cook it in the same pots or pans that you usually use (because the blood that cooks out will make your kosher dishes and pots non-kosher).  2) If you buy raw liver that has been frozen, it can’t be reheated after kashering.  (This same restriction applies to fresh liver that isn’t kashered within three days from the time the animal has been killed – so you have to be ready and able to kasher all that you buy promptly if you want to eat it in heated dishes.)  That means you can’t cook with it.  Practically I was thinking of sauteing liver with onions, combining  (roasted and ground) liver with ground beef dishes, etc, but none of those are options if you buy frozen liver.  Most people (even some rabbis) aren’t aware of this since few people kasher their own liver any more and it’s a question that rarely comes up.  The only way I can think of eating liver without reheating it is as chopped liver.  That’s okay for once a week, but I wanted to include it more regularly than that.

I got 20 lb, thinking that once I had to prepare the liver, I might as well do it in a large amount.  What a mistake.  I am so not doing that again.  The economies of scale that I usually assume will be present didn’t apply in this case.  We bought a small $20 charcoal grill to use expressly to kasher liver (since you can’t use a pan that you use for anything else, and if you use the oven you have to kasher it after use – I wanted to keep it as simple as possible).  After rinsing the livers in fresh water, we laid the slices over the hot coals and waited for it to roast.  This took a long, long time.  It took three hours the first night, and then about another 8 hours the next day to finish all twenty pounds of liver – I had to have someone outside watching the grill all day until it was finished.  But at least it was all done within the 72 hour limit and all of it is kosher for Pesach. 🙂

Afterward my husband spoke to a friend of his who kashers his own liver, and he said they get it sliced 1/2 inch thick.  The liver I bought was cut it in 1″ slices, which I figured was fine since that’s how the butcher cuts it for all of the liver he sells.  The thickness seems to have been a big part of why it took such an extremely long time.  For now I’m glad I have enough liver prepared that I won’t have to think about doing this again for a little while, but it’s good to know how to be more efficient.

However, I know there’s got to be a better way.  I just can’t imagine that generations of women were doing this.  I can’t conceive of it having been a popular traditional Jewish food if it took this much time.  There’s got to be a way to roast it over hot flames that will be fast, instead of slowly roasting over hot charcoal.  Then again, past generations probably had more patience for things that took a long time than I do.  🙂

Back to the question of the toxins – I didn’t come across enough information that I can point to data to back up my decision.  Maybe my conclusion is wrong, and it’s possible I’ll shift back to my previous position of staying away from it at some point in the future.  I did read that even if the cow was grain-fed, the nutrient value was still very high.  What are some of the nutrients in liver?  It’s high in B vitamins, high in folate, zinc, and iron (in a well-absorbed form).  Every single one of these are important for emotional balance and to counter stress and depression (both epidemic in our modern day society).  It’s a great energy booster, too!

I wanted to include more nutrient dense foods and liver seemed to be a good choice, and there weren’t a lot of other foods that we could eat or weren’t already eating.  Cod liver oil isn’t certified kosher, we already eat drink raw milk (as well as kefir, cheese), fermented vegetables, limit grains and prepare grains, beans and seeds in a way that  reduces the phytic acid content, we try to eat natural chicken and grass-fed beef as much as our budget allows (not exclusively), we have lots of bone broths – and though I don’t see non-organic liver as ideal, I want to benefit from all of those nutrients it has and hope that I’m making a choice that will be beneficial to our health.

I wish I came across studies that directly addressed the question about if there’s a benefit to eating liver if it comes from industrially raised animals.   My non-scientific reasoning was that it’s been eaten for a long time as a valuable food, and all of those people haven’t been eating and benefiting from it only in pre-industrialized societies from pastured animals.  I’ve pondered a lot about if it’s beneficial to eat animal protein from industrially raised animals or be vegetarian, and believe that you’re nutritionally better off with CAFO meat or eggs than without animal products in your diet at all.  Kosher meat, even when produced industrially, is still qualitatively better than non-kosher meat in the same class (because of the kosher laws that disallow diseased animals to be used, animals that would pass goverment inspection).  Hence my decision that including kosher non-organic liver would still be of benefit.

This isn’t something I’m committed to no matter what, so if any of you have come across information assessing the benefits or lack thereof from liver from non-organically fed animals, please don’t hesitate to share it!  Also, if you’re ever kashered your own liver and can share your tips about how to do it more efficiently, I’m all ears!

Edited to add – thanks to Cara who linked to the following article, I was delighted to read: “One of the roles of the liver is to neutralize toxins (such as drugs, chemical agents and poisons); but the liver does not store toxins (emphasis mine). Poisonous compounds that the body cannot neutralize and eliminate are likely to lodge in the fatty tissues and the nervous system. The liver is not a storage organ for toxins but it is a storage organ for many important nutrients (vitamins A, D, E, K, B12 and folic acid, and minerals such as copper and iron). These nutrients provide the body with some of the tools it needs to get rid of toxins.”  So now I can enjoy liver without any hesitations!

Avivah

11 thoughts on “My conclusions about liver and toxins

  1. Hi Avivah!
    It’s probably not very practical for your large family, but I remember my mother koshering liver over a live flame on the stove counter, using a two sided grid with a handle (I thing they’re meant for fish and can’t think of the exact word for it…). She’d line the stove top with foil to gather the blood more easily. I don’t recall this taking very long, but then again, she’d usually make enough for 1-3 meals for 6 at the most.
    You could also make sure the flames are still high in the bbq – no reason to wait for the fire to die to hot charcoals only (that’s what dh and I did last time)

    1. Thanks for the feedback, Nathalie! We tried to find the thing you’re describing (I also don’t know what it’s called) in several stores and didn’t have any luck. My dh set up the kashering/grill station outside; I don’t know why he didn’t do it with the flames high except that it was the first time for us and maybe this seemed the most predictable? I’ll have to ask him since I know he thought about it.

  2. The problem with high flames when kashering is that it chars the outside but the inside is still raw. Don’t ask me how I know…

    I NEVER ever heard that about not being able to heat up frozen and kashered liver. Can you point me to a source?

    1. PP, look at the halachos regarding kashering meat or ask your LOR; our rabbi hadn’t heard about this when we checked it with him and we had to ask another rav. Like I said in the post, many are no longer familiar with the details of kashering. For an English reference, you can check out Rabbi Wagshal’s book on kashrus – sorry, can’t think of the name of it right now (has a green cover). There’s something about uncooked liver that is more than three days old (frozen or not) that cooking or reheating it in any way draws more blood out after the broiling process.

  3. Thank you for your comment! I have these debates all the time- we usually try to eat less of any food that isn’t ‘right’ – for instance we use about 2 gallons of milk a month because we can only get organic pasturized. But we have grassfed meat, so we eat more meat than milk.

  4. Hi! I think what you’re looking for are called “grill baskets.” They sell them in outdoors stores in the camping section and in larger stores when it’s BBQ selling time and also on Amazon. We have one we use for fish on the grill and it sounds like just the thing to use over a flame to kasher liver.

    Also, with the liver thing: We’ve done a small amount in our oven and then kashered the oven after broiling. Not a tremendous hassle, but not something I’d want to do more than once a month. I basically came to the same conclusion you did regarding how to make the best choice with what’s available and/or affordable and how to weigh the options for each food choice. Not easy.

    If you have a recipe for liver that isn’t chopped liver and more chopped liver that won’t make me gag (I wanted so badly not to hate it but I couldn’t even eat more than 3 bites), I’d be ever so happy. I told my husband that I’d honestly rather eat a bowl full of fish eyeballs (ate those for the first time this past RH), than eat liver–and it’s true.

    Anyway…really, *really* loving this blog! A friend e-mailed me with the link to it and I’ve been reading article after article. I’m sure I’ll be up late reading more. Thank you so much! Truly inspiring to continue on the path we’re on. We’re not quite where you are with everything, but have made huge strides in the healthful eating/frugality/homeschooling areas. Thank you!

  5. Hi! I don’t know if you still get/look at, older posts, but I’m reading a lot of your stuff that really aligns with my interests! I had the same question regarding the livers (as did my skeptical dd11) – if ‘regular’ liver’s benefits outweigh the possible negatives – and I’m glad to hear that the liver doesn’t store the toxins. And I’m wondering – is beef liver sooo much better nutritionally than chicken liver? Also, why doesn’t the butcher broil it fresh?? Is there a reason you don’t want – or is that not an option? I get it already broiled – and I don’t think there’s any problem with preparation after that. Am I missing something? Thanks!

  6. Hi! Raw liver within the three days from shechting can certainly be eaten raw without salt kashering. Just rinse it off very well. The reason we kasher meat is to prepare it for cooking wherein the absorbed blood (which is not forbidden when it is absorbed in the meat ) exits the meat in the cooking process, whereby it becomes forbidden, and then re-enters the meat in the cooking process, rendering it non-kosher. This does not apply to raw which can be eaten without kashering. This principle applies equally to liver. You may also salt the raw liver if you eat the salted piece immediately. Raw liver is extremely health and facilitates healing jam packed with nutrients, enzymes, in corrupted by heat. Consult with your local Torah genius to confirm and validate this exciting halacha…let me know what you find out…moshe goldstein

  7. Hi, what about just boiling the liver in water initially and then slicing it and reboiling it and then washing off the blood? This is a way to drain all the blood just visually. I have done this with not only liver but other meat like heart. This applies for beef, I haven’t tried this with chicken.
    I know this is not an accepted method, but why not? It makes sense to me. Why does it have to be broiled? I know the idea is to drain the blood downward so the meat won’t touch it, but that’s achieved somewhat by the boiling and rinsing method.
    Thanks for explaining what I can’t understand

    1. Hi, Gina! For the meat to be kosher, the blood must be completely drained from it before cooking; broiling accomplishes that. If the liver were boiled with the blood inside, it would be cooked together with the meat, rendering it unkosher.

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