So You Don’t Feel Like You’re Licking a Cast-Iron Skillet
This home-canned liver and onions recipe turns an old-fashioned staple into a flavorful, pantry-ready meal. The liver is soaked in milk to mellow the strong metallic taste, lightly browned, then layered in jars with fried onions and a rich beef broth made from the flavorful pan drippings. It’s a traditional way to preserve liver while creating a convenient, hearty meal that’s ready when you need it.
Why soak liver in milk?
The milk doesn't remove the iron from liver. It helps mellow the strong metallic and bitter flavors that make liver unpleasant for some people. You still get the liver—you just don't feel like you're licking a cast-iron skillet. 
Ingredients
- Fresh liver
- Milk, enough to cover
- Onions, sliced
- Beef broth
- Salt and seasonings, if desired
- Wide mouth pint jars or smaller
Instructions
Prepare the Liver
- Trim the liver and slice it into strips or pieces, depending on how you want it packed into the jars.
- Place the sliced liver in a bowl and cover completely with milk. Refrigerate and soak for 1-2 hours.
- Drain the liver and pat it dry.
- Heat a skillet and quickly fry the liver. You are not trying to cook it completely through, just brown the outside and develop flavor.
- Fry the sliced onions in the same pan until they begin to soften and brown.
Pack the Jars
- Layer the browned liver and fried onions in your jars. If the liver was cut into long strips, the strips can also be arranged upright with onions tucked between them.
- Leave the browned bits in the skillet, there is a lot of flavor there!
- Add a small amount of beef broth to the hot skillet and scrape up all those browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Divide this flavorful broth and the scraped-up browned bits among the jars.
- Add additional hot beef broth as needed, filling to the bottom of the neck ring for headspace.
- Wipe the rim and apply flats and rings.
Storage
Amish Water Bath Canning Method
(not USDA tested): 3 hours plus elevation adjustment. Elevation chart is located in My Canning Times & Altitude Guide below.
Rebel Pressure Canning Method
(not USDA tested): 90 minutes for quarts and 75 minutes for pints and smaller.
Disclaimer: Methods marked "Not USDA Tested" are shared to preserve traditional and historical food preservation practices. They have not been evaluated or approved by the USDA. If you choose to use these methods, you accept full responsibility for that decision and agree to the terms of our Liability Waiver.
Looking for More Canning Times? My Canning Times & Altitude Guide is a handy kitchen reference that includes hundreds of water bath, steam bath, and pressure canning processing times, plus easy altitude adjustment charts and step-by-step instructions for determining the correct processing time based on your elevation. It's the same guide I keep in my own kitchen when preserving food throughout the year.
Have questions or want to share how your batch turned out? Join our community, where we discuss recipes, food preservation, and homestead cooking every day. Come pull up a chair and swap stories with us over in our Facebook group, Rebel Canning With Amish Woman.
