Butter-Basted Liver & Onions

Soaked in milk, seared hard, finished in a lot of butter. The way liver was meant to taste.

Christopher Walker Sep 21, 2026

Total: 30 min
Yield: 2
Protein: 38 g
Category: Dinner

Butter-Basted Liver & Onions — Soaked in milk, seared hard, finished in a lot of butter...

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Ingredients

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400 g beef liver, sliced 1 cm thick
250 ml whole milk , for soaking
2 large onions , sliced thin
80 g grass-fed butter
1 tsp unrefined salt
Black pepper
1 tsp berbere, optional, for heat
A squeeze of lemon

Method

Soak
Soak the liver in milk for 20 minutes. Pat completely dry.
Onions
Melt half the butter over medium heat. Cook the onions slowly, 12–15 minutes, until soft and sweet. Set aside.
Heat
Wipe the pan, turn the heat to high, add the remaining butter.
Sear
Sear the liver 90 seconds per side. Pink in the middle — overcooked liver is why people hate liver.
Finish
Return the onions, spoon the butter over everything for 30 seconds. Salt, pepper, lemon. Serve.

Why this recipe

Liver once a week, made edible

Liver is among the most concentrated sources of retinol and copper you can eat. USDA figures put 100 g at roughly a week of vitamin A and most of a week of copper. Once a week is the dose; more is not better, because retinol accumulates.

The milk soak pulls out the metallic edge that puts most people off. The hard, short sear keeps the center pink, which is where the texture and most of the heat-sensitive folate survive.

Onions cooked slowly supply the sweetness that makes liver taste like food rather than medicine, and butter carries the fat-soluble vitamins in.

Food page Beef liver → What it supplies, how much, how to buy it From the guide The 50 Man Foods →

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