Beef liver substitutes

The same organ from a young animal and by common agreement the best-eating version of it. Paler, noticeably more tender, and far less aggressively mineral than beef liver, so liver and onions made with it tastes sweet and delicate where the beef version tastes iron-heavy and assertive. It also cooks faster, about 90 seconds a side, and it turns grainy if overcooked. The obvious drawback is price: calf's liver often costs several times what beef liver does.

Best for

liver and onions, pan-frying, first-time liver eaters, Venetian style with onions

The single best swap if the strong flavour of beef liver is what is putting you off.

Cheap, in almost every supermarket, and much milder and creamier than beef liver, with a softer, more custardy texture when cooked. They are excellent in pate, in a Tuscan crostini topping, in a rich pasta sauce or seared with sherry and onions. Because they are small and thin they cook in two to three minutes total, and they will not slice into the flat pieces liver and onions wants, so the presentation changes even where the flavour works. Slightly sweeter, considerably less metallic.

Best for

pate, crostini, pasta sauces, dirty rice, budget cooking

Trim the greenish gall spots and any connective threads. They are bitter.

The closest match in intensity, so this is the substitute for someone who actually likes strong liver rather than one trying to soften it. It is dark, firm and forceful, with a slightly bitter edge that beef liver does not have, and it is the traditional liver for many pates, terrines and liverwurst. Soak it in milk for an hour, which pulls out some of the bitterness noticeably. Cook it as you would beef liver, briefly and to just barely pink inside.

Best for

pate and terrines, liverwurst, sausage mixtures, strongly flavoured dishes

The milk soak matters more here than with any other liver.

Between calf and beef in intensity, with a slightly gamy, distinctly sweet quality, and the standard liver in Middle Eastern, Turkish and South Asian cooking, where it is cubed and fried hard with cumin and chile. It is more tender than beef liver and thinner, so it cooks in a minute or two. In liver and onions it works well and gives a rounder, less metallic result. Widely stocked at halal butchers and often inexpensive.

Best for

fried liver with cumin, kebabs and skewers, liver and onions, curries

Cut it into small cubes rather than slices for Middle Eastern and South Asian recipes.

The honest answer when liver is being used as a background flavour rather than the main event, as in a meatloaf, a bolognese, a stuffing or a pate. Cook chopped cremini or shiitake mushrooms hard until browned and dry, then add soy sauce or half a teaspoon of anchovy paste. This gives the deep savoury, faintly iron-like undertone liver contributes, and it does it well. It will not give you liver's dense crumbly texture, and it cannot carry a dish that is named after liver.

Best for

meatloaf and meatballs, bolognese, stuffing, vegetarian pate, hidden liver in family cooking

Cook the mushrooms until genuinely dry and browned. Watery mushrooms taste of nothing.

Other organ meats, both far milder than liver in the specific iron-and-mineral direction that people find difficult. Beef heart is the surprise: it is dense, lean muscle that tastes like a rich, slightly mineral steak and can be sliced thin and seared, so it satisfies the nutritional reason many people eat liver while being much easier to enjoy. Kidney is more assertive and faintly ammoniac and needs a soak in salted water first. Neither will pass as liver in liver and onions.

Best for

organ meat nutrition, grilling and searing, steak and kidney pie, adventurous cooking

For heart, trim the tough silverskin and hard fat, slice thin across the grain, and sear it fast.