My English MIL made a similar kind of salad. She called it wilted lettuce . It was that red/green leaf lettuce. She chopped it up while the bacon was cooking, and then she poured the sizzling hot bacon grease over the lettuce, which wilted it, and then she added a vinegar dressing, and the bacon bits, maybe onion.
My mother made the best calves' liver with onions. I never get to have liver and onions unless we're eating out; my husband gets all dry-heavey if I mention it.
I had one friend who liked liver & onions as much as I do. I'd have Joanne over for dinner whenever I made it. The mandatory menu: -Fried crispy bacon on the side -Onions sauteed in the bacon fat. Lots and lots of onions, plied high on top of the cooked liver. -Liver dredged in flour and cooked in the onion-flavored bacon fat -Mashed potatoes -Cream liver gravy. Gotta use milk. -Peas. Regarding calves' liver...that's what we had growing up. I'm not sure I've seen it for quite a while. It's always "beef" liver. Perhaps it's the same product renamed for modern sensibilities.
Since we've migrated to the less-popular end of the food spectrum...my mother used to make beef tongue. I believe it was boiled. It was very good chilled and sliced for sandwiches. The only other place I have ever seen it was at a Bolivian buffet. My first time eating there, the waitress was nice enough to walk me through the items that were on the buffet. She was surprised to hear that my family ate tongue when I was growing up. Apparently it's a common thing in Bolivia (it was on the buffet), but not so much here in the states. I've never cooked it myself. I gotta think it's like a lot of food items...born of "Waste Nothing."
Oh my mom made the perfect beef roast. Mom cooked quite a few spare parts dishes back home. (No wonder I have cholesterol) She had quite a few best . I loved her duck moile, piggy roast, sarpotal , Christmas sweets.... I did not enjoy tripe!
My mother never made tripe, although I'm sure it was on the menu when she was growing up. And I don't believe she ever cooked duck...not even once. And neither have I. Funny, I never thought about it before. Did your mother make laddu? I make my own ghee, and feel wasteful just dumping the mil solids.
As far as things "sauteed in bacon fat," that would have been almost everything my mother cooked. She had the famous southern kitchen staple... a "grease" can with the strainer top that was always full of bacon grease. I loved beef tripe when I was a kid. It was soaked in milk, then breaded and deep fried. I haven't thought about tripe in years. My mother refused to eat it but she would cook it for us.
@Beth Gallagher What tripe we get in this part of the world is different from the home country. We had to immerse it in hot water to take the skin off. Here it is cleaned when bought from butcher or from stores and brought to the kitchen. Though somehow I always got the smell of bleach from it. Not sure why.
I don't remember ever seeing tripe in a store, Susan. We lived on a farm when I was growing up so our meat was slaughtered every fall to fill the freezers. I don't remember how my mother cleaned the tripe, but I do remember the soaking for a day or so in milk before cooking.
@John Brunner No we were not the laddu wallas . The other solids, I think could be made into some sweets.not sure. We made marzipan, milkcream, cakes, etc etc. Yum. Not eaten those in a while. I used to make them before.
Beth, you'll were lucky to get farm fresh/frozen meats. We depended on store bought. It was not so bad except for the tripe.