This liver pill recipe is a must. First I must stress...whether you buy liver pills or make them, it’s important the liver is sourced from 100% grass-fed beef. Don’t fall for tricky “grassfed” labeling, it needs to say, “100% grassfed.” The best is to buy liver from a farm you personally know and trust. Foxhollow is the SHINING example of exactly what you are looking for! There are different methods for making desiccated liver pills. Google can be a helpful place to research. Here is my tweaked, tried and true method.
Equipment
1. Dehydrator - I use the 5 tray Excalibur
2. High powered blender - I use Vitamix
3. Pill maker - I bought mine off Amazon, there are many options.
4. Empty pill capsules - size 00 - I also buy these in bulk online
5. Parchment paper
6 Fine mesh sieve (optional)
7. Liver- I use 5 or 6 1lb packages per batch. One package of liver spreads nicely over one tray.
Reduce the amount of liver to suit, however, I would not recommend going above 6 lbs in a 5 tray dehydrator.
Directions
- Thaw liver if frozen
- Prepare the trays by lining with parchment paper
- Give the liver a quick rinse. I rinse/cut/blend one package at a time to make the amount per tray easy to keep track of.
- Pat the liver dry and cut into small pieces. I recommend using scissors.
- Blend till relatively smooth. It does not have to be completely smooth. Careful to not overheat your blender here.
- Spread onto a tray with a spatula. Repeat with the remaining liver.
- At this point, you’re ready to dehydrate.
- To maximize nutrients you want to dehydrate at a low temp (105). I follow the manufacture’s instructions which suggest starting with a raised temperature of 155 for the first 3-4 hours and then reduce to the desired temperature of 105. Keep in mind dehydrators aren’t like ovens and take a while to reach the set temperature. This initial higher temperature will help the dehydrator reach 105 more quickly, reducing total dehydration time for safer handling.
*Note - liver is quite *pungent* when dehydrating. To avoid comments and complaints, I suggest placing the dehydrator in a basement or somewhere away from the main living area.
The timing will vary but dehydrating usually takes around 1 1/2 to 2 days. It is important to make sure there is no moisture left. You will know the liver is finished when it breaks easily. If the liver bends instead of breaks when you handle it, keep dehydrating.
Once ready, blend the liver in batches until powdery. I choose the added final step of sifting the liver through a very fine mesh sieve. This assures I can tamper down compactly and fill each pill to the maximum amount.
Now you are ready to make pills! Size 00 is as large as you have to go given how nutrient-dense 100% grassfed liver is. You will fill the pills according to the pill maker you have. There are excellent YouTube videos on how to use whichever pill maker you have chosen. I’m a visual learner, this was very helpful for me.
That’s it! You’re now stocked with the healthiest food you can feed yourself and family!
The dosage we follow is 2 pills twice daily for adults, and 1 pill, twice daily for children. We pour the liver pills into our children’s smoothies for the ones who don’t swallow pills. As with all pills, it is better to store away from direct sunlight.
This blog post was written by Lisa Dunsmore, a Foxhollow Farm customer and #1 Liver Pill Maker!
You can check out our 100% grassfed beef here.