Making Liverwurst

[jimk]

[Moderator's Note: This topic has been split from Cooking with Ruhlman & Polcyn's Charcuterie topic.]

Surprised to look in Charcuterie last night and not find a recipe for liverwurst which I've got my heart set on making. Anybody here have experience with this, or a good recipe to point me towards? Also undecided on whether to prepare it as a terrine or in casings - thoughts welcome on that issue as well!

Edited August 6, 2009 by nakji (log)

[JimH]

I'll look tonight but I'm pretty sure that Rytek Kutas' book on sausage making has a recipe.

[Holly Moore]

There was a German butcher in Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market (may he please return) who did a few versions in addition to a standard liverwurst.

One was garlic. Another was the equivalent of a country pate, more coarsely chopped. He also did braunschweiger, which I believe is merely smoked liverwurst, but they may change the recipe.

I am a fan of casings - mainly because that is the way I've always had it. Nothing wrong with a terrine, I guess.

Since the RTM place closed I bring in some liverwurst and braunschweiger from Usinger's, along with my hot dog order.

[nickrey]

Liverwurst (or leberwurst) is made from the usual sausage-making bits of pork as well as fresh liver.

It is made in casings rather than as a terrine principally because it is boiled in the casing for an hour in the final cook.

This recipe is adapted from Antony and Araminta Hippisley-Coxes' Book of Sausages (now published as The Great book of Sausages)

Ingredients are (you can take liberties with contents and proportions, but try to maintain a ratio of more liver than the summed weight of cooked pork bits and fat and slightly over 20% fat):

Liver Onion Mix - finely minced

3 1/2 lb pig's liver

4 oz fried onion

Fat - coarsely ground

1 lb salted pork fat

Pork stuff - pre-cooked and coarsely ground

1 lb pig cheek (simmer for around an hour to pre-cook)

1 1/4 lb pigs snout (simmer for around two hours to pre-cook)

(or 2 1/4 lbs mix of shoulder, belly, whatever, just pre-cook, or not, according to cut)

Spices/Seasonings

salt, pepper, ginger, marjoram, cinnamon and/or cloves

Mix everything together then pound to a fine, smooth paste (you could use a food processor, just watch the heat generated).

Put in casing.

Place in warm water, bring to boil, and leave boiling for an hour.

Depending on preference, you can cool smoke it or not.

Good luck.

[jackal10]

In a different but related question do you have a recipe for Leberkäse which contains, desipte the name, neither liver or cheese.

I can't seem to get the texture right, despite keeping the mixture cold

Edited August 8, 2009 by jackal10 (log)

[JimH]

There is a recipe in Rytek Kutas' book. The book is called "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing", it's considered the Bible of sausage making. I have a third addition but I believe they have published a 4th addition.

[nickrey]

In a different but related question do you have a recipe for Leberkäse which contains, desipte the name, neither liver or cheese.

I can't seem to get the texture right, despite keeping the mixture cold

←

Thinking back to my experiences eating Leberkäse in Austria, the texture was extremely fine; similar in many ways to that of a hot-dog frankfurter, albeit in a loaf type form.

The problem with doing this at home is that the techniques used to grind meat finely into a paste tend to add extra heat, which causes problems with emulsification, possibly leading to splitting.

The question is how to get an extremely fine paste without heating the mixture too much. Professional butchers use bowl cutters that can handle this task with ease.

Ruhlman and Polcyn in Charcuterie when talking about hot dogs recommend spreading the meat on a tray and chilling it in a freezer until it is stiff, processing it and then repeating the process until the desired texture is reached. My thinking is that for Leberkäse you'd have to do this multiple times to get the mixture fine enough.

What approach have you actually used to this point?

[jackal10]

I've tried blitzing it with icecubes, but it comes out grainy rather than smooth.