HOMEMADE PORK LIVERWURST RECIPE

 

I had a nostalgic hankering for liverwurst that would not leave me alone—me and dad, eating liverwurst sandwiches on rye bread with ketchup and a dill pickle. Sweet, creamy, pinkish, porky, salty deliciousness. I gotta have it—

I couldn’t find liverwurst, a.k.a. Braunschweiger, in most Florida grocery stores. When I finally did find it, I read the ingredients. Very unappetizing. I wanted an organic product as well. Not in this jurisdiction. Why not make it myself? How hard can it be? It’s simply liver and whatever the “wurst” part was, right?

Off to the Internet to learn about liverwursting. 

Making liverwurst from scratch is a more complicated process than I imagined. No pork fat to be found. Most recipes call for grinding a fresh pork butt. Why not use ground pork? It has lots of fat globules and it’s already minced. Using ground pork also saves me from buying a meat grinder and grinding pork butt.

More decisions must be made: use raw ingredients or cooked? I opted for the raw method, thinking it was more authentic and German. It’s not.

Glove up and let the experiment begin.

As you may have guessed, liquefied liver is gnarly.

One jar burst during cooking.

Food safety guidelines insist pork be cooked to between 145-160 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the cut of meat. Since I don't have a meat thermometer, I was afraid to eat the end product for two days. (See note.) 

I was determined to take one for the team. I got my affairs in order and gave myself a pep talk: "Eckkehard the German Butcher tasted his raw pork and he's still here. I eat raw fish in sushi....I'm going in." 

I gingerly tasted the liverwurst. It turned out better than I’d expected. I had made sublime liverwurst to die for. I slathered it on my homemade sourdough caraway rye bread with a dollop of tomato paste, instead of ketchup, and was transported to my childhood—dad sitting across the table from me and chowing down on a liverwurst sandwich and dill pickles, amidst giggles and burps.

Here is the recipe I concocted, after hours of research, including the botches and fixes—

HOMEMADE PORK LIVERWURST RECIPE

Ingredients

1 pound organic local pork liver

1 pound organic local ground pork

1 large yellow onion, finely diced

 3 tablespoons homemade Kefir milk

3 tablespoons Japanese Sake

1 teaspoon fine white pepper

1 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon allspice

Directions

Put ground pork in food processor and puree. Cut pork liver into pieces (it’s very tough, so use a sharp knife and discard any sinewy bits.) Add liver to food processor. Add the spices, milk, sake and onion. Puree into a smooth paste.

[The fun part: here is where you would pump the mixture into a casing. I didn’t have casings. I used jars instead of casing. I also used parchment paper as a “pseudo-casing,” in case the jars exploded. (One did.)]

[MY SEMI-BOTCHED PROCESS] Add two-thirds of the meat mixture to one-quart canning jars. Place the rest of the meat mixture on parchment paper in a small casserole dish and seal the mixture in the parchment as best you can.

Bring a large pot of water to a simmer. Place a rack in the bottom of the pot and put the jars on the rack.

For the casserole dish, cover with foil and place in a shallow baking pan filled with water halfway up the side of the dish. Bake in a preheated 175-degree Fahrenheit oven.

[MY FIX] When one jar burst, I removed the unbroken jar and put it into the baking pan along with the casserole dish.

Bake for 2 and ½ hours.

Cool immediately. I placed the surviving jar and casserole in the fridge and surrounded them with ice packs.

Cool overnight before serving.

NOTE: I only ate the liverwurst that was cooked in the parchment casserole dish. I suggest this is the better method over the jars simmering in a pot. Safer and more appetizing too. The stuff in the jar separated and still looked gnarly, although it smelled fine.

I used the jarred liverwurst in a meatball recipe. I added the entire jar contents to one pound of organic, lean ground beef and made my usual meatball recipe, sans the salt and onions, which were already in the liverwurst. The meatballs were very light and I added them to a tomato sauce that became a ragu. The remaining meatballs I stored separately for sandwiches. Awesomeness!