Recipe: Liver Sausage and Braunschweiger

LIVER SAUSAGE AND BRAUNSCHWEIGER

These are cured sausages traditionally made from pork liver and pork hearts. Braunschweiger is smoked after cooking, hence the "braun" in the name. They are best stuffed into beef middles as fibrous casings do not shrink with the sausage.

This particular recipe is a modified version of the previous and has much better flavor and texture. The main difference is the addition of chicken liver and beef liver. The amounts of the various meats are not critical and just represent the amounts I ended up with and weighed on a gram scale. You can divide by 450 to get pounds.

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LIVER SAUSAGE RECIPE

5 lbs meat
728 gr pork livers
610 gr chicken livers
584 gr pork hearts
208 gr beef liver
100 gr porkbelly trims (mostly fat)
100 gr salt pork (fatty bacon will do)

2 1/2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp dextrose
2 tsp pepper
1 tsp prague #1
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground mustard seed
1/4 tsp sage
1/4 tsp marjoram
1/4 tsp ginger

Cook liver in simmering water for 10 minutes then chill before grinding.

Grind all meat through 3/16 plate. Chill in freezer for 30 min.

Chop in blender or food processor. This sounds a lot easier than it is as you can only do about half a cup at a time. Commercial sausage kitchens use a machine called a chopper but we have to make due with what we have. The idea is to produce what is known as an emulsion. This process is also required for hot dogs, balogna and other sausages where a homogenous texture is required.

Stuff in beef middles.

Place the sausage in a 165 degree F water for about one hour to internal temp of 152F.

Chill in cold water.

Liver Sausage: Store in fridge for about a day before eating. Keeps for several weeks in fridge.

Braunschweiger: Dry in smoker at 100F, then smoke for 5 hrs at 120F

Source: Jack Schmidling Productions, Inc.

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BRAUNSCHWEIGER RECIPE

Its origin is Braunschweig, in the Brunswick province of Germany. As with any p t , flavor improves with a day or two of aging, and if you have a smoker, a light smoking. You can stuff the p t into pork or beef casings, tie them with string in 8- to 12-inch lengths, and adjust the stuffing in order to leave a good 2 inches at the end of each length for expansion. Simmer the links about 45 minutes in a pot of water, then dip them in cold water to keep the fat from settling along the bottom. If you have no casings, bake the pork p t in a loaf pan, as you would a French p t . You can either serve it in slices or use it as a creamy spread.

2 pounds lean pork
1 pound pork fat
1 1/4 pounds pork liver
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons salt
2 teaspoons cloves
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

If you use a process for grinding, cut the pork, pork fat and liver into cubes and freeze for an hour or two, so that they will process without smearing.

Saut the onion in a little pork fat or butter until it is soft. Sprinkle with the spices to warm them, then add the mixture to the pork and process until you have a smooth pur e.

Pack the pur e into an earthenware baking dish or 2 (9 x 5-inch) loaf pans and cover tightly with foil. Put the dish in a pan with an inch or two of boiling water and bake at 300 degrees F until meat is cooked but not browned (meat thermometer should read 160 degrees F to 165 degrees F), about 2 hours.

Remove baking dish from the pan of water and let p t cool in the dish. Refrigerate 1 to 2 days before using.

Makes 2 standard-size loaves or 1 large terrine.