Recipe(tried): German Liver Sausage

Here is my parents' recipe, which they developed in the 1970s based on their memories of liver sausage made by their German parents in Chanhassen and Bloomington, MN, in the 1930s. Good reheated in microwave or fried up in a pan with butter.

GERMAN LIVER SAUSAGE
(40 pound recipe)

10 pounds pig hocks
20 pounds pork loin
16 cups onions (raw, chopped)
7 pounds hamburger (lean)
5 pounds liver
FOR THE SEASONINGS:
7 1/2 tbsp salt
10 tsp sage
7 1/2 tsp black pepper
5 tsp basil
3 3/4 tsp allspice
3 3/4 tsp cloves
3 3/4 tsp marjoram
2 1/2 tsp mustard (dry)
2 1/2 tsp thyme
5 leaves crushed rosemary

Fry the hamburger and liver.

The onions can be fried or cooked with the hocks and the loin. We cook the hocks and loin in the oven, using plastic turkey-roasting bags. The meat in the bags, the bags surrounded with water in covered roasting pans.

Roast about 5 hours at 325 degrees F. (For a smaller recipe, roasting time would be less.) The meat inside the bags should reach 200 F. When done, the meat should fall off the bones.

Debone and grind the meat and onions.

Mix seasoning together in a cup. Pour half of the spices over the meat and sprinkle with water. Mix, then repeat with the remainder of spices. We put all the juice from cooking the meat back in the sausage.

We do not use casings. We store the sausage in plastic bags and boxes in the freezer. Good for 3 months.

Jim and Mary Ann Welter
Richfield, Minn., 1986