Lunch Meat of the Week - Liverwurst

Slices of liverwurst

Liverwurst, leberwurst, or liver sausage is a kind of sausage made from liver. It is eaten in many parts of Europe, including Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania (especially in Transylvania), Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom; it is also found in North and South America, notably in Argentina and Chile.

Some liverwurst varieties are spreadable. Liverwurst usually contains pigs' or calves' livers. Other ingredients are meat (notably veal), fat, and spices including ground black pepper, marjoram, allspice, thyme, ground mustard seed, or nutmeg. Many regions in Germany have distinct recipes for liverwurst. Adding ingredients like pieces of onion or bacon to the recipe make each variety of liverwurst very important to cultural identity. For example, the Thüringer Leberwurst has a Protected Geographical Status throughout the EU. Recently, more exotic additions such as cowberries and mushrooms have gained popularity.

The word "liverwurst" is a partial calque of German Leberwurst 'liver sausage', and "liver sausage" a full calque.

Variants

Liverwurst, boiled and smoked

North America
Liverwurst is typically eaten as is, and often served as traditional or as open-faced sandwiches. It is popular in North America with red onion and mustard on rye or whole grain bread. In the Southern US, and the Midwestern US, liverwurst is served with slices of sweet pickles (gherkins pickled with sugar, vinegar, and mustard seeds). In the Northeast US, liverwurst is served with dill pickles (gherkins pickled with salt and dill).

In the Midwestern United States, liverwurst is also known as liver sausage or Braunschweiger. Liverwurst is typically served on crackers or in sandwiches. It is often sold pre-sliced.

Germany

Liverwurst from the Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany

Liverwurst from the Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany
In Germany, liverwurst is customarily served sliced on a plate, often with mustard or pickled cucumber.

The Netherlands
In the Netherlands, liverwurst (Dutch: leverworst) is customarily served in slices, often with mustard. Groningen and The Hague are known for their own types of liverwurst: Groninger leverworst in Groningen and Haagse leverworst from The Hague.

Hungary
In Hungary, liverwurst is customarily served on open sandwiches, or with cheese as a filling for pancakes which are baked in the oven.
Romania
In Romania liverwurst is called lebar, but unlike the German sausage leberwurst that uses beef, the lebar uses only pork. Lebar is eaten mainly for the winter holidays. It tastes fragrant and sweet with liver pâté. It is generally used as Christmas Eve dinner, sliced on bread with mustard and murături.

Poland
Pasztetowa is made using calf's liver. It is often served on rye bread with horseradish-style mustard. Pasztetowa is popular throughout the year, but is most frequently served at Christmas and Easter.

One of America's Favorites - Liver and Onions

Fried pork livers and onions

Liver and onions is a traditional English dish. The main ingredients are slices of liver (usually pork, beef or, in the United Kingdom, lamb) and onions; onion is favored as an accompaniment to liver as the flavor of onion "cuts" the somewhat metallic flavor of liver, which can be off-putting to some eaters. The liver and the onions are usually fried or cooked together, but sometimes they may be fried separately and mixed together afterwards. The liver is often cut in fine slices, but it also may be diced.



Liver and onions is widely eaten in the UK and in Germany, where it is usually eaten along with boiled or mashed potatoes. Calf's or lamb's liver are the usual choices in the UK and is often accompanied by fried bacon.

In the French traditional recipe the liver is fried with butter and lard. In Catalan cuisine olive oil is used, instead of butter, and fried garlic is added to the mixture. In Italian cuisine, the fegato alla Veneziana recipe includes a dash of red wine or vinegar and the fegato alla Romana a dash of white wine and is cooked in lard.

In the USA, liver and onions as a dish once enjoyed widespread popularity and could usually be found at family diners and American home-style restaurants. This meal is currently more common to

Chicken livers and onions

the cuisines of the southern and upper midwestern style foods.

Beef liver and onions is still widely popular in Latin America (Spanish: hígado (de res) encebollado, Portuguese: fígado (bovino) acebolado), where it is often eaten along with tortillas or rice.

In Brazil (where tortillas are unknown to the vast majority), though, the traditional recipe always calls for potatoes, most commonly puréed or as home fries, or some other underground-growing starchy vegetable. The liver is rubbed – but not fried – in plenty of good quality olive oil before being fried in the fat/oil of the cook's preference, generally vegetable oil. After the onions are fried together with the liver's reduced stock, rice, other vegetables, fried garlic and other staples (such as sweet corn, peas or lentils) might be added to the frying pan in order for their sautéing, though white rice is the preferred option. It is generally soaked with the blood/stock draining from the liver that is taken out of the frying pan somewhere between rare and medium for the frying of the onion.

People who prefer the rare version make cuts perpendicular to the edges of the steak that penetrate most but not the whole of it that are done when the steak is thick enough to remain too rare in the center, but too cooked in the outside.

Wild Idea Buffalo Recipe of the Week - Buffalo Liver Pate’

Another good one from Jill O'Brien of Wild Idea Buffalo!



Buffalo Liver Pate’
By: Jill O'Brien


Will serve 24 for hors d’oeuvres.

Buffalo Liver Pate

Ingredients:

4 T. butter
1 lb. Buffalo Liver – (soak in milk for 1 hr. at room temp. – remove & pat dry)
½ lb. Buffalo Breakfast Sausage or organic Chicken Sausage
½ onion chopped
1 T. garlic
½ tsp. thyme
½ tsp. sage
¼ tsp. nutmeg
pinch of allspice
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1/3 cup cognac or brandy
1 tsp. smoked paprika
salt & pepper to taste
¼ cup finely chopped parsley
In heavy skillet over medium high heat melt butter. Add, Buffalo Liver, Chicken Sausage onion, garlic & spices, sauté. Continue cooking for 8 minutes. Deglaze pan with cognac, cook for 2 minutes, and remove from heat. Transfer to food processor & puree until smooth, season with smoked paprika & salt & pepper to taste.

Line the inside of the mold with saran wrap, fill with pate. Press pate down, cover and chill overnight. Remove from mold and let set at room temperature for 1 hr.

Dust pate with finely chopped parsley, serve with apples, and crackers or baguette slices.


http://wildideabuffalo.com/2012/buffalo-liver-pate/



Buffalo Liver
Pure grass-fed only liver tastes better! Loaded with iron, it's an athletes favorite. The clean rich flavor is

wonderful in pates or sauteed.

8 oz. Package

http://buy.wildideabuffalo.com/products/liver