Making sausage at home is simple and pain free. Once you've learned the basics, experimentation and sausage innovation are bound to take over. Then before you know it, you will be making gourmet sausages that are better than anything you can buy in the market, and at half the cost! Charles Reavis's Home Sausage Making introduces a world of banger possibilities--from traditional pork to salmon and poultry.
Liverwurst is one of the most popular of all the German sausages. A thick slice sandwiched between two slices of homemade bread with a slice of Bermuda or Vidalia onion, is wickedly delicious.
This recipe is slightly different from the previous ones in that we don?t use animal casings. You will need a piece of unbleached muslin about twelve inches long and eight inches wide. As an alternative, you can use large collagen casings.
Fold the muslin lengthwise and tightly stitch a seam across one of the short ends and continue along the open side. Keep the stitching about an eighth of an inch from the edge of the material. The short side of the seam can be curved in a semicirle to give the finished product a rounded end. Turn the casing inside out so that the stitching is on the inside. Set it aside until you are ready to stuff it.
Makes: 2 pounds
1 pound fresh pork liver, cubed
3/4 pound lean pork butt, cubed
1/4 pound pork fat, cubed
1 large sweet white onion, about 1 1/2 cups, finely diced
3 tablespoons powdered dry milk
1 teaspoon freshly fine ground white pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1/2 teaspoon finely ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon mace
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
Put the cubes of liver, pork, and fat through the fine disk or the grinder separately and then mix and grind together.
Sprinkle the remaining ingredients over the ground meat and mix thoroughly with your hands.
Put the mixture through the fine blade of the grinder twice more, chilling the mixture for half and hour between grindings.
Pack the mixture into the muslin casing. It helps to fold the open end down over itself to get things started. This makes it easier to reach the bottom. Pack the meat as firmly as possible.
Stitch the open end closed or firmly secure it with a wire twist tie.
In a large kettle, bring enough water to a boil to cover the liverwurst by two or three inches.
Put the sausage in the boiling water and place a weight on it to keep it submerged. Two or three large dinner plates work just fine.
When the water returns to a boil, reduce heat so that the water barely simmers.
Cook for three hours.
Drain out the hot water and replace it with an equal quantity of ice water.
When the liverwurst has cooled, refrigerate it overnight, and them remove the muslin casing.
Store the liverwurst in the refrigerator and eat it within ten days
