How To Make Liverwurst – Step-By-Step Guide & Recipe

In this article you will learn how to make your own liverwurst. 

You’ll get a complete list of ingredients, materials and a simple recipe that you can copy immediately.

Liver sausage is easy and quick to make. Depending on whether you use a casing, a can or a jar, the preparation takes between 2 – 3.5 hours.

But first let’s answer the question: What is liverwurst?

Liverwurst, in German “Leberwurst”, literally translated to “liver sausage” is a spreadable sausage made from liver. It is eaten in many parts of Europe and especially Germany, where I am from.

In addition to the meat, fat, and spices it usually contains pigs’ or calves’ livers. There are many distinct liverwurst recipes in Germany depending on the region.

In this article I’ll share with you a classic German liverwurst and also added 3 more liverwurst variations for you at the end.

Before we start with the liverwurst recipe…

Quality is important for me. That’s why the sausage is made as naturally as possible.

Especially when it comes to the quality of the meat, I recommend buying regional, and organic. Not only your sense of taste will thank you.

But enough talking now. You can watch the complete liverwurst recipe via video or read it. I wish you a lot of fun and success!

Making liverwurst at home – What do you need

Ingredients for a classic pork liverwurst:

Meat for 1 kg Liverwurst:

• 40 % pork belly (400g)
• 10 % pork backfat (100g)
• 30 % pork shoulder (300g)
• 20 % pork liver (200g)

Spices per kg of meat:

• 18 g Salt
• 2,5 g Cure #1
• 4 g dried marjoram
• 3 g white pepper
• 1 g cardamom
• 0,5g ginger powder
• 0.5g mace
• 160g caramellized onions

Equipment needed to make liverwurst

Meat Grinder

You need a meat grinder to “grind” the meat. The meat is chopped into small chunks with it.

Food processor / Thermomix

In a food processor, the minced meat and ingredients are mixed into a very fine mass. If you have a Thermomix, you can also use it for this process.

Thermometer & Cooking Pot / Sous Vide Cooker

The easiest way to cook the meat is to use a Sous Vide Cooker. This way you can cook the meat gently in a vacuum bag. Don’t you have a home? No problem! Use a saucepan and heat the water. To reach the exact temperature, you will need a thermometer. Both variants achieve the same result.

Preserving jars / casings

Since I fill the liver sausage into jars, I used jars for this purpose. Alternatively you can fill the mixture into a casing or a can. You can find more information about this in this article.

Homemade liverwurst – Step-By-Step Instruction

1. Cut the onions into strips and slowly simmer in an oiled pan until golden brown for up to 10 min.

2. Cut the meat and fat into pieces. The size varies depending on how big your meat grinder is. The bigger the grinder, the bigger your pieces of meat can be.

3. Put the pieces of meat and the back fat in a sealable plastic bag or vacuum them.

Note: If you vacuum the meat pieces / put them in a plastic bag and cook them sous vide, you will not lose any water while cooking. 

This way, you do not need any additional broth later as the whole broth and fat is preserved in the bag. 

If you want to cook your meat without the Sous Vide method you can cook it in water.  You need to weigh the meat before and after the cooking process. The lost weight needs to be added back into the sausage mixture. This way you re-add the amount of broth that you lost while cooking.

4. Put the bags in the tempered water or in the sous vide cooker and cook the meat and fat at 76 degrees Celsius (169 Fahrenheit) for 70 minutes. If you do not use the sous-vide method you just cook them in a pan.

5. Take the bags out of the water and place the liver in the (still hot) water. You can poach them there for about 5 minutes. The strong taste of the liver becomes a little milder.

6. Now separate the juice and meat. Now you can remove the liver from the water and cut it into grinder friendly strips.

7. It’s time to grind the meat and liver. Separate the liver and meat/fat mixture into two separate bowls.

8. Now put the liver with the salt and cure in your food processor or blender and let the mixture blend until bubbly.

9. Add the meat, the spices and broth and blend till it is homogenous.

10. Your liverwurst is almost ready. You can now fill them in jars. Make sure that there are no air pockets in the jars.

11. Now all you have to do is boil the jars. The time depends on the size of the jar. It takes 2 hours at 100 °C (212 Fahrenheit). 

If you want to use a casing instead of jars, you can read about the poaching method in the tips and tricks below.

12. Your liver sausage is ready. Enjoy!

How long does the liverwurst keep?

In theory, the preserved liver sausage can be kept up to a year in a jar or can. However, I do not think it will last so long, because of the delicious taste.

It is best to store the liver sausage in a cool and dark place. 

When opening, the rule is: 

See it, smell it, taste it! 

If you use a casing, you should store the liver sausage in the refrigerator and consume it within a maximum of 10 days.

Make liverwurst without a meat grinder

You would like to make your own liver sausage, but don’t have a meat grinder at home and don’t want to buy one?

Then I have here 2 variations how you can make liver sausage without a meat grinder.

• Ask your butcher if he can grind the ingredients for you. If he doesn’t want to grind the liver, because he has to clean his meat grinder afterwards, let him grind the other ingredients for you and put the liver in the food processor at home.
• Follow all the steps according to the instructions until you reach the point where the meat has to go into the meat grinder. Here you can easily cut your meat into very small pieces and then add it to the food processor. This takes longer, but it also works. My advice here: The liver sausage is coarser, but tastes just as delicious!

Tips & Tricks for making liverwurst at home

• The Cure #1 is used to preserve your liver sausage and give it a fragrant color. If you want to work without the Cure you can use normal salt instead. The color will change however the taste will be the same.
• Do you want to cook the meat without the Sous Vide method? No problem. You have to weigh the meat / fat mixture before cooking. Then weigh the meat again after cooking and note how much liquid the meat has lost. The missing liquid needs to be added to the food processor in the blending process. You can use the broth in which you cooked your meat
• You want to use a casing? Then I recommend plastic casings, caliber 60/50.
• If you use a casing, you have to poach the liverwurst per mm diameter for 1 minute at 80 °C (176 Fahrenheit). So caliber 60/50 needs to be poached 60 minutes.
• If you use a can (400g), it will take about 01:15 hours at 100 °C (212 Fahrenheit) to preserve.

3 Additional liverwurst recipes for you

Veal liverwurst – Super elegant taste

Meat for 1 kg Veal liverwurst:

• 500 g faty veal cuts
• 200 g pork belly
• 150 g calf’s liver
• 150 g pork liver (Alternatively, double the amount of calf’s liver. However, the taste will become stronger and can be unusual)

Spices per kg of meat:

• 18 g Salt
• 2,5 g Cure #1
• 60g caramelized onions
• 2 g white pepper
• 2 g mace
• 0.5 g cardamom
• 0.5 g ginger

You can read the full step-by-step recipe or watch the video here (published soon).

Hausmacher Pfälzer liverwurst – A german regional classic

Meat for 1 kg Pfälzer liverwurst:

• 500 g pork belly
• 200 g pork butt
• 300 g pork liver

Spices per kg of meat:

• 18 g Salt
• 2,5 g Cure #1
• 4g marjoram
• 3g white pepper
• 2g sugar
• 2g nutmeg
• 1g allspice
• 1g clove powder
• 75g onion (fried in butter until transparent)

You can read the full step-by-step recipe or watch the video here (published soon).

Apple-Onion Liverwurst with a twist of sourness

Meat for 1 kg Apple-Onion liverwurst:

• 400g pork belly
• 300g pork liver
• 250g pork backfat
• 50g cream

Spices per kg of meat:

• 18 g Salt
• 2,5 g Cure #1
• 3 g ground black pepper
• 1,5 g macis
• 0,5 g cardamom
• 120 g green apple, peeled and seeded
• 60 g roasted onions
• 50 g diced raw onions
• 20 g honey

Same recipe as the main recipe. You fry the apples with the onions and add them to the blended mass later. This way you have pieces of apple and onions in your final liverwurst.