Pfälzer Leberwurst – A Regional Specialty Liverwurst
- Type
- Pre-cooked sausage
- Level
- Medium
- Rating
- Rate this recipe
In this article you will learn how to make your own Pfälzer liverwurst.
This liverwurst is a speciality from the region Palatinate in Germany.
A traditional Pfälzer liver sausage has a slightly coarse consistency and a hearty seasoning. The proportion of liver in it is quite high, yet it is not pink, but gray. During the production no cure is used.
Traditionally, the Palatinate liver sausage is prepared with a pig’s head. However, I have chosen a modified version with fat pork belly.
I have other liverwurst recipes as well. Here you can find my classic liverwurst and my veal liverwurst.
But enough talking now. You can watch the complete Pfälzer liverwurst recipe via video or read it. I wish you a lot of fun and success!
Table of Contents
Pfälzer liverwurst – What do you need to make it?
Ingredients per 1 kg
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| Pfälzer liverwurst | |
| pork belly | 500 g |
| pork liver | 300 g |
| lean pork | 200 g |
Spices per 1 kg
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| onion (fried in butter until translucent) | 75 g |
| salt | 20 g |
| marjoram | 4 g |
| white pepper | 3 g |
| sugar | 2 g |
| nutmeg | 2 g |
| allspice | 1 g |
| clove powder | 1 g |
The equipment to make Pfälzer liverwurst
You need a meat grinder to “grind” the meat. The meat is chopped into small chunks with it.
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 Pfälzer liverwurst – Step-By-Step Instruction
Cut the meat 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.
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.
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 pot.
Cut the onions into strips and slowly simmer in an buttered pan until golden brown for up to 10 min..
Cut the liver into strips.
Grind the spices into a fine powder.
Take the bags out of the water and separate the juice and meat.
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.
It’s time to grind the meat and liver. I used the smallest perforated disc.
Add the salt and spices and the reserved broth to the ground up meat. Mix everything well.
Your Pfälzer liverwurst is almost ready. You can now fill it in jars. Make sure that there are no air pockets in the jars.
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 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.
Your Pfälzer liver sausage is ready 😄. Enjoy!
Frequently asked questions
What is German liverwurst?
What is German liverwurst?
German liverwurst is a cooked spread, not a sliced cold cut. The meat is cooked first, then ground together with the liver and mixed back with its own broth, and it goes into the jar or the casing soft. That is the whole shape of it: nothing is hung, nothing is dried, nothing is smoked, and what you end up with goes onto bread with a knife rather than off a slicer.
Within that family the versions differ, and this one — Pfälzer Lewwerworscht, as its German counterpart names it — is deliberately the coarse kind. That grain is a choice the recipe makes at the grinder: step 9 is where the perforated disc is picked.
How long does the Pfälzer liverwurst keep?
How long does the Pfälzer liverwurst keep?
Keep the jars or cans in the fridge and use the Pfälzer liver sausage within 2–3 weeks.
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.
Hey Daniel,
Thanks for the recipe, though I have a couple of questions as I had some… difficulties trying to execute it without a Sous vide. It’s a failure due to my own inexperience, your recipe is clearly very good. Would you mind answering my the below?
1. When cooking without a Sous vide, should it be at a low simmer or even lower? I lost almost half the weight leaving it at a simmer. Trying to add that weight in broth back turned it into wet slush
2. After cooking, should I slightly freeze the meat before grinding? Grinding it hot made it difficult to push the mix into casings.
3. If I place them in casings, I should poach again. How long and at what temperature would you recommend?
Thanks, and I really like your content!
Hey Luca,
I am sorry that it did not work out directly.
You can find another detailed explanation in my Leberwurst article
1. Ideally same temperature 76 degrees Celsius (169 Fahrenheit) -> mnaximum of 80C 176 Fahrenheit.
2. NO it must be processed warm otherwise it will not bind
3. Yes it needs to be poached also in casings. 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.
Cheers
Daniel
Very thorough information thank you Daniel.
Looking forward to trying again.
AWESOME you made my DAY
Thank you 🙂