In this article you will learn how to make your own veal liverwurst.
You’ll get a complete list of ingredients, materials and a simple recipe that you can copy immediately.
You could almost say it is a German classic liver sausage and tastes very mild and fine.
One thing in advance… Since 2010 The name “veal liver sausage” may only be used if the liver content is over 50% from the calf. In addition, the meat content must also be at least over 50% veal and young beef.
Most “veal livewurst” from the supermarket are therefore called veal liver sausage with pork, because this saves costs.
My recipe is a real veal liverwurst that you can vary a bit depending on your taste.
I fill my veal liverwurst in jars. But you can also use casings or cans. Depending on what you prefer.
But enough talking now. You can watch the complete veal liverwurst recipe via video or read it. I wish you a lot of fun and success!
Table of Contents
Making veal liverwurst at home – What do you need
Ingredients for a classic veal liverwurst:
Meat for 1 kg veal liverwurst:
- 50 % fattier veal meat (500 g)
- 20 % pork belly (200 g)
- 15 % calf’s liver (150 g)
- 15 % pork liver (150 g) Alternatively, double the amount of calf’s liver. However, the taste will be stronger and may be unfamiliar
Spices per kg of meat:
- 18 g Salt
- 2,5 g Cure #1
- 2 g white pepper
- 2 g mace
- 0,5 g cardamom
- 0,5 g ginger
- 75g caramellized onions
Equipment needed to make veal liverwurst
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 veal liverwurst – Step-By-Step Instruction
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Cut the liver into strips.
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 pot.
5. Cut the onions into strips and slowly simmer in an buttered pan until golden brown for up to 10 min..
6. Grind the spices into a fine powder.
7. Take the bags out of the water and separate the juice and meat.
8. 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.
9. It’s time to grind the meat and liver. Separate the liver and meat/fat mixture into two separate bowls.
10. Now put the liver with the salt and cure in your food processor or blender and let the mixture blend until bubbly.
11. Add the meat and broth and blend till it is homogenous.
My tip: I transferred the mass afterwards in a stand mixer. This makes the consistency of the mass even finer.
12. Your veal liverwurst is almost ready. You can now fill them in jars. Make sure that there are no air pockets in the jars.
13. 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.
12. Your veal liver sausage is ready 😄. Enjoy!
How long does the veal liverwurst keep?
In theory, the preserved veal 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 liverwurst 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.