Not a salami, but oh so good. My latest adventures have taken me down the dark path of Offal, using veal or beef liver, heart and tongue, combined with pork fat, usually trim from pork bellies and a healthy dose of herbs and spices.
Liverwurst is interesting, taking otherwise unused parts and making them into something quite delicious. Face it, liver is not everyone’s favorite meal. So far with my home made liverwurst there have been at least 10 people that started out saying “no way, liverwurst, that’s gross” and all of them have enjoyed it after a taste.
One change I made is that I’m using the Sous Vide machine to poach it. I don’t know if that makes a big difference but leaving it exactly at the desired temperature of 145 for a period of time seems to help the pork fat emulsify evenly and it doesn’t get the liver overcooked. who knows but it works.
Today’s batch is courtesy of my friend Sean Karl who I helped butcher an angus steer on Saturday. This batch is all liver, heart and tongue from that steer, plus some port trim from my bacon.
The spice mixture includes grated and cooked onion, Cardamom, Marjoram, mace, nutmeg, garlic powder, salt, sugar, coriander, black pepper and cure #1. to me the nutmeg is the real key.
This batch I also ground the heart and tongue a little finer, last batch was a more chunky style. I’ll keep you posted on how it comes out!