Sausage and charcuterie are one of the best ways to use liver and enjoy nose to tail cooking in your kitchen. Here's a great homemade liverwurst or braunschweiger recipe you can make at home. Everyone loves it I've served it to, and plenty of people won't even know there's liver in it.
What is Braunschweiger?
Braunshweiger is a type of German liver sausage, sometimes called liverwurst. There's many regional variations with different seasonings and ingredients. Sometimes it is soft and nearly spreadable, other times it may be more firm like a terrine or meatloaf. Commercial liverwurst is often soft and spreadable.
How to Make Braunschweiger
You'll need a few pieces of equipment. The most important is a meat grinder and a stand mixer. The recipe straightforward, but does take a little time to make.
First the liver is browned in a pan. Next the liver, meat, fat and spices are mixed and ground through the meat grinder a couple times. Once the meat has been ground and mixed, it's formed and cooked to 150 F.
You can use cling film, a mason jar or loaf pan like I do with my chicken or venison terrine.
After the meat is cooked, it's cooled, sliced and eaten. It's the perfect accent to your next charcuterie board.
More Nose to Tail Recipes
Classic Homemade Braunschweiger or Liverwurst
Equipment
- Meat Grinder
- Stand mixer
- cling film
Ingredients
- 18 oz Diced meat such as beef chuck or pork shoulder
- 6 oz Pork fat or kidney suet
- 8 oz Bacon
- 16 oz Beef liver pork liver, venison liver or lamb can also be used
- 1 small onion (4 oz) finely chopped
- 1 oz cooking oil, separated (2 tablespoons)
- ¼ cup brandy or cognac
- ¼ cup heavy cream
Braunshweiger Spices
- 5 g 1 teaspoon pink curing salt Sodium nitrite (ask your butcher for this)
- 15 g 1 Tablespoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons dry white wine cold
- ½ a nutmeg grated
- 8 g black or white pepper, freshly ground (1 tablespoon)
- 1 tablespoon dried marjoram (1 g)
- 2 tablespoons mustard powder such as Colemans
- 2 teaspoons grated ginger
- 1 teaspoon dried bay leaves finely ground in a spice grinder
- 6 tablespoons milk powder* see note
Instructions
- Pat the liver dry. Season the liver with salt and pepper. Heat half the oil in a skilet on high heat and brown the liver well on all sides. Remove and pour off any oil, then add the onion and the additional fat to the pan and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
- Add the brandy and cook until the pan is nearly dry. Scrape up the browned bits. Add the heavy cream and reduce by half. Scrape the onion mixture into a small bowl or and chill.
- Cut the bacon into 1 inch pieces. Dice the cooked liver, meat and fat, mix with the bacon, onions, and the seasonings except the wine and milk powder. Grind the mixture through the small die of a meat grinder.
- Chill your meat mixture for 15 minutes then pass iit through the small die again. Repeat the process once more so that you've ground the meat 3 times.
- Transfer the mixture to a stand mixer and add the wine and ⅓ of the milk powder. Begin to mix on low speed. Keep a towel wrapped around the bowl to prevent milk powder from getting everywhere. Gradually add the rest of the milk powder.
- Clean meat from the paddle attachment if needed to ensure even seasoning.
- Cook a small piece of the liverwurst to test the seasoning. Adjust until it tastes good to you. You may need to adjust the seasoning a few times. Refrigerate the sausage overnight for the most even, well flavored result.
Forming and Cooking
- Pack the sausage into a loaf pan or another mold. For a circular shape you can wrap it in cheesecloth and poach in salted chicken stock or use an oven-safe jar.
- Cover the pan with a lid, or use a layer of parchment and foil. After forming or packing into the mold, allow the sausage to come to room temperature for an hour.
- Preheat an oven to 300. Bake the sausage in a pan of water that comes ¾ of the way up the pan. cooking until the sausage until it reaches 150 internal temperature when probed with a thermometer in the center.
- Cooking times can vary depending on your mold. Take the temperature after 45 minutes and then check every 15 minutes after until done.
- Remove the loaf pan and cool in a pan of cold water, then refrigerate or freeze until needed.
- You can also sous vide the sausage at 150 F for 2 hours.
Notes
Nutrition
Braunschweiger freezes and thaws very well because it contains fat. Wrap it in butcher paper or vacuum seal it before freezing. Allow it to come to room temperature before slicing.
Liverwurst and many things made with organ meats are good for you. These products are nutrient dense and a great source of iron and B-vitamins, especially b12. That said, people who suffer from gout should limit their intake of organ meats.
Essentially these are two different names for the same thing. Both are liver-based charcuterie of German origin.
Stephanie
Being raised by German folks (northeast), this sounds more like the Laberkase that I love so much! I go pick up my home-raised pig from the butcher today (fresh, not frozen), so I plan on making this!
Jeff
Can bear liver be used...a fall of the year bear?
Alan Bergo
Yes bear will work. I would make sure to soak the liver before hand for a day or two. Smell it and make sure it smells clean and fresh.
Jeff
Could the mixture be put into each 'cup' of a cupcake or muffin pan, immersed 3/4 deep in water and baked? Then frozen and individual liverwurst 'muffin' forms could be served for each eating event.
Alan Bergo
Yes
Joe Wagner
This looks really good, and I would like to make it, but I want to use the loaf pan method.
Can you be more specific about the technique? I'm fine with steps 1 & 2 of the instructions, but can't translate the "cool salt water" and "ice water bath" parts.
Thanks for your patience with a newbie,
Joe
Alan Bergo
Sorry if that was confusing. There's a lot of different ways this can be done and I like the circular shape, but I can see that a loaf pan will be a lot easier for most people. I adjusted the recipe to clarify it a bit, I'm here if you have more questions.
Joe Wagner
Very clear now, many thanks.
Joe
Joy
Can you do this using chicken livers ? A lot of chicken livers? And you never answered the question about if you can substitute lard for fat?
Alan Bergo
Yes you can use chicken livers. Do not use lard as it will ruin it.
Hailey
Does this recipe yield a soft spreadable braunschweiger? Or is it more firm? At Christmas time my grandmother would mix braunschweiger with cream cheese and dill and serve it with crackers. I'm looking to replicate this.
Alan Bergo
Hi Hailey! It's on the firm side, but a little softer than sausage. You could buzz it with cream cheese if you have a food processor, but it won't be spreadable as is.
SHAWN CONAWAY
That sounds delicious!
Kurt Anderson
Regarding the braunschweiger recipe. You call for browning the liver first. Are you just browning the outside leaving the inside raw/rare? How far to take the doneness?
Alan Bergo
You’ll be cooking again so it doesn’t matter. Mine is usually slightly pink on the inside after browning but getting a good crust is the important part that adds flavor. Don't worry about the doneness.
Heather
I've rendered all my pig fat into lard. Would lard be a suitable substitute for the fat here? I also have plain ground pork on hand. Would love to try making this.
Alan Bergo
You could use fatty ground pork. The pork fat is kind of important for the best texture, but if all you have is ground pork you'll get a similar product at the end.