Liverwurst

[Hal380]

Hello All;

Just joined and this is my first post.

I have made Italian sweet sausage with success, so I tried liverwurst. I had a good recipe and followed it closely, but the results were terrible. When I ground the pork it was very moist, almost liquid. I stuffed it in the I stuffed it in the muslin and simmered it for the required time and then chilled it overnight in ice water. When I tried it the texture was very granular. Liverwurst should be very smooth, but this was very crumbled.

Any Ideas what I did wrong?

Thanks in advance

Hal

[wheels]

Welcome to the forum Hal.

It could have been too hot when you ground it - among many other things. Could you post the recipe and method so we have more idea of what you did.

Phil

[Hal380]

Hello Wheels;

Here is the recipe:

If you love liverwurst as much as I do, you might want to try your hand at making your own at home. The most difficult part of this recipe may be finding pork liver these days. Contact a local independent butcher who should be able to order it for you if your local grocery stores do not carry it.
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cook Time: 3 hours
Ingredients:
1 pound fresh pork liver, cubed
3/4 pound lean pork butt, cubed
1/4 pound pork fat, cubed
1 large sweet white onion, about 1-1/2 cups, finely diced
3 Tablespoons powdered dry milk
1 teaspoon freshly fine ground white pepper
1-1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1/2 teaspoon finely ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon mace
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
Preparation:
You will need a piece of unbleached muslin about twelve inches long and eight inches wide. As an alternative, you can use large collagen casings.

Fold the muslin lengthwise and tightly stitch a seam across one of the short ends and continue along the open side. Keep the stitching about an eighth of an inch from the edge of the material. The short side of the seam can be curved in a semicirle to give the finished product a rounded end. Turn the casing inside out so that the stitching is on the inside. Set it aside until you are ready to stuff it.

Put the cubes of liver, pork, and fat through the fine disk or the grinder separately and then mix and grind together. Sprinkle the onion, powdered milk, pepper, salt, paprika, sugar, marjoram, coriander, mace, allspice, and cardamom over the ground meat and mix thoroughly with your hands. Put the mixture through the fine blade of the grinder twice more, chilling the mixture for half and hour between grindings.

Pack the mixture into the muslin casing. It helps to fold the open end down over itself to get things started. This makes it easier to reach the bottom. Pack the meat as firmly as possible. Stitch the open end closed or firmly secure it with a wire twist tie.

In a large kettle, bring enough water to a boil to cover the liverwurst by two or three inches. Put the sausage in the boiling water and place a weight on it to keep it submerged. Two or three large dinner plates work just fine. When the water returns to a boil, reduce heat so that the water barely simmers. Cook for three hours. Drain out the hot water and replace it with an equal quantity of ice water. When the liverwurst has cooled, refrigerate it overnight, and them remove the muslin casing.

Store the liverwurst sausage in the refrigerator and eat it within 10 days.

Thanks for your reply

Hal

[Oddley]

welcome to the forum Hal380.

It seems you suspect the pork. Read the following and see if it applies. If so you have the answer.

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopi ... =2460#2460

[Zulululu]

Apart from meat quality I would check on temperatures when grinding, too high temperature and over grinding will also create similar problems.Personally I would grind course first then do the final fine.Under mixing and cooking temperature could also ruin it where your fat would seperate out and give you a dry texture.

[Zulululu]

Sorry forgot there is a good article here on liver sausage.
http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/
Regards,
Zulu

[vagreys]

Hello All;

Just joined and this is my first post.

I have made Italian sweet sausage with success, so I tried liverwurst. I had a good recipe and followed it closely, but the results were terrible. When I ground the pork it was very moist, almost liquid. I stuffed it in the I stuffed it in the muslin and simmered it for the required time and then chilled it overnight in ice water. When I tried it the texture was very granular. Liverwurst should be very smooth, but this was very crumbled.

Any Ideas what I did wrong?

Thanks in advance

Hal

Welcome, Hal. I'd look at the basics, first. Here are some things to check.

Meat should be thoroughly chilled to the point of being stiff, without being frozen through, about 32-36°F, when it goes through the grinder. If possible, it should be kept between 32°F and 38°F throughout processing. Cold meat cuts cleanly, and does not yield much liquid at all. If the meat is not chilled sufficiently, the grinder knives may mash the meat instead of cutting it cleanly, causing the meat to yield much of its liquid and become dry and granular when cooked. This is particularly true of liver, which is a very delicate structure. If the fat is not sufficiently chilled, it will smear and 'break', causing the fat to lose structure and drain away when cooked, leaving the cooked sausage dry and bland, with a granular texture (almost like styrofoam beads ).

Running meat through a grinder causes the grinder and the meat to heat up. The smaller the holes in the grinder plate, the more the meat will heat as it gets forced through the small holes. For this reason, all the parts of your grinder that come in contact with the meat should be thoroughly chilled when grinding starts. This includes the hopper, feedscrew housing and feedscrew, knives, grinder plate, and retention ring.

Also, meat will not grind cleanly if the grinder is not properly assembled. The two most common mistakes people make are putting the knives in backwards (whether from inattention or inexperience, it happens), and failing to tighten the retention ring, sufficiently. People usually know right away that something is wrong if the knives are reversed. The meat feeding through the grinder plate is mashed and the sound of the meat being ground is definitely not the way it sounds when the knives are properly flush against the plate. To cut cleanly, the knives must press firmly and evenly against the plate. If the retention ring is not tight enough so that it will not loosen during grinding, the knives and plate may not be seated properly, which allows meat and sinew to get between the knives and the plate, resulting in mashed meat.

If the liver, meat, fat and grinder were chilled properly, and the grinder was properly assembled, then I'd start looking elsewhere for the poor quality of the finished liverwurst. Perhaps the meat simmered at too high a temperature. Perhaps the recipe called for too long a cooking time. Or perhaps it was the quality of the meat, itself, and you really did have some PSE meat.

ETA: oops. Zulululu and I appear to have been responding at the same time. Sorry for repeating.

[wheels]

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner - most of the things I would have said are covered above.

The only other thing I can think of, that may have caused it would be if it was cooked at too high a temperature. Cooking temp should be around 80°C (175°F ish?).

I hope this helps.

Phil

[vinner]

You could try to emulsify it a bit differently. After the final grind, re-refrigerate until cold, then run in a food processor (in batches if necessary) and then stuff. Let us know if that works for you.

[Zulululu]

No problem. Food processor is the way to go to get it really smooth other wise mix ,mix and mix some more.

[Big Guy]

I had similar results until I ran it through my food processor in batches to emulsify. Be sure to keep it cold, I throw in a couple of ice cubes when whizzing it up.

[beardedwonder5]

In commerce I believe that a special machine is used. Think of a flour mill that uses rotating stones. Now translate the stones ito steel. The steel discs can be set very close. Ice is usd to keep the temp down. Same process for hot dogs, American style bologna, etc..

[Spuddy]

Yes, it's called a Bowl Chopper I believe.

[beardedwonder5]

A bowl chopper is different. Think of a food processor. Now imagine the blades are in the vertical plane, and imagine that they and the bowl within which they rotate can be brought into near contact. And imagine that as the blades rotate vertically the bowl rotates in the horizontal plane. It's efficient, but it's hard to sharpen the blades to the contour of the bowl. For the finest emulsion (I'm probably wrong) the big guys use the emulsifier.

[Spuddy]

A bowl chopper is different.

This is what I was thinking of:



But I can't imagine the other device you describe.
Maybe Richard (Sausagemaker) would know, he's in the business.