Liverwurst is the Best

Mystery Meat: The phrase that conjures up images of cafeteria tray muck and Lisa Simpson's imaginings of what might be contained in hotdogs. Not many people actually know what goes into those tube-shaped meat spreads or pates. Most people would likely rather be happily unaware that they are eating and enjoying organ meats. Offal does have an unfortunate homonym cousin in the English language that gives instant justification for most people to avoid it. Coming from Middle Dutch, offal translates literally as "to fall off," the refuse from a process. The English language picked it up as a way to describe that which falls off the butcher's block. They ate it anyway, long before its 14th century English roots.

One of the simple foods I have missed most from childhood is liverwurst made from beef liver. We seemed to always have that or braunschweiger (another post) in our fridge to have on bread with pickles. Now that I live in the South, it's uncommon to find anyone who knows what it is, unless they've also come from the Midwest or Slavic heritage.

So, I found an excellent Liverwurst recipe and made my first batch last week. It is gone. Today I did a chest freezer deep dive and dug up all the organ meat I had been saving for just such a recipe. This time though, I am going to add beef tongue to the beef liver. The tongue is cooking right now, and my kitchen smells pretty hearty. It is my first time cooking a tongue, although I really started liking its flavor through a local Mexican restaurant dish: taco de lengua. No other taco compares after that.

I have to tell you, it's a good thing I already like it. I'm used to the smell and the texture. But I have to admit, I was not fully prepared for preparing it. I've spared you photos of the process, but suffice it to say that it helps to get into a detached mindset. I have prepared food in a commercial kitchen, so I'm pretty used to having to 'get the job done.' Pulling the outer layer off the tongue and removing the accompanying salivary glands (no one warned me about those!) was not pleasant. In the least. If Julia Child said holding a cooked manicotti was like holding a hot cock, I can't imagine what she'd have to say about holding a just-out-of-its-own-broth beef tongue. *Blush.*

Momentary horrors aside, the rest of the recipe process is very easy, smells Old World aromatic, and is incredibly satisfying. I added cubed tongue so it was about 1/3 of the total amount of meat combined with the liver. If you can, be sure the organs are from pasture-raised cattle. Also, I use beef bone broth in place of the sherry. Liverwurst is an excellent source of iron and Vit B12 ; if you're anemic, make sure you eat this a few times each week. It goes wonderfully well with sweet pickles. We always ate it with an assortment of pickled salads and celery and carrot sticks. I like to garnish the liverwurst with fresh dill and set it out for unsuspecting visitors. I'm happy to tell them what's in it if they ask. For those who don't, I willingly let it remain a mystery.