What would be the result of using chicken livers when making liverwurst?
Is liver just liver or is there some basic difference in beef, swine, chicken. If I take a liverwurst recipe and use chicken liver instead of pork am I gong to get the same results within + or - 10%. Is liver from a shoat the same taste as a 60 kg sow?
Best Answer
Let me do a breakdown of the typical ingredients of liverwurst ("Leberwurst") roughly based on food laws in Germany (aka liverwurst country):
- roughly 10% - 30% (sometimes up to 40%) liver:
mostly pork because it's cheapest, using partly veal or poultry is more expensive but tastewise no big difference. - muscle meat and bacon, again typically pork, but beef, veal and poultry is also used either alone or as add-in.
- usually a generous amount of spices.
The liver is influencing taste and texture, but the used regular meat and especially the spices play a big role, too. Using a "too dominant" liver or too much in total can be overwhelming, but there's no accounting for taste. While pork, veal and poultry livers are comparatively "mild" and can be used interchangeably (or as you said, the results will be in your +/- 10% range), beef liver has a tendency to make the liverwurst bitter, so it's use is not recommended.
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What do chicken livers do?
Its primary function in digestion and absorption is the production of bile. Bile facilitates the solubilization and absorption of dietary fats and the excretion of certain wastes.Is liverwurst chicken liver?
Liverwurst is popular in Europe as a lunchtime treat. It is basically a sausage made of liver and seasonings and can be spread or sliced onto bread. This recipe calls for pork liver, pork butt, and pork fat; the mixture is ground together and then placed in a muslin casing and simmered for several hours.What liver is liverwurst made out of?
(b) \u201cLiver Sausage\u201d or \u201cLiverwurst\u201d is a cooked sausage made from fresh, cured, and/or frozen pork, beef, and/or veal and at least 30 percent pork, beef, veal, sheep, and/or goat livers computed on the weight of the fresh livers. It may also contain pork and/or beef byproducts.Do you need to rinse chicken livers before cooking?
To prevent them from tasting bitter and to make sure they cook properly, it's important to clean them correctly before you cook them. Soaking the livers in cold water and then removing any connective tissue will give you clean livers that are ready to cook.Liverwurst: How to Eat More Liver
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Answer 2
Every recipe and article I've seen implies that there are only two options for traditional, German-style liverwurst.
- Pork (more common)
- Beef (usually calves' liver)
From Wikipedia:
Liverwurst usually contains pigs' or calves' livers. Other ingredients are meat (notably veal), fat, and spices including ground black pepper, marjoram, allspice, thyme, ground mustard seed, or nutmeg.
That being said, liverwurst is, essentially, a type of pâté (the French term)... of which the most iconic is, arguably, goose liver pâté or "pâté de foie gras":
The most famous pâté is probably pâté de foie gras, made from the livers of fattened geese.
Other regional versions include chicken livers:
In Russia and Ukraine, the dish is mostly prepared with beef, goose or chicken liver and thus is commonly known as ?????????? ?????? (Russian, pechyonochniy pashtet), however other meats also can be used.
So, it seems that it's up to you to decide what liver you want to be based on your taste preferences and how traditional you want to be.
As to your secondary question, none of the articles I could find specifically mention the age of the pig, though it's common to use veal liver if using beef instead of pork.
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