Chopped liver or liver sausage

[ssorllih]

For several years I have been making and canning chopped chicken liver as a cracker spread. I put it up in quarter pints and process it as for pints of meat. There are no approved recipes for canning liver although in years past "The Joy Of Cooking" cookbook contained instruction for canning sliced liver. This time when I made it I included .2% cure#1 in the seasonings to help with the color and to inhibit and chance of botulism. Does anyone see any fault with this method?

 

[daveomak]

0.2% cure #1.... That comes out to about 0.9 grams / pound.... that's about right....
The cure needs to be added to the meat a day or three before processing... That allows it to work.... Do you grind or cube or dice the liver.... What is your process.....
I would think, dicing and adding cure, then grind and then the refer rest would work.... That should insure complete and thorough mixing of the cure into the meat... maybe.....

 

[ssorllih]

I mix all of my salt, cure and spice together and add it to the mince. In this work I used a food processor to grind the cooked meat and liver and then mixed with a hand held electric mixer with the mixture in a bowl. I added cooking stock to reach the texture I wanted and then added the salt/spice mixture by spoonful's to get the taste right. The meat/liver mix was 22 ounces of cooked chicken drum meat and 48 ounces of poached liver. I ended up using only 2/3rds of the salt/spice mix.

 

[daveomak]

Sounds good, as long as everything was allowed to cool before any cure was added... Poach, saute, etc.... combine the cure with cool stock or what ever, then add to the cool mix and grind, chop, blend and refer.... Cure starts to "break down' or something like that at around 130 deg. F.. Cure #1 works best at somewhere around 38-41 deg. F....

FWIW, cure MUST be added to cool meats etc....

SS, morning..... That mix sounds really good.... My mom made chopped chicken liver appetizers that were awesome.... sauted with onions and stuff and hard boiled eggs added..... OF COURSE all her recipes were secret.... I told her she would never see flowers on her grave if she took the recipes with her when she went..... She know that was kr@p and laughed at me and low and behold..... she took the recipes with her.... She gets flowers and more..... Oh well.... I probably couldn't do her recipe justice anyway...
Do you add schmaltz to that mix.... You are making me hungry......

Dave

 

[ssorllih]

Sodium nitrite breaks down to release nitrous  oxide and that is the active function of the cure. Yes I use schmaltz. I cringe everytime I hear about someone throwing chicken fat away.

 

[daveomak]

If you want to share your recipe, anywhere here is fine..... or you can PM it to me......

Thanks, Dave

 

[ssorllih]

Ok. Here is the chopped liver recipe as this batch was made and as I wrote it in my note book.

Boneless skinless chicken leg meat cooked in plain water. Chicken liver poached without boiling in the water the legs are cooked in.

Equal parts or 3 parts liver to 2 parts meat. 1.4% salt and .14% black pepper, marjoram and cure#1. one onion for every 2 pounds of mix.

Mill or grind very finely the meat and liver and blend them, Mince the onion and sauté in chicken fat or lard until translucent blend into the meat/liver mix. I use my electric hand mixer to blend in the spice/salt mix and added stock for texture. Taste after each addition of spice. I started out with a calculated 2% salt and stopped when the taste was right and weighed the remainder of the mix to calculate how much I actually used.

The chicken legs that I used were bone in skin on from my freezer, cooked until I could strip the skin and bones from the meat and continue cooking the bones. The cold stock can be cut into cubes it is so rich. 

 

[daveomak]

Thanks much..... Printed and headed for the SMF Recipes file..... Darn good recipes on this forum.... They are all taste tested....


Dave

 

[venture]

I would just point out Dave's advice to let the cure work at a proper temp before continuing with the process.

Good luck and good smoking.