Meats and Sausages
Saucisse de Foie–Traditionelle (Liver Sausage-Traditional)
French traditional liver sausage made with pork liver and pork back fat. The sausage can be optionally cold smoked what will extend its shelf life.
| Materials | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| Pork liver | 350 g | 0.77 lb |
| Pork back fat | 550 g | 1.21 lb |
| Onions | 40 g | 1.41 oz |
| Whole egg | 60 g | 1 medium egg |
Ingredients per 1000g (1 kg) of materials
| Salt | 16 g | 2.5 tsp |
| Cure #1` | 2.0 g | 1/2 tsp |
| White pepper | 1.0 g | 1/2 tsp |
| Sugar | 1.0 g | 1/4 tsp |
| Mace | 0.3 g | 1/6 tsp |
| Ginger | 0.2 g | 1/8 tsp |
| Cardamom | 0.2 g | 1/8 tsp |
| Cloves | 0.1 g | 1/10 tsp |
| Cinnamon | 0.1 g | 1/10 tsp |
| Thyme | 0.1 g | 1/10 tsp |
Instructions
- Clean liver, if needed. Remove any glands, veins or blood. Soak in cold water for 1 hour. Drain.
- Cut the liver into 12 mm (1/2”) slices. Mix with salt and cure #1, cover and leave overnight in refrigerator.
- Finely chop onions then fry them on low heat in a little fat until glassy and golden.
- Dice fat into 12 mm (1/2”) cubes. Bring water to a slow boil, lower the heat and insert the fat cubes.
- Simmer at 85° C (185° F) for 10 minutes. Drain, but don’t wash.
- Emulsify liver in food processor adding egg and spices until a paste is obtained.
- Grind fat and onions through a fine 2 mm (1/16”) grinder plate.
- Mix liver paste with fat together.
- Stuff into 34-36 mm hog casings.
- Cook in water at 80° C (176° F) for 35 minutes.
- Immerse in cold water for 10 minutes, then place on flat table and let cook in air. Turn over once or twice gently massaging the sausage between your thumb and index finger (make a finger loop).
- Refrigerate. Liver sausage spoils easily and should be consumed within few days.
Notes
Optional step. Traditionally, liver sausages were cooled in water until their temperature dropped to around 18° C (64° F). Then they were pat dry with a cloth and cold smoked at 18° C (64° F) for 4-12 hours. The casings acquired yellowish color and the sausage developed slight smokey flavor. Due to the loss of the moisture the sausage would become more resistant to bacteria and would last longer at room temperature. In the past a home-based sausage maker had to rely on his experience to determine smoking temperature as stem thermometers were not in common use yet.
