Super Kitchen Machine (Thermomix)

Gretchen in Queensland wanted to prove that it’s possible to make traditional liverwurst at home with Thermomix. She spent weeks sourcing the fresh pigs liver from local butchers, and was the first Thermomix fan to jump on board with the LOL project (Lovers of Liverwurst).

Gretchen says: “The texture in my experiments was a bit odd with liver bits being soft and spreadable and the pork being firm. I feel all three trial versions were far too coarse. The flavour was very nice and I liked it but the texture still needs improving, so I’ve adjusted for this in the recipe below by processing the pork more.  The flavour is great but you can play with the spices for sure. Was nothing like a crappy manufactured liverwurst but nice as a homemade full of flavour terrine type of thingy. I would do it again but really it needs more work and input from other Thermomix fans to improve texture.”

Gretchen’s Thermomix Liverwurst
(recipe and photos by Gretchen)

800 g pork shoulder cut in small chunks
200 g pork liver cut in larger chunks
300 g onion (about 2 large cut in quarters)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp marjoram
¼ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp allspice

• Make sure your Thermomix blades are sharp. If necessary, chop some ice first to sharpen them.
• Freeze pork and liver for about an hour.
• Drop onions into Thermomix through the top on speed on 7. Remove onion flesh and squeeze out excess liquid.
• In small batches put liver in TMX for 15- 20 seconds on speed 7. Remove and set aside.
• In small batches put pork in TMX  for  1 -2 minutes on speed 8.

The length of time needed for processing depends on how coarse or fine you want your liverwurst. Since this was my first attempt I processed for less time (only about one minute) as you can see in the pictures. Next  time I will process  the pork for about 2 minutes.

• Chuck it all back into the TMX, add the spices.  Mix for one minute on speed 5 with REVERSE.
• For testing of cooking techniques, I then divided the liver mixture into thirds. First I removed 1/3 of mixture and rolled it into a log as you can see in the picture. I wrapped it three times in plastic wrap.
• With the next 1/3  I  just made a squarish patty , wrapped it in plastic twice before placing it in to Ziploc bag.
• The next 1/3 I processed in TMX another 2 minutes, put it into a dish, placed baking paper on top then put that dish into another. I Poured boiling water up to abut ½ the height of the first dish and put them into the oven for 1.5 hours on 150 c. Perfect!
• I put the rolled log in the Varoma. The square package I put in the basket. I added about 1.4 litres of water and  set the TMX for one hour on Varoma and speed 1. Also perfect.

It made no difference in the way they were cooked at all.  Since I processed the oven-baked one more its texture was more to my palate. In any case I proved that the liverwurst can be done in the Thermomix which was the whole point.

Helene says: Great job Gretchen — thank you! You’ve done a lot of work here so that other liverwurst lovers can have more fun with Thermomix. Maybe someone will have ideas to build on what you’ve started here…