Mmmmm, Liverwurst

A post à la The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

Growing up I hated liver. Despised it. I think a good deal of the problem is the way my momma prepared and served it. I won't go into details as I'm sure if you are a liver hater you have more than enough memories without my adding any. I will say that it was my stepfather's favorite meal, served alongside mustard greens, cornbread and black-eyed peas. All with no butter, mind you. It was the driest combination of foods you could put together on a plate.

Anyway, in my teen years, I lived with a foster family and the mother prepared liver very occasionally, but it was much more tolerable prepared by her recipe. First off, she bought baby beef liver (my mother didn't) and she'd boil it in oil with onions. It was actually edible. This woman also loved liverwurst and braunschweiger, which I think are the same thing. Basically it's pork liver, similar to pâté. Now when people hear pâté, they think that's something special. But it's just a meat paste; pâté de foie gras is made from goose liver.

As a child, I vowed I would never buy liver, nor have it in my home. I'm sure I lumped liverwurst in there, too. But when I came to the theory of Nourishing Traditions and Weston A. Price Foundation, and found that liver is considered a superfood, I began to rethink my childhood vow. I still have a hard time eating liver, but I think more often about having it. I also look forward to the times we butcher as liver tastes better fresh.

A couple of months ago, my boss brought in some braunschweiger to share since she can't eat the whole roll by herself and her hubby doesn't care for it. Several of us were lucky enough to partake in the feast of liverwurst sandwiches and I had forgotten how much I really enjoy it. I decided to buy a roll yesterday and I can take it in to share with my boss.

But enough of the tittle-tattle*, on with my post!

First, the cast of characters:
Rye bread, yellow mustard, mayonnaise, Braunschweiger, Muenster cheese and onion.

Slice right through the packaging, oops, I forgot I'm not supposed to use my favorite, recently sharpened knife for cutting meat. Apparently this is the VEGETABLE knife, according to Kev.

I continued slicing after switching to the MEAT knife.

Arrange the slices onto your rye bread.

Slather mayonnaise on top of the liverwurst, then layer some thinly sliced onions. Sweet onions grow very well in Arizona, did you know that? But I digress. On the other slice of bread, squirt out some mustard, then one slice of Muenster. Why Muenster? I don't know, I just thought it would taste good. Then some more onions. Mmmm.

And there you have it: Liverwurst Sandwich on Rye with Muenster and onions.

A slice of pickle goes exceptionally well with this sandwich. This sandwich is amazingly delicious.

I'm going to be a hero at work next Tuesday morning. :-)

Until next time.
*The Word of the Day on August 9th, 2008: tittle-tattle.

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