Michi
I dislike attempts to rewrite history
It's fairly involved, but worth it. I can't find any good recipe in English, so I'm writing this up. This is for a traditional Bavarian meatloaf ("Leberkäse", which literally means "liver cheese", but contains neither liver nor cheese. Go figure…)
Here it is, before and after baking:
You will need a meat grinder, plus a food processor that can take some abuse. (The kind with two or three large curved blades.) It needs to be strong enough to turn a kilogram of meat into a thick and very fine paste.
Meat:
Spices:
"Kuttern" (blending):
Once you start to blend the meat, you need to move reasonably quickly to avoid things getting too warm. (The friction from the blending generates heat.) Have a fast-reading thermometer at hand and check the temperature occasionally. It must not exceed 12 ºC at any time (ideally, it should never go above 8 ºC or so). If things get too warm, stick the mixture back into the freezer for a few minutes.
Put the meat into the food processor and blend for a minute or so until you have something that's very finely ground. Then add about half the ice and the spices and blend at high speed. The meat will emulsify and start to form a very fine and thick paste that is very sticky and uniform in texture. While blending, gradually add the remainder of the ice. (Remember to check the temperature occasionally.)
Once you have something that's really gooey (like very thick and very sticky mud that stretches like a yeast dough), put the mixture into a greased rectangular baking dish or greased disposable aluminium container. The dish should hold a little over a litre. Avoid getting air bubbles into the mix. (Butchers take a big handful of the stuff and literally slam it into the dish to avoid trapping air.) Smooth the top with wet hands and decorate by making a diamond pattern with the back of a knife.
Bake at 150 ºC for 60–90 minutes. (Time depends somewhat on the shape of the dish.) The meatloaf is ready once you get 70 ºC core temperature. Towards the end, if you don't get some browning on the top, turn the heat up a little.
Cut up into slices and serve with Bavarian sweet mustard, a salad and Brezen. Bavarian-style potato salad is traditional (no mayonnaise!), but you can actually eat it with other kinds of salad without incurring any truly negative side effects
For the mustard, Händlmaier is heads and shoulders the best:
https://www.amazon.com/Händlmaiers-Sweet-Bavarian-Mustard-13-4/dp/B003U28EHG?th=1
If you can't get that particular brand, another Bavarian sweet mustard will do, but won't be as nice. Look for Weisswurstsenf, which is a seeded, slightly sweet style that is normally eaten with Münchner Weisswurst (soft pork sausage).
Here is a good video (in German) that shows the entire process, both at a commercial butcher and at home.
You can see the consistency you are shooting for starting at 2:45 and again at 3:10. If you find that the paste during blending gets too thick, you can add a very small amount of iced water, 10 ml at a time. (Be careful with this, the mixture goes from too thick to soupy quite quickly.)
Here it is, before and after baking:
You will need a meat grinder, plus a food processor that can take some abuse. (The kind with two or three large curved blades.) It needs to be strong enough to turn a kilogram of meat into a thick and very fine paste.
Meat:
- 300 g pork shoulder
- 200 g lean beef
- 200 g pork belly without rind
- 100 g pork back fat
Spices:
- 2 g pink curing salt #1
- 18 g salt
- 2.5 g ground white pepper
- 0.25 g ground cardamom
- 0.5 g ground coriander seed
- 0.25 g ginger powder
- 0.75 g ground mace
- 5 g finely grated fresh onion
- 4 g baking powder or 2 g phosphate
"Kuttern" (blending):
- 200 g finely shaved ice (consistency almost like snow)
Once you start to blend the meat, you need to move reasonably quickly to avoid things getting too warm. (The friction from the blending generates heat.) Have a fast-reading thermometer at hand and check the temperature occasionally. It must not exceed 12 ºC at any time (ideally, it should never go above 8 ºC or so). If things get too warm, stick the mixture back into the freezer for a few minutes.
Put the meat into the food processor and blend for a minute or so until you have something that's very finely ground. Then add about half the ice and the spices and blend at high speed. The meat will emulsify and start to form a very fine and thick paste that is very sticky and uniform in texture. While blending, gradually add the remainder of the ice. (Remember to check the temperature occasionally.)
Once you have something that's really gooey (like very thick and very sticky mud that stretches like a yeast dough), put the mixture into a greased rectangular baking dish or greased disposable aluminium container. The dish should hold a little over a litre. Avoid getting air bubbles into the mix. (Butchers take a big handful of the stuff and literally slam it into the dish to avoid trapping air.) Smooth the top with wet hands and decorate by making a diamond pattern with the back of a knife.
Bake at 150 ºC for 60–90 minutes. (Time depends somewhat on the shape of the dish.) The meatloaf is ready once you get 70 ºC core temperature. Towards the end, if you don't get some browning on the top, turn the heat up a little.
Cut up into slices and serve with Bavarian sweet mustard, a salad and Brezen. Bavarian-style potato salad is traditional (no mayonnaise!), but you can actually eat it with other kinds of salad without incurring any truly negative side effects
For the mustard, Händlmaier is heads and shoulders the best:
https://www.amazon.com/Händlmaiers-Sweet-Bavarian-Mustard-13-4/dp/B003U28EHG?th=1
If you can't get that particular brand, another Bavarian sweet mustard will do, but won't be as nice. Look for Weisswurstsenf, which is a seeded, slightly sweet style that is normally eaten with Münchner Weisswurst (soft pork sausage).
Here is a good video (in German) that shows the entire process, both at a commercial butcher and at home.
You can see the consistency you are shooting for starting at 2:45 and again at 3:10. If you find that the paste during blending gets too thick, you can add a very small amount of iced water, 10 ml at a time. (Be careful with this, the mixture goes from too thick to soupy quite quickly.)
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