Leverpostej – Danish Liver Pate

January 2, 2012 by mydanishkitchen

Leverpostej

Making Danish Liver Pate probably got me more excited than any other recipe I have had the pleasure to blog about. You absolutely must experience a warm, home-made Liver Pate. Fresh out of the oven, served with fried mushrooms and bacon or topped with some wonderful pickled beets. This is actually the first time I have made it myself. I have been wanting to make it for the past 25 years but somehow the thought of making it by myself was always overwhelming. And now that I have finally made my first-ever home-made Liver Pate, I can’t quite figure out what the fuzz was all about.

Leverpostej – Danish Liver Pate

Liver Pate is everywhere in Denmark. It can be found, dare I say, in all self-respecting grocery stores. It is a way of life, as natural as the air we breath. The store-bought Liver Pate is very good but there is something to be said about a home-made Liver Pate and I think it is definitely worth the effort! The Pate can be served cold or warm on an open-faced sandwich often topped with either pickled beets, crispy fried onions, mushrooms, cucumbers or Danish Sky which is basically a beef jello. It can be made plainly with just one topping or it can be quite an elaborate Smørrebrød creation.

Liver Pate is not the most pleasant food to prepare, truth be told, it’s really kinda gross. BUT, the end result is making me feel like I’m in heaven. Let me just say that there are hundreds of different ways you can make Liver Pate. I’ve heard of adding potatoes, apples, anchovies, Bechamel sauce – or not, a lot of spices – or not, high-fat – low-fat, animal fat (called Spæk in Danish) vs just margarine, so there are many, many variations out there. This recipe is the one my Mother and Father uses and I think it’s simply just wonderful. Thanks Mom and Dad for helping me make my first ever Liver Pate! 🙂

My Mom and Dad, Åse and Ove

Please note that when you go to look for the fat (spæk) used in this recipe, it’s not something you’ll typically find sitting in the freezer section at your grocery store. Simply just ask the butcher in the meat department if they can give you a couple of chunks of fat. Often times, they wont even charge you for it 🙂

Ingredients:

For the Bechamel Sauce:

1 deciliter milk (3.4 oz)

4 deciliter water (13.5 oz)

1 extra-large vegetable bouillon cube (10 grams, 3/8 oz)

50 grams margarine (1 3/4 oz)

4-5 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1/4 teaspoon pepper, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

For the Liver mixture:

500 grams Liver ( 1 lb)

80 grams fat (2 7/8 oz)

65 grams smoked bacon (2 1/2 oz)

50 grams onion (2 oz)

3 whole large eggs

Directions:

To make Bechamel sauce: In a saucepan add water and milk. Break-up vegetable bouillon cube into liquid and bring up to warm temperature, turn heat off. In a pan, melt margarine. Add flour and whisk until smooth, continue to cook for 2-3 minutes. Add warm milk/water in 1 cup increments while whisking. Mixture should be like a thick gravy. Add salt, pepper, allspice and nutmeg to taste. If you get lumps in this gravy simply just run it through a sieve. Pour gravy into a covered Tupperware container and allow to cool in refrigerator.

Cut Liver, fat, bacon and onion into 1 inch pieces. Starting with the fat, bacon and onion, either run them through a meat grinder twice or process in a food processor until you have a slightly lumpy mixture. Liver should only go through meat grinder once or add Liver to food processor and blend until pretty smooth. Mix together Liver and fat mixture. Add the 3 whole eggs and cooled Bechamel sauce, stir to combine. Pour into small aluminum forms (I got 4 small forms full) and if freezing cover top tightly with aluminum foil and store in freezer safe bags. When ready to cook Liver Pate, fill an oven-proof dish with warm water 1/2 way up the side of aluminum form. Bake uncovered in oven at 200 degree C (390 degrees F) for 1 hour 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Source: my parents Ove and Åse Frandsen

Posted in Danish, Lunch, Main course, Sauce | Tagged bechamel, Danish, dansk, leverpostej, liver, liver pate, liverwurst, Lunch, pate, rugbrød, sandwich, sauce | 19 Comments

19 Responses

on December 3, 2016 at 20:41 Lynne Powell

I am wanting to make this pate for my husband. He is Danish. He has lived in Australia since 1989 and he really misses the foods from home. I have tried many times to cook foods from Denmark for him. Can you please tell me what type of fat is used for the pate because it is not stated in the recipe and I strive to be as authentic as possible when cooking for him. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Lynne
- on December 5, 2016 at 05:37 mydanishkitchen
  
  Lynne, I don’t think it matters what kind of fat you use, you can even use melted butter or margarine instead of fresh fat. Hope your husband loves the Leverpostej. Merry Christmas.
on August 3, 2015 at 11:55 A Morning in Hirtshals | sashascribe

[…] seeds, with butter and chocolate nut spread. A dish of cucumbers and tomatoes. A plate of leverpostej with bacon crumbles. A tray of five different kinds of cheeses, including blue, gouda, brie, and […]
on March 6, 2012 at 11:09 Pia Hallenberg

Hey – what a totally cool blog! Thanks for doing this. I’ve lived in the US for 20 years and every year around Christmas I brave the “leverpostej” – I use the old recipe from “Froeken Jensen’s Kogebog” and I make several pounds of liver goodness. I freeze the little foil pans with raw leverpostej – then bake them for about an hour, straight from the freezer, when needed. Velbekommen!
- on March 6, 2012 at 19:01 mydanishkitchen
  
  That’s the way to do it. Make a big batch and freeze it 🙂
on March 1, 2012 at 02:10 Didde

Hej Gitte
Hvor er jeg glad for jeg har fundet din blog, jeg bor i Australien og har ikke fået leverpostej i over halvandet år, krise og katastrofe på en gang! Nu skal jeg hve prøvet din opskrift af og se om det er noget jeg kan finde ud af 🙂 har selv synes det har været svært at finde ud af det med at lave dansk mad hernede og der har også været en del trial and error 🙂 men det kommer langsome det hele. Gud hvor jeg savner leverpostej og rullepølse!! Tak for en god blog, håber jeg snart kan finde tid til at lave en omgang leverpostej 🙂
Didde
- on March 1, 2012 at 04:48 mydanishkitchen
  
  Hej Didde,
  Jeg håber du finder tid til det, Leverpostej er jo bare så skønt og det er slet ikke så svært når først du har lavet det en gang og du får ligesom føelsen for det. Jeg er glad for at du kan lide bloggen, mange tak for de søde ord.
  Gitte
on February 17, 2012 at 23:11 Shea Kamp

Im American married to a Dane. I was introduced liverpostej while living in DK and was hooked. Now we live in Beijing and your recipe is in the oven. Love your blog.
- on February 18, 2012 at 06:15 mydanishkitchen
  
  Ohh I hope you love it. I think Liver Pate is one of those few traditional foods that is not an acquired taste, everyone seems to love it from the get go. I still have one saved in the freezer. Very tempted to thaw it out this weekend 🙂
on January 24, 2012 at 10:51 Joanna

I’m so excited to make my first baked liver pate too! I think I’ve waited at least as long as you too 🙂 It will be for friends in from germany and locally in dublin. Thank you
- on January 25, 2012 at 06:00 mydanishkitchen
  
  I am so glad I could be of some help 🙂
on January 5, 2012 at 23:47 Christina

You know I have never had liver pate? Crazy i know! I will have to give this recipe a try! 🙂
on January 4, 2012 at 07:49 Julie M.

My mom loves liver and we ate it quite often growing up. I don’t eat liver pate often, but when I do it’s always worth it. I think I’ll give your homemade version a go and have my mom over for a true Scandinavian treat (she’s half Swedish). It’s been a great year and I’ve loved getting to know you better. I’m looking forward to sharing more with you in the new year!
- on January 4, 2012 at 19:42 mydanishkitchen
  
  Thank you Julie, I have enjoyed getting to know you as well. I love visiting your food blog, You always have some really delicious and interesting recipes 🙂
on January 3, 2012 at 21:52 Polwig

I was wodering what type of a liver you usually use? Poles make similar one, maybe not similar tasting with chicken liver. I think theirs has some bread crumbs involved but not sure. You are making me hungry. I do not like liver at all but always love very good prepared pate, as long as I can’t taste too much of the liver 😉
- on January 4, 2012 at 04:17 mydanishkitchen
  
  I think I used pork liver for this pate, but probably chicken livers are the mildest.
on January 2, 2012 at 11:50 Sid

I remember well the moment when the Leverpostej was brought in during one of our lengthy luncheons, borne triumphantly by my mother or brother and with a thick layer of fried mushrooms on top. Heaven. I’ve never tried making it myself, but maybe I should. I do love my leverpostej with a little pickled beet or sky on top. Darn, now I’m getting hungry, again. Thanks for posting your recipe.
on January 2, 2012 at 07:32 Lise

love it, I made my first liverpostej this week to take to our Summer House in south Australia. I used chicken livers and left over lard from Xmas eve (duck & pork). I didn’t have any port to flavour it, so I added a little Drambuie and lots of pepper and salt. Dressed with mushrooms, it was devoured in moments when it hit the table with my Australian friends.
on January 2, 2012 at 05:42 Mette

A def must try,,,, I tend to use chicken livers only because the flavour is not too intense… I have even been lucky enough to find a butcher that makes smoked spec and is a must if you can find it. Thank you for the inspiration, it has been a while but will def have to try your recipe.