Pioneers

While looking through my (scant) collection of cookbooks for a suitable recipe for minute steaks, I came upon this recipe for Old-Fashioned Liver Sausage in (where else?) the Sesquicentennial Cookbook from West Bend. It was submitted by Helen Anliker and it just amazes me what people used to have to do for food. Absolutely nothing was wasted - they would use everything but the "oink".

I have copied it directly as written by Helen. I could not make this up....

"Pioneers
(Old-Fashioned Liver Sausage)

Pig hocks
Head meat
Tongue
Liver (do not boil liver too much or it becomes dry and hard)
Soup bones
Ears
Heart

Cook until well done, cool and remove from bones. Grind in meat grinder and season with salt and pepper. Other seasonings may be added if desired (minced onion and garlic to suit taste). Add the liquid or broth from meat after it has cooled and fat skimmed off. Put meat in clean, washed jars and process in pressure cooker to 15 pounds for 30 minutes for pints and 60 minutes for quarts (like canned beef). This was canned until freezers became available and now it is frozen in freezer boxes. (They still make this stuff?!)

This recipe was from Helen Anliker's grandparents and parents, Fred and Karoline and Ernst and Ella Metzger. When the winter butchering was done of several hogs and beef, it was a good way to use up all parts of the meat before we had freezers. Fred Metzger was born in Illinois in 1885 and lived north of West Bend in about 1900."

Talk about your "eat local"! Think about that the next time you've got a roll of liver sausage in your shopping cart.