Pfälzer Leberknödel

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Meat grinder with small plate or food processor
• •Wide 4 to 5 litre pot
• •Slotted spoon
• •Potato masher

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the bread

   Pour the warm milk over the torn stale rolls and press them down until every dry edge is wet. Stale bread is the binder here; fresh bread turns pasty and heavy, while old bread drinks the milk and later holds the liver juices inside the dumpling. Leave it 10 minutes, then squeeze out only the loose milk, not every drop.

2. 2

   Cook the onion

   Cook the diced onion in 2 tablespoons lard or butter over medium heat until soft and pale gold, about 8 minutes. Don't brown it hard. Sweet onion belongs inside the dumpling, but burned onion brings bitterness that liver does not forgive. Let it cool before mixing so it doesn't warm the meat.

3. 3

   Grind the liver

   Chop or grind the cold liver and pork belly fine, using the small plate of a mincer or short pulses in a food processor. Keep it cold because warm liver smears before it binds, and smeared liver cooks dense. Stop when it is fine but still loose, not whipped into a paste.

   Ask the butcher to grind the liver and pork once if you don't have a mincer. That is a useful shortcut. Dumpling powder is not. Nicht aus dem Glas, and not from the packet either.
4. 4

   Mix and rest

   Mix the liver and pork with the soaked bread, cooled onion, eggs, parsley, marjoram, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Use your hand or a spoon and stop as soon as it holds together, because overworking tightens the protein and gives you a rubber ball. Add breadcrumbs one spoon at a time until the mixture is soft but shapeable, then rest it 15 minutes so the bread and crumbs can swell before you judge it.

5. 5

   Cook a test

   Bring a wide pot of well-salted water to a bare tremble, then shape one small test dumpling with wet hands and lower it in. The water should move around it, not throw it about. If it holds for 10 minutes and feels springy, the mixture is right; if it frays, add another spoon of breadcrumbs to the bowl and rest it 5 minutes more. This little test saves the whole pot.

6. 6

   Poach the dumplings

   Shape 8 large dumplings with wet hands and lower them into the trembling water. Poach them 18 to 22 minutes, turning once, until they float and feel set when lifted with a slotted spoon. Runter mit der Temperatur: boiling hard breaks the outside before the bread starch sets, and the liver turns tight before the centre is done.

7. 7

   Warm the sides

   While the dumplings poach, warm the sauerkraut gently with a ladle of dumpling cooking water. The liquor carries salt and liver flavour, so it belongs in the kraut, not down the sink. Boil the floury potatoes until they fall easily from a knife, drain them well, then mash with the hot milk and butter; floury potatoes make a dry, fluffy mash that can catch the onions and juices.

8. 8

   Finish the plate

   Fry the sliced onions in lard or butter until brown at the edges and soft in the middle. Put sauerkraut on each plate, set two Leberknödel on top, add mashed potatoes alongside, and spoon the onions and their fat over the dumplings. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss: taste the kraut and mash at the end, because the dumplings bring their own salt.

Chef Tips

• •Use very fresh pork liver, and trim away greenish spots, tough tubes, and dry edges. Liver tells the truth quickly; old liver tastes metallic before the onion and marjoram get a word in.
• •The mixture should be softer than meatball mix. If you make it stiff in the bowl, it will be hard on the plate. The test dumpling tells you the truth.
• •Marjoram is not decoration here. It is the herb that makes liver taste clean and warm instead of heavy. Use a fresh packet of dried marjoram if yours smells of cupboard dust.
• •Serve with Riesling, Silvaner, or a dry Pfälzer white. The acid in the wine and the kraut cuts the liver and pork fat, which is why the plate works.
• •Leftover dumplings slice well the next day. Brown the slices in a little lard until the cut faces crisp, then eat them with mustard and rye bread. Weggeworfen wird nichts.

Advance Preparation

• •The dumpling mixture can be made up to 6 hours ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator. Shape after chilling, because a cold mixture is easier to handle and holds its form in the water.
• •Sauerkraut can be warmed a day ahead and reheated gently. It gets better after resting, while the dumplings are best poached the day you serve them.
• •Cooked Leberknödel keep 2 days in the refrigerator. Reheat them gently in broth or slice and brown them in a pan; don't boil them again, because the liver will tighten.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 670g)