The Best of the Wurst

One thing I never see in a big way out here is liverwurst. I’d don’t think I’ve ever seen any at a party and I never hear anyone ever say they had a liverwurst sandwich. Even the delis and markets have only a small wurst selection and I never see people buying it.

Maybe because there was a big German population back where I grew up, but any trip to the delicatessen usually had one walking away with a half pound of wurst. It was a taste I developed early in life and I still buy liverwurst probably once every year. It’s one of those things that tastes so good you know it must be bad for you.

It’s funny how tastes change and I’m not all that sure that the health conscious diet is good for the historic culinary culture. Old school practices are falling by the wayside. I can say that the stuff my grandmother used to eat wouldn’t do at all these days. I didn’t even have a taste for it when I was a child. However my mother’s cooking was more conventional to what I would call the norm. My mother wasn’t a great cook, but when she made a meat loaf there were strips of bacon on the top of the loaf. Also any organ meat (heart, liver and kidneys) that came with a turkey ended up in the stuffing, and it was always interesting to find.

The mindset these days is that the organs are the repository of all the bad things that ever enter and never exit an animal. I can see the point and I do understand, however I will still take a chance with an annual purchase of liverwurst.