Liver pâté

Scandinavia

Liver pâté is a popular food item in Scandinavia, where it is known as Leverpostej (Denmark), Leverpostei (Norway) and Leverpastej (Sweden). It is made from a mixture of pork liver, lard, onion, flour, egg, salt, pepper and spices, poured into a loaf pan and then baked in the oven. The liver is usually finely ground, but coarsely ground variations are also made. Typical spices includes allspice and some recipes also includes a small amount of cured anchovy. In Norway, leverpostei is made with a bit of pork meat.

Leverpostej is served with bread in a variety of ways. It is served both hot and cold and can be bought premade in supermarkets, butchershops and delikatessen.

A popular everyday version is to spread cold leverpostej on a slice of rugbrød (Danish dark wholemeal rye bread) and eat it as an open faced sandwich. Swedes often use it on crispbread. It may be topped with a variety of accompaniments, such as pickled beets or cucumbers, raw onions, fried onions, fried bacon or fresh slices of cucumber. In Sweden, fresh cucumber and a bit of dill is sometimes used. More extravagant variations include the smørrebrød known as Dyrlægens natmad.

Warm servings of leverpostej are had with either rugbrød or white bread and is traditionally accompanied by pickled beets or gherkins and either fried bacon or sautéed mushrooms.

In Denmark, leverpostej was introduced in 1847 by the Frenchman François Louis Beauvais in Copenhagen. At that time it was considered a luxury dish, and was expensive. Today, it is a common and most affordable food item. In two 1992 surveys, Danes ranked leverpostej as their favorite sandwich topping. Stryhn's is one of the main producers in Denmark with 85,000 units produced daily. The company was established in 1945 on the isle of Amager, south of Copenhagen. For the past few decades, their Stryhns brand has been the most popular leverpostej in Denmark. In Denmark, leverpostej is almost always sold in aluminium trays, this way it can go right in the oven to be served hot if preferred by the consumer.