Pronounced Liwer-po-stigh it’s a traditional Danish pork liver pâté often served hot on rye bread usually with some form of garnish. Served that, you can add crisp bacon and some pan fried mushrooms to the mix, or cold (as in the shot below) simply onions and pickles.
And forget Redzepi and all the rest of the Danish chef-bros and their Michelin stars and tweezered plates of fine dining hell. This is one of the real stars of Danish cuisine, don’t let anyone persuade you otherwise…
It is a simple liver pâté though — that’s all — so there’s no magic, secret ingredients that make it a particularly Danish dish rather than say French or American or Polish or indeed any country where chopped liver has been made into a paste.
That said, here’s a recipe by a properly Swedish food writer & cook, for (yes, I know), chicken liver pâté, but with added aquavit, so that’s a win, from Guild of Food Writers Awards 2019’s award winning book Copenhagen Food: Stories, Traditions and Recipes by Trine Hahnemann.
For the pâté
1 Tbsp salted butter, plus 250g [1 cup plus 2 Tbsp] more chilled salted butter, cubed
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 whole cloves
1kg [2¼lb] chicken livers, trimmed and halved
10 thyme sprigs
200ml [¾ cup] aquavit
250ml [1 cup] crème fraîche
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add the shallots and cloves and sauté until soft. Add the chicken livers and thyme sprigs and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the aquavit, then increase the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the mixture in the saucepan for 5 minutes. Take out the thyme sprigs and cloves, then transfer the chicken liver mixture to a food processor. Add the 250g [1 cup plus 2 Tbsp] cubed butter and the crème fraîche and blend until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour the pâté mixture into a terrine mould or loaf tin and refrigerate until the next day.
To serve
Lingonberry jam
Rye bread, toasted