Recipe: Slaughter Bowl

Rezept: Schlachtschüssel

A dish that preserves the memory of a Franconian-Bavarian tradition—while simultaneously retelling it. Vegetable components such as potatoes and red cabbage take center stage. Pork liver appears only in the finest shavings—a concentrated echo of the original flavors.

"Stefan Frank, Thomas Prosiegel, and I developed the recipe at Sosein. The Schachtschüssel is part of our Franconian-Bavarian culinary identity. An animal is slaughtered on the farm where it lived, and all its parts are used – even those that hardly anyone wants to eat these days, like innards and blood. This very respectful treatment of the animal results in a dish that, with its sauerkraut and potatoes, is very German. Our challenge was to preserve this tradition and also this aroma, this smell, and the memories associated with it, but also to transform them. We serve it in a reformed form, meaning the vegetable side dishes like potatoes and red cabbage are the main textural component. Meat is no longer the main ingredient, but rather a tiny flavoring in the form of a few shavings of pork liver, which gives the dish the full umami flavor of a true Schlachtschüssel."

Ingredients (for 2 people)

Air-dried pork liver

  • 1 liver of a Mangalitza pig
  • coarse rock salt
  • Smoking wood: stored willow or beech wood

Fermented red cabbage

  • 1 head of red cabbage
  • Salt (2% of weight)
  • 200 g butter

Potato

  • 1 medium-sized potato (e.g. Andengold, Kalber Rotstange, Bamberger Hörnla, Mrs. Blush)
  • Salt (2% in cooking water)

preparation

Pork liver (1 year in advance)

Cut the liver into approximately 250g slices, place them on a bed of coarse rock salt, and cover completely. Cure for 24 hours at 2°C, then rinse thoroughly. Dry for two weeks at 2°C with constant air circulation. Then hot smoke with seasoned willow or beech wood and air-dry for one year.

Fermented red cabbage (at least 1 month in advance)

Cut the red cabbage into eighths and layer them in a large jar with 2% salt. Ferment for three weeks at room temperature, shaking gently daily. Then juice the cabbage and finely strain the juice. Reduce the resulting juice by one-third.

Red cabbage sauce

Heat 100g of the reduced red cabbage juice. Combine with 200g of cold butter: gradually stir in the butter cubes without letting the sauce return to a boil.

Potato

Boil the potatoes in salted water, peel and halve.

Serving

Pour 2 tablespoons of red cabbage sauce into a small bowl. Place half a potato in the center. Using a Microplane grater, grate some dried liver over the potato—just a few flakes are enough. Serve immediately.