One of the great mysteries around Kings Mountain, North Carolina back in the Peggy's Restaurant days was always why the livermush biscuits at Peggy's tasted so much better. The answer might surprise you. Here's how you can make your own.
Ingredients
- ▢ — 1 lb livermush (we used Mack's at Peggy's Restaurant)
- ▢ — 8 biscuits
Instructions
- ▢ — Prepare your biscuits (use our Peggy’s Southern Style Buttermilk Biscuits recipe, or Mary B's frozen buttermilk biscuits).
- ▢ — Slice livermush into 8-10 pieces.
- ▢ — Deep fry livermush in a deep fryer (such as a FryDaddy) until pieces begin to float. They have a nice, dark crust.
- ▢ — Remove livermush and drain off oil, pat dry with a paper towel.
- ▢ — Serve each piece on a sliced biscuit with mayonnaise on the bottom (it's only authentic with Duke's) and yellow mustard on the top.
- ▢ — Now you've made yourself a Peggy's Restaurant livermush biscuit!
Nutrition
( Livermush + Biscuit )
- Calories 291
- Total Fat 12.3 g
- — Unsaturated Fat 11 g
- — Saturated Fat 3.9 g
- Cholesterol 74 mg
- Sodium 765 mg
- Carbohydrates 34.9 g
- — Net Carbs 33 g
- — Fiber 1.9 g
- — Sugars 1.25 g
- Protein 12.12 g
Nutrition
( One 2 oz slice Livermush )
- Calories 89
- Total Fat 4 g
- — Unsaturated Fat N/A
- — Saturated Fat 1 g
- Cholesterol 59 mg
- Sodium 308 mg
- Carbohydrates 9 g
- — Net Carbs 8 g
- — Fiber 1 g
- — Sugars 0 g
- Protein 8 g
So… What Is Livermush?
It’s quite possible some of you don’t even know what livermush is. Livermush is a Southern food product composed of pig liver, head parts, and cornmeal, most commonly spiced with pepper and sage. In our neck of the woods in the foothills of North Carolina (or more specifically in Kings Mountain, where Mama Peggy was from and Peggy’s Restaurant operated), livermush was thought as a Southern delicacy.
But the truth is, it originates in the Carolinas. Shelby, North Carolina, the city just west of Kings Mountain, hosts the annual NC Liver Mush Festival and is home to two of best known brands of livermush, Mack’s (which was used at Peggy’s Restaurant) and Jenkins. Marion, North Carolina, which is about 40 miles northwest of Shelby, hosts its own Marion Livermush Festival.
Livermush is typically pan fried, but at Peggy’s Restaurant it was deep fried in what we called the fry-o-later (an industrial deep fryer). Deep frying gives the livermush the delicious outer crust that most folks who has them associated with a Peggy’s Restaurant livermush biscuit. You don’t have to eat livermush on a biscuit, though. It’s just at home taking the place of bacon or sausage on any Southern breakfast plate of eggs and grits.
Just for the record, the only people who think livermush is “similar to scrapple” are Yankees. Similar in concept, maybe, but vastly different in result. Most Southerners won’t touch scrapple, no way, no how.
Patty Brown
October 3, 2021 11:07 amLiver mush is indeed the “poor man’s pate”... I wish more people knew how to fry it correctly and that it tastes so good….
0 0 | Reply