Emily Epley didn’t come to the North Carolina Liver Mush Festival in 2008 for a bite of the local delicacy. The Virginia native, who hadn’t heard of livermush until meeting her Charlotte-born husband, was taking her 3-year-old son to the town of Shelby’s favorite fall festival for the costume parade.
Attendees enjoyed fried livermush sandwiches with mustard, mayonnaise, or grape jelly from Mack’s Liver Mush & Meats, Jenkins Foods, or Frank C. Corriher Beef and Sausage, all family businesses that have been making livermush since the 1930s. Curious visitors grabbed a sample of the dish beneath the neon marquee at Shelby Cafe, which, at 102 years old, is thought to be the oldest restaurant in the county.
As the Epleys walked around and mingled with neighbors, their son, Andrew — dressed as Cookie Monster — went up to a table lined with blocks of Mack’s livermush to order a bite for his dad. The boy was unaware that he was about to make his national television debut.
Andrew Zimmern, host of Bizarre Foods, handed him a foil-wrapped sandwich and shook his hand. The boy quickly passed the meal to his father, eliciting a laugh from the food journalist and Mack’s staff. “Do you like livermush sandwiches?” Zimmern asked. Andrew shyly shook his head no.
Sixteen years later, Epley, now the travel and tourism director for Cleveland County, remembers this day well. The festival made the episode — as did Cookie Monster and a clip of Mayor Ted Alexander calling livermush “Piedmont pâté” — but locals didn’t need a television show to know that they’d created and preserved something special.
Let’s get one thing straight: It’s not really mush. Livermush is a carefully cultivated blend of pork products, cornmeal, and seasonings that’s become a sacred bite in the Foothills. But the 19th-century Germans who settled in and around Cleveland County weren’t thinking about modern sensitivities when they named it. They were thinking about survival, a sentiment that has defined Appalachia and its people for centuries.
Over the years, livermush has sustained mountain communities. The dish finally got the thanks it deserved in 1985, when the original owner of Mack’s Liver Mush held the first livermush festival. Today, his grandson Ron McKee runs Mack’s and supplies a few hundred pounds of his most popular product for the recipe contest, the livermush-eating contest, and the Chopped-style cooking contest.
The festival has grown to celebrate not just livermush but also those who love it and who support their families with it. The festival, now called Mush, Music & Mutts, has expanded to include live music, a dog costume contest, and an array of non-livermush food selections. But while you’re there, you might as well give it a try.
NC Liver Mush Festival: Mush, Music & Mutts
October 19
Uptown Court Square
Shelby, NC 28150
(704) 484-4750
nclivermushfestival.com
More to Explore: Discover more October events across the state at ourstate.com/calendar.
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