Repaying a Debt – In Blood Sausage
Mar 16th, 2009 | By Hank Shaw | Category: Charcuterie, Recipe, Spanish | Comments | 39 Comments |
I’m from New Jersey, and much of what I learned about how to interact with others I learned from my stepfather Frank. Frank’s main rule was, “always have favors you can collect on, and don’t be afraid to do other people favors.” I do something for you, you return the favor — scratching each other’s back is a way of life. It’s how I roll.
So last fall, when I drove down to Galt to collect a few hundred pounds of Touriga Nacional wine grapes from a Portuguese grower named Ron Silva, I wasn’t shocked when he told me not to worry about money. “No,” he said. “Instead, show me how to make morcella.” No problem, I said.
Morcella. I knew what he meant, although I refer to it mentally by its Spanish name morcilla. My neighbor from Argentina calls it more-SEE-zhuh, my other neighbor from Italy calls it sanguinaccio. Go to Louisiana or France and it’s boudin noir. But the first time I ate this odd delight was in South Africa, as part of a traditional English breakfast. And there it was stripped of any lyrical nicknames: The waiter called it “blood pudding.”
I’d only made morcilla a couple times, with limited success. Many versions are blood and seasonings and that’s it — they are brutal to stuff into casings and were the source of failure whenever I’d been around the process in the past. Besides, to my palate, the blood-only sausages were a bit too cakey; more blood cake and less sausage. They have a weird mouthfeel.
I know. Many of you are saying to yourselves, blood. As an ingredient. In food that you’d eat. I know I glossed over it in the first few graphs of this post, but if you are still reading I thought I’d stop to tell you that first, there is quite a bit of nutrition in blood (especially iron and other minerals), and the addition of blood in a dish will make it seem fattier and richer than it really is. Pork blood will solidify and stay moist, while beef blood becomes crumbly and dry — one more reason why the pig is God’s Gift. And blood is cheap, so if you are on a budget think about it. Finally, blood is also a spectacular binder, much like egg whites. Herein lies the secret to my morcilla.
I began researching blood sausages. Everyone who raises pigs or beeves makes them, it seems. Some are sweet-savory, others just savory. Some have pork fat in them, some a little pork meat, too. Onions seem to be a constant. In European versions, raisins and nuts are common, particularly pine nuts and walnuts. Parsley is almost always around somewhere.
So I decided to make a sausage bound with blood rather than a pure blood sausage. It would have pork shoulder and pork fat, parsley, onions and lots of ground bay leaves. (The recipe is below.)
Fortunately I live in Northern California, where obtaining pork blood is as easy as emailing my local hog farmer, John Bledsoe. I love hearing “no problem,” when I ask him for crazy stuff like, oh, a gallon of pork blood.
I woke up early Saturday, schlepped down to the Davis farmer’s market and picked up my blood, as well as a big slab of pork shoulder. I was eager to repay Ron for the wine grapes — not because I wanted to get it over with, but because I enjoy the interplay of favors that my world once revolved around. This is a life bound more closely to other people than is that lived by those who follow the principle of “neither a borrower nor a lender be.” Sorry Ben, I just don’t agree, at least when it doesn’t involve money.
I also enjoy teaching others some of the more esoteric things I’ve learned in my travels. (Thus this blog.) Even better, I learned when Ron and his wife Kathy arrived that Ron is a total morcella hound. “Morcella, morcella, morcella,” Kathy said. “When we were in the Azores, we’d go to Michelin-starred restaurants and he’d find the morcella.”
I think Ron was hoping I’d make more than five pounds, as he is a hearty eater. But all my recipes are about five pounds, and blood sausage is so rich non-farmers typically can’t eat too much at a sitting. But Ron was OK with it: I was teaching him to fish at the same time I was giving him some. At any rate, he watched the process intently.
Morcilla is an odd sausage to make. Instead of a solid bind that you want with a normal sausage, you pour in enough blood to make a loose slurry. It looks like the leftovers from a field hospital during the War of Independence.
At least the slurry is solid enough that I can use a regular sausage-stuffer to form the links, although you must tie-off those links with string; they are too loose to hold if you just twist them like a regular sausage. Another step you need to take is to poach the raw links in 175 degree water. Not a simmer, and definitely not a boil (the blood will curdle. Ew.), but hot enough to solidify the blood to make a firm sausage.
After the poaching, you can then do what you want. I smoked mine over almond wood, but you can then fry them, grill them, drop a few into a soup — whatever. They are delicious: Softer than a regular sausage but still meaty, with a taste you can only really describe as “dark.” You know there is blood in there, but you can also pick up the pork and onions and the bay leaves. The fresh parsley brightens the whole affair enough that you don’t feel awkward eating them on a sunny day.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
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Portuguese blood sausage
Call it what you will, this is blood sausage. My blood sausage recipe is a hybrid of many, many recipes for Europe’s versions, and is distinctive in that it is not a pure-blood product: I use quite a bit of pork here, and use the blood as a binder and flavoring agent.
And yes, I use pork and pork blood. Could I use wild boar? You bet, but getting wild boar blood is chancy. Better to use wild boar meat and domestic pork blood, which you can order from a reputable butcher’s shop or find at Asian markets. I get mine from John Bledsoe, a hog farmer nearby.
To make this recipe you will need hog casings (also easily available at a butcher shop, or even at a supermarket that makes it own sausages), and lots of onions, slowly cooked and cooled beforehand. You will also need Instacure No. 1 if you plan to smoke the sausages.
Makes about 5 pounds.
Prep Time: 2 hours
Cook Time: 10 minutes
- At least 1 quart pork blood, and probably 1/2 gallon
- 3 pounds pork shoulder
- 1/2 pound pork fat
- 2 chopped onions
- 1/4 cup duck fat or fresh lard
- 38 grams kosher salt
- 6 grams Instacure No. 1
- 6 grams fresh ground black pepper
- 6 grams ground bay leaves
- 1/2 cup minced parsley
- 30 grams sweet paprika
- Cook the chopped onions in the duck fat or lard over medium-low heat until they are caramelized, about 15-20 minutes. Remove and cool them. I do this step the day before.
- Freeze the pork fat.
- Mix the pepper, parsley, bay leaves and paprika.
- Cut the pork and fat into 1 to 2-inch chunks and put into separate bowls. Coat everything with the spice mix.
- Chill everything: bowls, grinder parts, sausage stuffer parts, and especially the meat, fat and blood. I put everything in the freezer for a few hours.
- Take the hog casings out and put what you need in a bowl of warm water. Depending on their width, you’ll need 10-20 feet worth. Many places sell casings specifically to make 5 pound batches. Be sure to drape the end of each casing over the side so you can find it later.
- Mix both salts. Take the meat and fat out of the freezer and add the salt mixture.
- Using the coarse die, grind the meat, then the fat (separately), into a bowl set in another bowl with ice set in it. Cold matters! If you wish, you can run everything through the fine die — but if you do, you will need to keep the meat and fat separate until then.
- Put the meat and fat into the freezer and clean up.
- Fill the largest pot you own with water and heat it to steaming, but not boiling. Ideally you want something like 180 degrees.
- Meanwhile, attach the paddle to your KitchenAid or other mixer, or, alternately, get a stout wooden spoon. Take the meat and fat mixture out and add the cooked onions. Pour in about a pint of blood. Stir on Level 1 on the mixer or with the wooden spoon. Add some more blood as you go; it’s not an exact science. You want a loose slurry that is quasi-emulsified — a consistency like pancake batter.
- When it is the consistency you want, put the mix back in the fridge and clean up. Get your sausage-stuffer ready and thread a hog casing onto it.
- Pour the mix into the sausage stuffer and begin making your sausages. Make the whole casing before you tie them into links. This is a little tricky, and it helps to have a second person help. You need to tie off blood sausage because it is very loose inside and twisted links will fall out. Repeat until you are done with all the sausage. Get the largest bowl you own and fill it 2/3 of the way up with ice and water.
- If you have some wooden dowels, use them to GENTLY lower the sausages into the pot of hot water — hot meaning about 160 degrees. Do one at a time. Let the sausages poach for 10 minutes and then place them in the ice water.
- When the sausages are cool, remove them gently and hang them to dry out for an hour or so. You can now smoke them, or cook in any way you’d like.
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Hank, the final product looks fab! Thanks for sharing, I do like Morcilla.
“This is a life bound more closely to other people than is that lived by those who follow the principle of ‘neither a borrower nor a lender be.’ Sorry Ben, I just don’t agree, at least when it doesn’t involve money.”
Good call. People forget that that oft-recited quotation came from the lips of Polonius, arguably the fool of Hamlet, amidst a stream of other mediocre advice.
I love blood sausage for breakfast with a few runny eggs (yolk=sauce). Have never made my own, but just might now…
Love it! I’ve only had it in a breakfast setting…with eggs and hash browns. Can’t wait to try this one out.
I first had blood sausage by accident at a Heuriger in Vienna, Austria. The owners had put out a buffet, and I was sampling everything. After enjoying the sample, someone pointed out to me just what I had eaten. They were rather surprised that I went back for seconds anyway.
An Irish breakfast is a staple in duck camp. Fried eggs, fried potatoes, fried tomato, rashers, bangers, and don’t forget the black and white puddings. I love me some black puddings!! Most of my buddies get the weird puckered look on their face when I tell them what a “pudding” is (only because they ask).
Believe it or not, I pick up my supplies at a local 7-11 that was once owned by a British ex-pat. He told the new owner that the only condition of sale was to continue with the British goods for all the other ex-pats. Only a few proper pubs have an Irish breakfast on their menu.
Hank,
I’m so sorry I don’t like blood pudding, but your post is so interesting! That’s why i keep coming back
We make morcilla , but not in the casing. we use the pigs stomach. We cut small pieces of pork liver, some meat, add garlic , cumin, salt pepper, oregano, and sage to the blood,. it is then put inside a cleaned pork stomach. The openings are sewed together. It is then placed in a pan with water to cover and cooked over low heat for 1.5 hours. It is wonderful and sooo good. we only do it around xmas time when the boys butcher a hog.
In the Netherlands some of us still eat “bloedworst” for lunch. The sausages are much bigger in diameter and you panfry a slice on both sides and eat it on top of a slice of bread. I like to add a panfried/caramelized sliceof apple. Here’s a picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotoosvanrobin/324823198/
I can still buy this in our regular supermarket but I think it’s only old and bold people who eat it. It is bound to get extinct.
not sure how i got here but this post mesmerized me…
i’d love to try this sometime. it’s on my list…
I love black pudding, as it is known in the UK. Glorious stuff, and part of any Full Scottish (or English) breakfast.
It is fantastic with scallops, but you just can’t beat a ‘black pudding supper’ from a Scottish fish and chip shop. (A length of black pudding, covered in batter and deep-fried. Served with a portion of chips, liberally doused in malt vinegar.) And now I feel homesick!
Robin, that lunch looks fantastic! Thanks for sharing the photo.
A fantastic read — I enjoyed it top to bottom. My memory of blood sausage is singular, fleeting, and treasured. I was 21, living in Barcelona, a friend Francisco invited me home, to see how his parents lived on the very rural, very remote Delta del’Ebre in Catalunya.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Parc_Natural_del_Delta_de_l'Ebre
Dad was a rice farmer (I’m guessing here…) and cooked an unforgettable Sunday meal of paella and fresh blood sausage. Nobody was talking about local or seasonal — it was just how they’d been eating on Sundays for generations. I only sort of got what a gift this was on so many levels. Youth is wasted on the young or something like that. But I did know that I loved every bite and that was enough.
That looks great! My first experience with blood was dinuguan.
I’ve had it, and enjoyed it. As with some other food types the real incentive was the girl I was trying to get lucky with. This one actually was named Shelia. I got into sushi this was as well.
However this, as headcheese are on my wife’s ‘don’t even think about trying to make that. She does like head cheese to eat, but not blood sausage and wants nothing to do with making it.
I’ve never had blood sausage, but I”ll try it when I stumble across it one day! You always teach me new exciting things.
ntsc, I must say that I’ve never heard of eating offal to get the girl! That is a new one on me.
This is one I have yet to try. I have to admit, when you mentioned the blood solidifying, I thought, “you mean like scabs do?” But the shot of the cooked (and comparatively brown) sausage looked quite appetizing.
Really interesting post… as they all are. Love your blog!
I wasraised in Ireland and one of my favourite breakfasts was black pudding . I have never found it here. Some ingrediants I remember was pigs blood. barley and rusk( whatever that is). I shure would love to find an authentic recipe for Irish black pudding.Thanks, Brian
Hmmm black pudding. Had it for lunch today. One regional variant is that Irish version I normally eat has pinhead oatmeal in it. Yummy
SBW
Mmm, blood sausage. I tasted boudin noir for the first time while studying abroad in France. I loved it so much, I sought out both the German equivalent and the Spanish equivalent when I went travelling on spring break.
A lesson on blood sausage sounds like a lovely favor to be owed.
Josh
The food interests have stayed even if I haven’t seen the girls in question in decades, Shelia was 1970 in London, Regina, she of sushi note, about 6-7 years later in NYC.
I met my wife over 29 years ago and haven’t done more than window shopping since. She offered me brains, and while I was interested in trying them and liked the taste, I literally could not swallow them. My four year old had no trouble with them, of course we didn’t mention what they were.
I don’t look for blood sausages in places like Tokyo where they’re difficult to find – but they’re all over the place in Spain and I’ve had some really delicious ones and some not so great tasting ones. Yes – they’re called Morcilla here and they’re an important ingredient when making Fabada. I’ve also made other bean stews with them. They can really enrich the ‘taste’ of whatever beans you’re cooking and also make great tapas fried in extra virgin olive oil or with some types, you can just eat them as they are (like Salami).
W-O-W! Now that’s what I call a dream! I’m going to have to agree with Ron, Hank. 5 pounds just isn’t enough!
The pictures are just awesome, too.
Honestly never tried them, but would like to someday. I’m intrigued by your crimson slurry.
Also, your pictures for this are phenomenal.
Dear Hank,
I’ve followed your blog for a while now–it’s excellent and quite different than many of the other food blogs out there. (I’d characterize your blog as not only a food blog but as a lifestyle, philosophy, and do-it-yourself blog.)
Perhaps it’s because I’m Asian, but the notion of eating blood doesn’t make me squeamish. One of my favorite Korean soups, hae jong guk (translated loosely to “hangover solution soup” and pronounced “hay jung gook”) is made from beef bones, greens, bean sprouts, and, occasionally, beef blood. Medium-sized cubes of boiled beef blood which, like you said, becomes crumbly and dry–thus leading me to break the cubes up into my broth.
Koreans also have blood sausage called soondae, which contains pork blood and, importantly, cellophane or glass noodles. These are mixed with spices and stuffed into pigs’ intestines, then usually steamed and eaten sliced–often alongside sliced liver, tongue, and pork ear and washed down with beer or soju. There’s also soondaeguk, a hearty stew whose main ingredient is sliced soondae. Delicious.
Thank you for your interesting–and different–posts!
Joon S.
http://vinicultured.com
this is one of our favorite things to eat. i applaud you for making morcilla. we feature morcilla on our blog often. a few of our favorite ways to eat it have been:
http://www.weareneverfull.com/morcilla-stuffed-squid-bloody-hell/
http://www.weareneverfull.com/viva-el-patacon-and-childish-humor/
and
http://www.weareneverfull.com/stuff-this-into-your-easter-basket-hornazo-spanish-easter-bread/
I love Boudin Noir, but I don’t see it for sale too much around here. Last time I ate in was in France, when visiting family. Typically it’s fried and serve with parsley potatoes and a big green salad.
Thank you for posting what you do. Now I just need to source some fresh blood from a hog raised not in an industrial fashion!
Hurray for black pudding!
Ever since I traveled through Spain as a teen on a budget, I’ve sought the deliciously rich goodness blood sausage. I am excited to read your recipe and description, as I have been researching the ins and outs of making some my self.
I have eaten a few different blood sausages made by local producers like the Fatted Calf and your friends at Boccalone. However having my own source for blood I regularly dream of making my own. I am particularly excited by Mary’s comment about using stomach because I have been unable to keep any of our casings, but I do have a few stomachs.
MMM bring on the black hog maw!
I ate some in Madrid, Spain and found it to be quite agreeable and I am sure it is very nutritious – you don’t need to eat it only at midnight on a full moon.
Love black pudding, have been savoring it for most of the 55 years on the planet. I get mine from a local Irish Import shop in the Rochester NY area that has a freezer full of bangers, white pudding, Irish bacon. It’s a delight.
I’ve had blood sausage only once, and it probably wasn’t as good as yours because the inside was a bit crumbly (not well-bound at all)!
I reflect on my experience with it: http://kitchenlife.wordpress.com/2008/11/23/blood-sausage/
Blood sausage is the food of the gods! I’ve been eating it ever since it was introduced to me by my grandfather at age 5 or so. Here in the UK, it is known as ‘Black Pudding’ and interestingly, the word ‘pudding’ is exactly the same as the French word, ‘Boudin’ from the French variety Boudin Noir (say it quickly with a French accent, you and you immediately notice the similarity). Most European countries have a blood pudding and they vary in the fillers and spicing that they use, but they are always a treat. In the Carribean, there are spicier versions (not to my taste, I must add). Blood sausage goes well with so many things, but my favourites are on the breakfast plate, as a Tapas fried together with a sweet desert apple, or another classic combination, with seafood, notably scallops.
Thank you for this!
So, my father immigrated from the Basque Country and every year he would go out with his friends kill a couple of pigs and bring home morcilla as well as jamón serrano, tocino, jeta…. anyways, he passed away and he never taught me how to make it. Every now and then I stumble across a restaurant the offers morcilla (Spanish or Basque) but I am unable to find it anywhere. I know where to get black pudding, but it’s not quite the same. Do you know where I could buy morcilla? Or cured morcilla from Burgos? Any guidance would be soooooo appreciated. Taylor’s in Oakland said that if I gave them a recipe they would make me a batch just for me… I may just give them your recipe, but would rather get it from a place that is familiar with making morcilla.
[...] with an email to Jeff, and a few other sources, which included a great blog at honest-food.net (http://honest-food.net/2009/03/16/repaying-a-debt-in-blood-sausage/). This is an excellent site for charcuterie recipes and very detailed methods. It pointed out the [...]
[...] be making this simple morcilla blood sausage this weekend, and will share the gruesome process as well as the hopefully tasty results. [...]
[...] recipe, instructions, and massively helpfull commentary can be found on the inspirational blog Hunter Angler Gardener Cook. I won’t replicate the whole thing here, just describe what is going on in our pictures, [...]
We just finished making this and it’s wonderful!!
Since we didn’t have pig blood, we used beef blood someone gifted us. The pork, onion, parsley & bay are homegrown, and we smoked the links over a mostly applewood fire. It was our first time making sausage, and I can’t wait to try more using all the pig & cow parts we have in the freezer.