(Redirected from Blood sausage)
'Black pudding' or 'blood pudding' is a
sausage made by
cooking blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled. 'Blood sausage' is a more recent
North American translation for the German moniker "Blutwurst". Blood Sausage has become a useful term for similar blood-based solid foods around the world.
Pig or
cattle blood is most often used;
sheep and
goat blood are used to a lesser extent. Blood from
poultry,
horses and other animals are used more rarely. Typical fillers include
meat,
fat,
suet,
bread,
barley and
oatmeal.
History
Sausages containing blood are traditional throughout the world and there are ancient references to them, e. g. from
Homer's
Odyssey:
Regional variants
Black pudding is usually served as part of a traditional
full breakfast in the
United Kingdom and
Ireland. The further addition of the similar
white pudding is an important feature of the traditional
Irish breakfast. Black pudding can be eaten uncooked but is often grilled or boiled in its skin.
The
Lancashire town of
Bury is noted for its black pudding, as is the west
County Cork town of
Clonakilty, which exports black pudding as a delicacy item. Black and white pudding, as well as a third variant from Fife: –
red pudding – are served
battered at
chip shops in
Scotland and
England as an alternative to
fish and chips.
Continental Europe
The most common variant of
German ''Blutwurst'' is made from fatty pork meat, bovine blood and filler such as
barley. Though already cooked and "ready to eat" it is usually served warm. In the
Rhineland, where it is also traditionally made from
horse meat, fried Blutwurst is a part of various dishes. Another German variant is
Zungenwurst, which is ''Blutwurst'' mixed with pieces of pickled pig's tongue.
In
France ''boudin'' is part of traditional cold or warm dishes or part of ''charcuterie'' plates. It may also be called ''boudin noir''.
In
Belgium, ''bloedworst'' or ''beuling'' is sold either in 4 inch diameter slices, or individual sausages the size of a banana. It is generally pan fried; sometimes apples are cooked alongside or on top of the pieces. It is also eaten with apple sauce, brown sugar or syrup.
Similarly
Czech ''jelito'' is made from pork, pig's blood and
groats; the stuffing served by itself, unformed is called ''prejt''.
Spanish ''morcilla'' has many variants. The most well known and widespread is "morcilla de Burgos" which mainly contains pork blood and fat, rice, onions, and salt. In Albacete and La Mancha the morcilla has no rice that it is replaced by onion (which changes completely the texture). It is claimed that this is the original morcilla and rice was introduced in them to reduce costs (rice expands while onion reduces thus needing more raw material). Other varieties introduce breadcrumbs, pine nuts, almonds and vary the proportions of the other ingredients or flavorings, producing even a sweet morcilla.

Portuguese blood chouriço
In
Portuguese cuisine there are also many varieties of black pudding, ranging from some similar to the Spanish ''morcilla'', known in
Portuguese as ''morcela'', to some done only with blood (known as ''
chouriço de sangue'').
In
Eastern Europe,
kishka is made with pig's blood and buckwheat
kasha, it is also known in
Russia as ''krovyanka'' (кровянка) or ''krovyanaya kolbasa'' (кровяная колбаса, 'blood sausage') and Poland as ''
kaszanka''. In
Hungary, ''véres hurka'' is made with rice, pig's blood and pork.
In
Sweden, ''blodpudding'' is served but there are also varieties and similarities such as ''blodkorv'' (blood sausage), ''blodplättar'' (blood pancakes) and
palt.
Alongside the
mustamakkara in
Finland, a dish similar to black pudding is made by making batter out of pig's blood and baking it like pancakes. Traditionally rye- or oatflour is used and minced
onion is added to the mix. This dish is called ''veriohukainen'' (blood pancake).
The Americas
Among
English-speaking North Americans, the consumption of black pudding and similar dishes is largely confined to certain ethnic groups with strong
Old World traditions as well such as French Canadians and
immigrants from
Great Britain, Ireland,
Australia, and so forth. Blood sausages are very difficult to find in American
supermarkets.
An
Italian-American version of black pudding in the
San Francisco Bay area is called "Biroldo" and has
pine nuts,
raisins,
spices, pig
snouts and either pig's or cow's blood.
Cajun ''
boudin'' is a fresh sausage made with green
onions, pork, and
rice; pig's blood is sometimes added to produce "boudin noir".
In many areas of
Latin America (as in
Spain) ''morcilla'' is served. Morcilla is made with a filler of rice and/or onions, and seasoned with paprika and other spices. In
Puerto Rico it is made spicy-hot and served fried. In parts of
South America, morcilla is a traditional component of the ''
asado'', a regional
mixed grill or
barbecue meal. Morcilla is also eaten inside a sandwich called "morcipán," especially in Argentina and other
Río de la Plata countries; in Uruguay, although not in Argentina, a
sweet and sour version including
raisins and pine nuts is popular. In
Chile it's called ''prieta''. In
Colombia, it's either called ''morcilla'' or ''rellena,'' and is usually filled with rice and peas. Contrary to beliefs, this version is usually deep-fried, and though is quite a health risk, its taste is quite popular.
In
Guyana, the main ingredient in black pudding is cooked rice seasoned with traditional
Caribbean herbs, such as
thyme and
basil. The rice is mixed with cow's blood, stuffed into pig
intestine, and boiled until firm. It is served as an appetizer or snack, often with any type of hot sauce, mild to hot, depending on preference and regional area.
In
Suriname, black pudding is also known under the
Dutch name ''bloedworst'', and white pudding under the also Dutch name ''vleesworst''.
Asia

''Soondae'', Korea's black pudding.
Across Asia, various people create foods from congealed animal blood. Most of these foods do not have casing and might be considered a version of
sliced sausage.
In
Taiwan, ''pig blood cake'' () is made of
pork blood and
sticky rice. It is fried or steamed as a
snack or cooked in a
hot pot.
A similar dish from the
Philippines, ''
dinuguan'' (from the word ''dugo'' meaning "blood") is a
stew consisting of diced beef or pork meat and organs with pig or cow blood. Some
Filipinos also call this "chocolate meat".
In
China, "blood
tofu" (), is most often made with pig's or
duck's blood, although
chicken's or cow's blood may also be used. Like the above dishes, this has no casing but is simply cut into rectangular pieces and cooked.
In resource-poor
Tibet, congealed
yak's blood is a traditional food.
[1]
The majority of
Korea's ''soondae'' (순대) can be categorized as blood sausage. The most common type of ''soondae'' is made of
potato noodle (''dangmyon''),
barley, and pig's blood but some variants contain
sesame leaves, green
onion,
fermented soy paste (''dwen-jang''), sweet rice,
kimchi,
bean sprouts, in addition to the common ingredients.
Additional varieties
Other varieties of blood sausage include ''blodpølse'' (
Norway and
Denmark), ''
boudin noir'' (
France), ''tongeworst'' (with added pigs tongues) (
Netherlands),
''zwarte pens'' or ''beuling'' (
Belgium), ''blóðmör'' (
Iceland), ''boudin rouge'' (Creole and Cajun), ''morcela'' and ''chouriço de sangue'' (
Portugal), ''morcilla'' (
Spain and
Latin America), ''krvavica'' (
Bulgaria,
Croatia,
Serbia,
Slovenia), ''prieta'' (
Chile), ''rellena'' (
Mexico, or ''
moronga'' (
Mexico), ''dồi'' (
Vietnam), ''sanganel'' (
Friuli), ''ragati'' (
Nepal), ''
mustamakkara'' (
Finland), ''verivorst'' (
Estonia) and ''kaszanka'' (
Poland).
See also
★
Breakfast Roll
★
Square sausage
Art
Members of the group
monochrom prepared blood pudding out of their own blood and ate it. The performance (staged in 2003 in
Vienna) was accompanied by political essays about the 'autocannibalistic' tendencies of the global economy. The event, called "Viennese Factionism: Auto-Blood-Sausage", also can be interpreted as a critical statement about art, art history and the art market (
Viennese Actionism).
ORF FM4,
Arte
References
1. Ma Jian, ''Stick Out Your Tongue'' Chatto and Windus London, 2006.
External links
★
Blood sausage recipe