Blood sausage is a messy job, And can get even messier in a cramped kitchen with four guys prepping around you, but despite what many people might think, its actually very easy to make once you have all the key ingredients. The basic ingredients are blood, cream, bread, onions, back fat, and spices. We have made it numerous times and we have always had an issue of the diced back fat (which gets blanched before adding to the blood) setting uneven in the casing due to gravity and the fact that the blood is so thin. Basically, as we filled the casing, all the back fat and onions would fall to the bottom half and set when we poached it so that when you sliced into the sausage 1/2 was pure blood, the other 1/2 had all the fat.
We couldn't find any information on how to fix this so we put our heads together and figured that if we slowly warmed the blood there would be a point where it thickened but didn't fully coagulate.
Here's Branden wisking away, keeping the blood moving as we applied the heat. We found that at 146/147 degree's F the blood began to thicken without seizing .
It's pretty important to move quickly at this stage, make sure you have an ice bowl to chill down the blood as quickly as possible. Strain it out as there will be a bit of coagulated blood bits that will just not look pretty in the final product.
We begin whisking it over ice to bring the temp down as quick as possible.
We also tried making blood foam as a joke and it tasted like crap. Actually, it tasted like blood. We figured that wouldn't be something one would want to taste on a dish at the hoof or anywhere for that matter.
Thoshon got to stuff the casing. One thing you must do is check your casings for any holes by tying one end and filling them with water. Thoshon forgot this step, hence why we had to tape up this link. This is a messy part of the recipe any way you try so give yourself some space to get messy. We use our sausage stuffer instead of the traditional funnel to fill the casing.
Cook the sausage at 80 degrees for about 18 to 20 minutes. Longer if your not pre-thickening the blood. immediately take it out carefully and shock it. Let the sausage rest for a day before slicing. Sear and enjoy!
6 comments:
I love the blood sausage you guys make at the cafe, but that stuffing picture makes me think of a bad slasher flick ;)
We have a great tradition of blood sausage in Brazil. We also use blood to make a kind of chicken stew - it's really flavorful and my state's specialty. Here's some pictures and a nice recipe. It's in Portuguese but you said the other day that you could understand a bit of it, so here it is:
http://diariodochef.com.br/2009/06/30/frango-ao-molho-pardo/
http://viajeaqui.abril.com.br/imagem/fwa//1234830698694_129.jpg
http://viajeaqui.abril.com.br/indices/conteudo/especiais/receitas/img/frango-ao-molho-pardo.jpg
If you don't understand a word or expression (or one of the ingredients), tell me and I'll translate it.
I love blood sausage. One of my best memories as a child was of my grandfather making huge batches of the stuff leaving the kitchen looking like a scene from a horror movie.
I would LOVE to make some but sadly haven't been able to find a supply of pigs blood. Anyone have any suggestions??
Hey Grant....
Did heating the blood work for you guys? I have the same "settling" problem with our Boudin, and am quite impressed at your ingenuity....
Also, how much loess viscous is the blood once cooled?
I've just started following your blog, and it is as impressive as the food you guys put out....your honesty and open approach are to be admired....keep up the great work brother.
Why do you poach the fat prior to stuffing? I am going to make a batch of Mortadella this week and want to substitute Lardo for the reg back fat. I feel that the lardo would soften to much if poached.
Its like you read my mind! You seem to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or something.
Sausage Filler
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