The Decadent Cookbook (15 page)

400
G
ONIONS,
CHOPPED

100
G
LARD

750
G
FRESH
PORK
FAT,
DICED

BOUQUET
GARNI

40
G
SALT

1
GLASS
WHITE
WINE

½
TSP
BLACK
PEPPER

½
TSP
ALLSPICE

¾
CUP
CREAM

HOG
CASINGS

Fry the onions in the lard until soft. Soften the pork fat to the point of translucency by heating gently in a pan. Tip in the onions and bouquet garni and cook for 20 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and stir continuously as you pour in the blood. 1 litre of pig’s blood, which you prevent from coagulating either by draining it straight from the hanging carcass and stirring over hot embers, or by diluting with 1 tablespoon of wine vinegar. Add wine, salt, pepper and allspice. Sieve out any unmelted fat, add cream and stir thoroughly. Pour the mixture through a funnel into the casing which you have taken the precaution of knotting at one end (or wear stout galoshes). Squeeze it along with your hand until you have 4 to 6 inches of filled sausage, then twist repeatedly and carry on filling to form into links. Knot the top end and drop into boiling water. Cook the
boudins
at just below boiling point for 20 minutes and prick as they swim to the surface. When a brown liquid oozes out they’re done. Drain and cool.

To serve, grill for 5 minutes on each side and lay on apples fried in pork fat. Alternatively, fry onions in pork fat, keep them warm while you fry the
boudin
in the same fat, then serve together with pieces of pig’s liver and heart. This, says Elizabeth David, is a good, rough, old-fashioned French way of serving the blood sausage, ‘but is not exactly easy on the digestion.’ Well worth trying.

Two pretty variations from Alsace:
Schwarzwurst
(black sausage) - made from pig’s blood, crackling, ears, boned head and trotters, fat and onions - and
Zungenwurst
(tongue sausage) - which is a normal
boudin noir
ornamented with geometrically inserted pieces of pig’s tongue wrapped in bacon.

These are from Anjou, and are less crude than their colleagues, as the presence of cream and vegetables suggests.

9
OZ
EACH
OF
SPINACH
BEET,
SPINACH
,

LETTUCE
AND
ONIONS

SALT

PEPPER

3
TABLESPOONS
LARD

9
OZ
STREAKY
BACON

CINNAMON

MIXED
SPICE

6
TABLESPOONS
DOUBLE
CREAM

½
PINT
PIG’S
BLOOD

HOG
CASING

Chop the vegetables, add salt and pepper, set aside for 12 hours. Dice the bacon and fry without browning. Melt the lard in a casserole, gently cook the vegetables in it, then add the bacon together with a dash of cinnamon and mixed spice. Stir. Remove from heat. Add cream and blood. Fill the hog casing, and make a twist every 6 inches. Tie the open end and poach in hot (not quite boiling) water for half an hour. Prick the skins as the sausages float to the surface. Drain and cool. Slice thickly and fry in butter or lard until they turn brown.

This refreshing recipe comes from the Principality via Antony and Araminta Hippisley Coxe, authors of
The Book of Sausages
.

T
HE
BLOOD
OF
A
FRESHLY
KILLED
PIG

1
PINT
WELL
WATER

SALT
AND
PEPPER

ONIONS

HERBS
TO
TASTE

A
LITTLE
FAT
FROM
THE
INTESTINE

OATMEAL

HOG
CASINGS

Gather the blood into a big bowl while it is still warm and stir until it is cold. Add the well water and a little salt and leave the liquid to stand overnight. Wash the casing well and also leave to stand overnight in salt water.

Next day, chop the onions and the fat and coat them with oatmeal, season with herbs and pepper and stir into the blood. Push the mixture into the casing. Tie both ends with string; boil for about 30 minutes and then hang to dry. It can be served sliced and fried with rashers of thick, salty bacon.

Finding a dessert to round off this meal is not easy. Robert May in his book
Accomplisht Cook,
written in 1660, mentions a very fine fancy. A stag is sculpted out of painted sugar and almond paste and filled with softly set claret jelly. The stag is then stuck with an arrow in such a way that when it is drawn by one of the guests, the jelly pours out like blood oozing from a wound. An amusing alternative to the stag would be a Saint Sebastian, life-size perhaps, thus allowing more than one guest the pleasure of drawing an arrow. For those who may not have the time to sculpt a life-size St. Sebastian, the following Scottish recipe is a possibility.

½
PT
OF
BLOOD

½
PT
OF
CREAM

S
ALT

C
INNAMON

N
UTMEG

A
SPRIG
OF
MINT

C
HIVES

F
AT

Lamb’s blood is recommended as being the sweetest. Stir it and remove any clot, or else pass it through a sieve. Mix it together with the cream. Season with the salt, a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg. Finely chop a sprig of mint and the chives. Mince the fat and add it with the mint and chives to the mixture. Pour into a heavy saucepan and cook in the oven or on top of the stove.

If that doesn’t appeal as a dessert, try this instead. It’s a traditional recipe at Boodle’s, with a difference - rather than using ordinary oranges, use blood oranges.

4
BLOOD
ORANGES

2
LEMONS

1½
PINTS
OF
CREAM

8
SPONGE
CAKES

¼
LB
CASTER
SUGAR

Mix the juice of all the fruit with the grated rind of a lemon and 2 oranges. Stir in the sugar, and beat in one pint of the cream. Blend well. Cut each sponge cake into four pieces and put into a bowl. Pour the mixture over the cakes. Chill for several hours and pour the remaining whipped cream on top before serving.

A daring alternative is Blutwurst. These are eaten cold in Germany. Their purplish-crimson flesh is highly suited to the Decadent table, and their cloying, fungal, slightly rotten taste makes them a lavish and unsettling dessert.

DICED
BACON

CALF’S
OR
PIG’S
LUNG

PIG’S
BLOOD

CLOVES,
MACE,
MARJORAM

BULLOCK
RUNNERS,
CUT
TO
15
INCH
LENGTHS

Season the blood with the herbs and spices in a bowl. Boil the chopped lungs and bacon. Tie one end of the bullock runner with string, fill with blood, lungs and bacon, tie the other end, and boil for half an hour. Serve cold in very thin slices, with a blanket of chocolate sauce.