Blood as Food
As morbid as it sounds, drinking and cooking with blood is as old as mankind itself. It started as a matter of frugality and self-preservation -- not wasting any part of a "kill." It eventually evolved into a symbolic and religious gesture. Warriors believed drinking their enemies' blood would give them their strength and power. In other cultures, blood is considered a taboo food.Over the years, blood became a main ingredient in soups and sauces all over the world. Poles have czarnina soup. The people of North Vietnam enjoy tiet cahn, a raw blood soup, svartsoppa is a regional specialty in Sweden, and Mexican mole sauce was originally made with blood (now chocolate is used).
Sausages are another worldwide vehicle for using blood in cooking. The Poles have their kiszka, black pudding rules in England and Ireland, the Germans have blutwurst, morcilla is popular in Spain, boudin noir is favored in France and xue doufou is a Chinese favorite. Blood sausages are typically made from pig, sheep, goat or cattle blood, along with seasonings, suet or other fat, and often grains such as barley, oatmeal, buckwheat kasha or rice.
And in some cultures, like Hungary, after slaughtering, the blood is fried with onions. Blood pancakes are also common in Scandinavia and the Baltic -- Swedish blodplattar, Finnish veriohukainen, and Estonian veripannkoogid.
Today, cooking with blood is not so common because, in this urban society of ours, blood is hard to come by and, so, the recipes have fallen into disuse. But yearning for these flavors is still as strong as ever, and people have relied on specialty delis and restaurants to satisfy these cravings. If you do butcher your own animals and want to save the blood, remember to add vinegar, so it doesn't clot, and refrigerate or freeze immediately.
Czarnina Memories
Imagine my sister's dismay when the duck she befriended in our busia's backyard ended up, headless, over the kitchen sink for a bloodletting, it's life juices earmarked for a pot of czarnina.Czarnina (char-NEE-nah) is the peasant spelling of czernina and gets its name from the Polish word for "black" -- czarny -- referring to the soup's dark color. It is typically made with duck or goose blood, dried fruits and vinegar which prevents the blood from clotting, giving it a sweet-sour flavor, much loved by Eastern Europeans.
In Poland, unsuccessful suitors would receive czarnina from the maiden's parents to let them know their advances were not welcome.
Czarnina is still made by home cooks in cities with large Polish populations where blood is available from European delis, poultry farms, or specialty butchers. And, those living on farms, always have access. But, when grandma didn't want to bother with butchering a duck, she would make blind czarnina, known as slepo czarnina in Polish using pork neckbones and no blood at all.
