Blood Pudding (or sausages) are served in French, Belgian, German, British, Quebec, Acadian, Creole, Austrian and Cajun cuisine.
This Blood Pudding a.k.a. Boudin is baked in loaf pans instead of sausage casing.
Photo courtesy of Banque D’Images
This is my 2nd post in the category Historic and Unusual Recipes. The first wasHow to Cook a Terrapin (or Turtle). I discovered that recipe in a very oldFanny Farmer Cookbookand posted it simply because I found it interesting. Guess what? Almost every day… week in and week out…How to Cook a Terrapin (or Turtle)appears in my list of ‘Readers Recent Favorites’. Who woulda thunk it? And now it’s gonna be interesting to see how well received this French Canadian Blood Puddingrecipe is! ; o )
I made French Canadian Blood Puddingonlyonce, using the blood from one of the pigs we raised. We planned to roast the pig on a special spit – and feed the neighbors, the local family, the family from Montreal and the family from the States.Luckily it was a BIG pig. So big it actually broke the rented spit… but that’s another story.
My husband’s family all told me I’d fed my pigs too much because, when butchered, they all had a lot of fat. They said I ‘babied’ all my animals. Hey, if you were a pig… and it was hot… wouldn’t you be happy if someone gently sprayed you with cold water. Of course you would. I rest my case.
My husband’s aunt Therese and I prepared the Blood Pudding at the Roy Family Farm in St. Flavien, Quebec (Canada) where my husband’s family has lived/farmed for the last seven generations. It’s a huge house with a huge kitchen. There’s a wood burning stove and a modern stove – a lovely mixture of old and new. (I remember visiting around 1970 and there was still a water pump in ‘The Summer Kitchen’. I’ll explain about Summer Kitchens another time.)
I just deleted the paragraph about hanging the pig upside down etc. I didn’t want to gross you out any more than necessary..
When I arrived at the old family farm with my bucket of pig blood, Ma Tante Therese (MyAunt in French.) was armed and ready with the necessary utensils and pans. Ma Tante didn’t speak much English and my French is far from great, but I managed to write down several of her old French Canadian recipes over the years, including this one for Blood Pudding, while I either helped or watched her cook. And an excellent cook she was.
My husband LOVED the Blood Pudding we’d made. And I was pretty darn proud of myself, let me tell you. I did take a tiny taste of it… Blood Pudding has an unusual texture – no surprise there. It does taste pretty good, if you can get beyond the ‘main ingredient’.
My husband loved to eat his Boudin cut into slices and fried. He especially loved it for breakfast with scrambled eggs. At the time I made the Blood Pudding my husband could only eat soft things due to oral cancer. You can imagine how pleased I was, especially at that point in his life, to have prepared something for him which he’d loved his whole life.
Life is short. Prepare your loved ones favorite dishes. Doing so truly is a gift of love!
This recipe for French Canadian Blood Pudding (Boudin) is prepared in two loaf pans.
I’m going to give you the recipe as I wrote it down – although sometimes I’ve written recipes from our French Canadian Aunts half in French and half in English.
Like haggis, Stornoway Black Pudding is a U.K. favorite that contains sheep's lungs. This ingredient makes it illegal to import into the United States, despite it being a regular menu item across the pond.
In France, boudin noir is often consumed during the fall and winter months, as a way to perpetuate the tradition of black pudding being prepared during the month of November. In the United-Kingdom and Ireland, Boudin Noir is more commonly known as black pudding, or blood pudding.
The boudin of Québec is made of lard, milk, onions and pork blood. It is served in a pan along with a sweet side or a sauce. Since 2018, the Goûte-Boudin de Boucherville association hands out a yearly prize for the best boudin.
Lab-grown meat is not currently available in any U.S. grocery stores or restaurants. If some lawmakers have their way, it never will be. Earlier this month, Florida and Alabama banned the sale of cultivated meat and seafood, which is grown from animal cells.
Legality. In 1971, it became illegal to import haggis into the US from the UK due to a ban on food containing sheep lung, which constitutes 10–15% of the traditional recipe. The ban encompasses all lungs, as fluids such as stomach acid and phlegm may enter the lung during slaughter.
However, one of the most rare and prized dishes from the Cajun past is boudin rouge, or blood boudin, a sausage made from various cuts of pork, rice, seasonings, and the fresh blood of a pig. The sausage is steamed or smoked to cook it.
Let's get past the gore first, yes, the primary ingredient in black pudding is blood, but all that means is that black pudding is naturally high in iron and zinc. Iron is great for a healthy body helping to metabolize proteins and playing a vital role in the production of hemoglobin and red blood cells.
The Anglo-Norman word boudin meant 'sausage', 'blood sausage', or 'entrails' in general. Its origin is unclear. It has been traced both to Romance and to Germanic roots, but there is not good evidence for either (cf. boudin).
This mentality is evident in boudin, a Cajun sausage made of pork and rice, and other sausages like andouille and tasso, which were invented to utilize every part of a butchered animal. On the other hand, most Creole food incorporates a diverse range of ingredients and can sometimes call for complicated processes.
How do I eat boudin? Promptly. Most locals don't even make it out of the parking lot with their links, they just squeeze the filling right out of the casing and into their mouths. (Some folks eat the casing, too).
To pronounce it correctly, boo – like a ghost says, and then start like you're saying the name Dan, but just don't pronounce the n on the end! Boudin in Cajun Country can be found at grocery stores, delis, gas stations, weddings, birthday parties, holiday parties, but very rarely in a restaurant.
If you drive across Louisiana, you'll find boudin at most of your stops. Boudin is a sausage made by encasing most commonly pork, liver, rice, seasonings, and spices, then cooked by steam or smoking.
Cultural Taboos: In American culture, there is a general aversion to consuming blood as food. This aversion is rooted in cultural and historical factors. Blood is often associated with gore, violence, and the taboo of cannibalism.
Ortolan is facing extinction, making it now banned by the U.S. and the E.U. Redfish: Redfish was a hugely popular fish in the 80s, but since its overfishing, has since been deemed an endangered species and is illegal in all states except Mississippi.
Let's get past the gore first, yes, the primary ingredient in black pudding is blood, but all that means is that black pudding is naturally high in iron and zinc. Iron is great for a healthy body helping to metabolize proteins and playing a vital role in the production of hemoglobin and red blood cells.
Introduction: My name is Allyn Kozey, I am a outstanding, colorful, adventurous, encouraging, zealous, tender, helpful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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