I was intrigued earlier this week when I read an article in The Washington Post featuring a new cookbook “Blood: With Recipes,” by Jennifer McLagan. This book demystifies blood as an ingredient and includes recipes for a blood brownie, adapted from Dorie Greenspan. As it turns out, blood works well as a substitute for eggs, and turns up in marshmallows and pancakes, cocktails and crackers, sausages, and sauces. Although this may sound dubious, many of these recipes are traditional in cultures around the world.
Reading the article, I stopped to think about my own personal background and history with blood. From years of working in livestock agriculture and the plasma-derived therapeutic sector, not to mention experiences living overseas and watching animals get slaughtered on the streets for religious ceremonies, I am no stranger to the phenomenon of blood being used in many ways.
Strangely, although I am squeamish about having my own blood taken, I am not at all put off by the process of creating food products or medical products using blood as a derivative. Let it be said that the first time I went to a U.S. plant to observe the processing of pork, there were a few moments that were hard to watch, but I was intrigued, and more than anything I was assured of the safety and care involved in the process. There was one moment when we were asked if we wanted to observe the evisceration process (disemboweling and removing the intestines) and I was more than happy to oblige, while some of my colleagues took a pass. Call it morbid curiosity, if you will, but I find it fascinating.
To me, eating meat is as natural as breathing and it is the same with blood. Like the author of this book, I too, have been fascinated by the intolerance for cooking with blood. There seems to be some detachment in the U.S. about where we get our food and everyone is absolutely convinced that the process of making products with blood must be horrific. I can assure you as someone who has seen much of this with my own two eyes that it is not.
I recently was reading the book “Dirt,” by Bill Buford and he has a chapter in which he describes his participation in an age-old event – making boudin noir in Lyon, France. He experiences the slaughter of the animal and watches as the blood is drained and is asked to taste it. He describes a thick and weighty, warm sensation on his palate. Later, aromatics are added and then the mixture is inserted into an intestine and finally it is cooked in a manner similar to a custard. The boudin Buford ultimately enjoys is like a rich, red pudding. It sounded absolutely delicious to me and I wished I was there for what he witnessed, although I imagine it would not be for everyone.
I have enjoyed boudin before in New Orleans when I visited a friend and her family. The boudin we enjoyed was made in a more modern manner and contained some rice and cajun spices. The closest thing resembling boudin noir that I usually eat is black pudding, a sausage made in Ireland with pork blood, pork fat, and oat groats. This sausage is typically served in Irish fry up breakfasts alongside eggs, thick rashers of bacon, grilled tomatoes, and beans. The taste is very rich and often is warmed on the palate with cloves or allspice.
Culturally, many cuisines are famous for recipes with blood. In DC, there is a famous Laotian restaurant, Thip Khao, which provides a “jungle menu” to patrons which contains such items as duck heads, tripe and of course, pigs blood sausage. I fell in love with that restaurant the first time I visited and made sure my sister came with me on my next visit, since she is one of the few people, I know who might be as adventurous as me. Other cuisines that do blood as an ingredient justice include Hungarian, Filipino, and Thai. In Korea, blood curd is typically made of cattle blood and is often used as an ingredient for different kinds of soups and stews, such as hangover soup. In Vietnamese cuisine pig blood curd is used in soup-based noodles dishes. And in Tibet, congealed yak's blood is a traditional food.
In the aforementioned book, there is a great deal of fascinating information about how blood has been consumed in history. For example, the Nordics drank blood believing that it would give them the fighting strength of the animal whence it came, whereas nomadic peoples, such as Masai herders, lived off a diet of blood and milk exclusively. I find all of this completely intriguing and this is what I love about food and travel in the first place: learning about what brings us together and what we have in common and what makes us unique.
So, with all of this blood consumption why then are Americans so immune to it? Mark Hay, a writer for Eater has a fairly good assumption that I tend to agree with on this issue. He argues that “the real end to American blood eating likely came in the mid-20th century, courtesy of modernity — specifically an amorphous, optimistic belief in the power of industrial science to improve the world in every imaginable way, especially by one-upping nature.” I tend to agree with this notion as my immigrant relatives were very excited about advances in cooking such as microwaves and conveniences that would require them to do less work. Why wouldn’t they be?
I’m not sure I am going to rush out and beat a pathway to the first place offering blood pancakes, but you can count me as a fan of the blood sausages and various recipes intrinsic to some cultures. Animal blood is high in nutritional value and can help fortify a diet with iron and other nutrients. It should be said that there can be some health and safety issues related to blood consumption, particularly the risk of pathogens being transferred to those who consume it excessively. Therefore, it is suggested to eat these products no more than twice in a week.
When I said I was going to write a piece on blood for the blog, John said that some people would be turned off. I understood this. But I didn’t decide to do a blog to only talk about “safe” topics in food and travel. I am a curious person by nature and hope that your curiosity intrigues you enough to give blood products a try at some point. I think you might be pleasantly surprised.
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