Known as boudin noir among French Canadians, blood sausage is a wonderful source of protein.
The following is one method for making blood sausage. There are many different recipes and methods. As each family evolved their own way of making it, a strong, individual pride emerges. This is a slice of what it is to be a Quebecois.
- Find a good-sized, healthy pig and near an appropriate tree, shot it. You can coax her to the spot with bread soaked in maple syrup or molasses.
- Secure a strong rope to each of her back legs and suspend in air against a strong tree. Secure the free ends onto high branches.
- Set a tub or large container under the pig’s head.
- Slit the throat and expect the blood to splatter. Eliminate rocking of the carcass to catch all the blood.
- Assign someone to slowly stir the blood for the next half hour or so. They cannot stop the stirring or clots will form.
- Assign another person to hold a fine sieve in mid-air between the blood stream and the tub to remove lumps and discourage the blood from clotting.
- When stirred for a good 30 minutes, bring the tub of blood to your stove top.
- On a low burner, add milk as you continue to stir the blood. Add salt, pepper, finely chopped pig fat, onion, black pepper, allspice and maple syrup.
- Prepare your casings by spreading them out on a table. If using the actual intestines from your gutted pig, then gut the intestines, pull the intestines inside out, scrap the inner lining free of all tissue, soak the intestines in clear water, then pull the intestines back outside in.
- In another pan on the stove, cook oatmeal by slowly adding a bit of water until firm. Do not allow to burn. Add this mixture to the blood while still stirring.
- After twenty minutes, pour the thickened blood mixture slowly into the cleaned intestine casings. As each casing is filled, tie off where desired. Do not pack real tight, allow some slack in the casings as the casings tend to burst during handling.
- Carefully place filled casings in a pan of part water and part milk, simmering slowly for fifteen minutes.
- Remove the casings from the pot and allow to cool as they air dry for an hour, assisting the blood to further set.
- Once cooled, refrigerate to continue setting the sausages.
Now comes the fun part. Everyone eats their boudin noir differently. Some people slice the blood sausage thin and fry in a skittle with a little butter. Others slit the sausages lengthwise and grill, slathering with their special topping. It’s a very personal choice at this point. Whichever way you eat it, you are no more, nor less French Canadian.
Bon appetit.