I should put this on Boudin sourdough.

[madbaker]

This week's Resolution Recipe: Boudin Noir.
Feodosia raised a hog and had it butchered Monday; she asked if I could come over to help turn the cheeks into guanciale, and also to use up some of the hog blood. We actually made two separate recipes, but I'm only posting this one as it was much better. The other (a Navajo blood sausage with corn meal and green chiles) was meh.

2 lbs yellow onions
2 lbs pork back fat
2 lbs apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
2 Tbsp paprika (I used 1 Tbsp paprika and 1 Tbsp smoked paprika)
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 Tbsp black pepper
2 Tbsp salt
no garlic (I added... more)
2 quarts hog's blood
1/2 cup heavy cream

hog casings

Grind the onions and fat through a medium plate. Saute apples in the butter. Blend the fat mixture with the seasonings and apples. Stir in the blood, then add the cream (which helps maintain good color).

String a length of casing onto the end of a large funnel. (The mixture is too liquid to feed through a motorized stuffer.) Tie a knot at the end of the casing and ladle the mixture to fill the casing, not completely full so that there's room to twist links.

Poach for 35 minutes on lowest heat, not allowing the water to boil after the sausages are added. Remove, cool, and chill. Saute in butter or grill for 18-20 minutes and serve hot.

What worked: These tasted exactly like a good Fronch boudin noir. Not overly blood-y but rich and flavorful. I might cook some up for a homeowners' meeting with a poached egg, sauteed mushrooms, and grilled tomato.

What didn't: I forgot to bring my meat grinder attachment and so I hand-chopped the fat. This worked fine but I pinched a nerve slightly in my middle finger; it still hasn't quite recovered full feeling today, although it's getting better. We had a couple blowouts, mostly due to overfilling and then twisting the casing into links. And it was a loooong day with driving to their place and back through Napa traffic, a day after driving home from Purg through Santa Rosa traffic.

Will I make it again? Not in a hurry to do so, but I wouldn't mind. This made quite a lot - which fortunately Feodosia and her husband had the freezer room to store. I only took home eight or ten links, partly because I've bogarted much of the room in our joint freezer already.

What I'm reading: Brent Weeks, The Black Prism

Comments

[gormflaith.livejournal.com]

That sounds really yummy.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Mmm, real black pudding. I miss that...

(I was in fact going to say "Oh, you minced the fat instead of hand-chopping?" with a tone of disappointment in my voice - then I reached the bit where you did in fact hand-chop, and felt much happier except for your finger. That's a proper English black pudding, where the fat is discernible to the eye and textured in the mouth; I love boudin/morcilla, but it's such a shame to lose that extra layer of experience.)

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

I've moved to hand-chopping fat almost exclusively. I often hand-chop the meat as well - it's a much better texture.