Cooking with blood

sang de porc - pork blood

Vampires would be proud and happy, because today I cooked with blood. The recipe was a kind of Coq Au Vin, but the bloody version. It called for 50ml fresh blood - of a pig, that is, not a human (I felt I should clarify before burning at the stake).

We used it as a thickening agent for the recipe's sauce. The trick is that you have to avoid coagulating it, so you can't cook it after adding it to your coq bones or trimmings reduction.

bloody goodness?

Fresh blood, no coagulation, check. Now for the kicker - the taste. If you can get beyond to inevitable metallic taste, then you're good to go. It's a hearty ingredient for a winter's dish; and it can help you achieve that tar black sauce you've been looking for.

my coq-au-vin style chicken with red wine and blood sauce

Many, many countries use blood for cooking. I've had it before, often in the form of a blood sausage, or morcilla, that is commonly eaten in Colombia and Spain, among other countries. However, it was my first time cooking with it. Because I have a minor and reasonable obsession with teenage vampire novels and HBO vampire shows that shall remain unnamed out of complete shame, I found the need to write about cooking with what vampires find most delicious. Even though blood is not one of my favorite ingredients, and given that the French like their meat very rare, or "bleu" and blood oozes out of their steaks without producing any out-of-the-ordinary reactions, a recipe that includes 50ml fresh blood seemed like something to write home about.