
Everything You Need to Know About Cooking with Blood - juanplusjuan
http://magazine.good.is/features/the-nordic-food-lab-cooks-with-blood
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bane
Koreans have a dish well known for fighting hangovers "Haejangguk". It's
actually one of the better soups that comes out of the Korean kitchen, super
hearty fantastic fighting colds and eating _when_ you're cold.

When I first was introduced to it, sometime in the early 2000s, I actually
found it just a little gross since every bowl came with two or big pieces of
congealed blood in the soup. I usually just set those aside and ate on, but I
always found it a bit off putting.

There's been an interesting transition in Korean food though over the last
decade or so, I've found it harder and harder to find Haejangguk _with_ the
blood anymore. I remember it being in pretty much every bowl I ordered, and
now I'm shocked if I find the blood in 1 out of 20 different restaurants.

As Koreans as a culture start to really interface with outsiders, it seems
like these old home-style ways of making foods are starting to fall out of
fashion, and "nicer", more mass produced, more consistent foods are taking
over.

I find it kind of sad personally, I spent a lot of time acquiring a taste for
lots of Korean food and it was hard won. But as I learned to like it, the
complexity and heartiness of the cuisine really started appealing to me.

The modern stuff you get in the supermarket cafeteria? Not so much.

~~~
Recoil42
I'm curious, where do you live? Do you make this observation coming from South
Korea, or, for example, Los Angeles?

~~~
bane
I grew up and live near D.C. at present (near the 2nd or 3rd largest Korean
population outside of Korea after L.A. and maybe NYC depending on how you
count). I've been back and forth to Korea about a half dozen times over last
13 years and have noticed the trend there as well (I'm not Korean, but my wife
is).

My in-laws (Korean) are all talking about how hard it is to get kids to eat
the kinds of foods they grew up with: salty, spicy, fermented (and generally
pretty nutritious), and instead their kids are dead set on eating what they
call "American foods" like hamburgers and pizza. Their parents complain about
having to tone down certain strong flavors and ingredients in order to get
their kids to eat the food at all.

I don't think it's quite as bad as they say, but I and my extended family in
Korea have all noticed a rising wave of both obese kids in Korea, and much
_taller_ kids than any previous generation.

For people of my wife's generation, I'm usually near the top of the height
range for any random selection of people (I'm 5'9"). For those same people's
kids, by the time they're in high school, they're usually a few cm taller than
all of us. I can really only think of a couple kids who didn't at least reach
my height, but at least half their parents are shorter than me.

Because I've managed to cultivate a taste for the more old fashioned flavors,
people are frequently pretty surprised at what I'll eat. I've even sat by
sheepishly while a mother severely scolded her son for not eating traditional
Korean food as well as this foreigner. People say I eat Korean food like an
old ajusshi if that makes any sense to you.

As the default hangover cure, I've had _lots_ of this soup both here in the
U.S., but mostly in Korea. You can still find it made the old way, usually in
pretty spare looking old restaurants from back in the 70s or 80s. Newer places
never seem to have it with the blood.

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gkop
You don't even necessarily need to kill the animal to consume its blood -
[http://www.thomsonsafaris.com/blog/traditional-maasai-
diet-b...](http://www.thomsonsafaris.com/blog/traditional-maasai-diet-blood-
milk/) . Yum.

~~~
platz
I first heard about this recently listening to Dan Carlin explain that since
the Mongol armies were all calvaly, they could use this technique and
eliminate the need for supply lines, making them super mobile and self-
sufficient.

~~~
idlewords
Brings a new perspective to the rider on a pale horse in the Book of
Revelation.

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bshimmin
Black pudding is pretty common in the UK:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pudding](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pudding)

It's also delicious.

~~~
wanda
Black pudding is one of my favourite foods. It's the reason why I love the so-
called English breakfast so much, though it's easier to find black pudding in
Scottish and Irish cafes.

Honestly if iron wasn't toxic beyond a certain level, and if it wasn't
generally inadvisable to eat an unvaried diet, I would probably substitute
most of my meals for black pudding and scrambled eggs... in toasted bagels.
Perfection.

~~~
arethuza
Black pudding and fried egg rolls are my fuel for skiing in Scotland... :-)

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Cyranix
This is a great reminder for me to follow through on making the recipe for
chocolate blood ice cream from Jennifer Lagan's book Odd Bits[0]. I already
checked with a local butcher and got the details about sourcing blood from
their partner abattoir. If anyone has attempted this before and cares to offer
extra tips, I'd be grateful!

[0] [http://www.amazon.com/Odd-Bits-Cook-Rest-
Animal/dp/158008334...](http://www.amazon.com/Odd-Bits-Cook-Rest-
Animal/dp/158008334X)

~~~
Cyranix
s/Lagan/McLagan

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krakensden
> We started out on a project on traditional Arctic snacks, but it was really
> difficult to get them tasty, because the traditional recipes were not made
> to be tasty. As soon as there’s seal fat included, that gets awfully
> difficult.

I just finished "The Last Place on Earth", about the race to the south pole,
and one of Amundsen's obsessions was with ensuring that he had an experienced
arctic cook.

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xentronium
FWIW, Russian kids are probably familiar with blood products. We have a treat
called hematogen bar for people with anemia. It's made out of cow's blood and
quite tasty, so non-anemic kids eat it anyways.

~~~
simonpantzare
Same goes for Swedish kids. AFAIK blodpudding (~black pudding) is still served
in many school kitchens.

~~~
bni
Blodpudding tastes great with the traditional lingonberry jam.

Though a large part of Swedes, both children and adults, refuse to eat
blodpudding. Id say this food culture is hanging on by a bare thread, and will
probably disappear in a few generations.

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Adaptive
The uni in Thailand that I first worked at had a very common canteen setup
that served delicious noodles with fresh vegetables and nutritious, cheap,
gray cubes of blood. Pretty standard asian fare.

Glad that this has now been discovered by white people.

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cbp
Moronga is a common enough dish in mexican cuisine (and a few other
countries). It's a sausage made with pig's blood.

~~~
bambax
It's called "boudin noir" in France, it's quite popular, cheap and very very
delicious.

I wonder what the author means when he says "sometime in recent history, we
forgot how to use blood". Who's we?

~~~
bkurtz13
Americans.

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foobarian
I was somewhat surprised they didn't bring up hot and sour soup. It commonly
has little strips of cooked pig blood.

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twidlit
In the Philippines, Dinuguan is one of our top 5 best known dishes.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinuguan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinuguan)

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funkyy
There is this well known soup in Poland called "czernina". It is made from
duck blood and clear poultry broth

Due to health issues and people switching diets to more European and American
dishes the soup is diminished to disappear within next 2-3 decades. It is a
great part of the Polish culture though.

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llllllllllll
In Cambodia coagulated pig and chicken blood are common, especially in soups
and rice porridge/gruel.

I eat it daily. Pig blood has a firmer texture and a more neutral taste --
it's comparable to tofu in both regards. I strongly prefer it to chicken
blood.

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ableal
_" But blood recipes have been part of the food of every culture in Europe
that was slaughtering pigs or cows."_

Chicken, too. There's a Portuguese dish called "arroz de cabidela", which is
rice prepared with chicken blood.

~~~
pjmlp
That's not faire reminding me of it! It is not something we can get living
abroad. :)

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rumdz
When I was in Ecuador, I had a dish known as Yaguarlocro. It included dried
pig's blood. It was a hearty and delicious soup.

