The Decadent Cookbook by Jerome Fletcher Alex Martin Medlar Lucan Durian Gray Page A

GARNI
    PINCH OF MACE
    6 CLOVES
    12 PEPPERCORNS
    1 TEASPOON OF SALT
    1 GLASS OF PORT
    ¼ PT OF RED WINE
    1 TABLESPOON OF REDCURRANT JELLY

    Don’t forget to ask the butcher for the blood. Chop the meat into 11/2 inch pieces. Separate the legs from the thighs. Fry the bacon for 3 to 4 minutes in a large pan. Add the meat, vegetables and brown as evenly as possible. Put into a casserole with herbs, mace, cloves, salt and peppercorns. Cover tightly with foil and then the lid. Stand in boiling water (this is why it is ‘jugged’ hare) which comes at least half-way up the pot. Keep the vessel covered so the water does not boil off. Boil for three hours, restoring the level of water if necessary.
    After three hours, lift the lid of the pot containing the hare and add red wine, port and redcurrant jelly. Add a little salt and pepper. Add the blood of the hare and stir in well. The dish can be reheated a little, but on no account allow it to boil, otherwise the blood will curdle.
    Jugged hare is very rich and is best served with something plain. Hungarian blood fritters, for instance. These might be served in homage to Countess Elisabeth.
B LOOD FRITTERS

    B LOOD OF 1 GOOSE OR DUCK, OR 1 PT OF PIG’S BLOOD
    SALT
    2 OZ FAT
    1 LARGE ONION
    P APRIKA

    Slice the onion and lightly fry in the fat. Slice or cube the congealed blood and add it to the onion. Season it with salt and paprika. Fry for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring continuously. Serve with boiled potatoes which have been tossed in hot bacon dripping, and accompany with a salad such as cucumber.
B LOOD SAUSAGES
(1) - B OUDIN NOIR

    400 G ONIONS, CHOPPED
    100 G LARD
    750 G FRESH PORK FAT, DICED
    BOUQUET GARNI
    40 G SALT
    1 GLASS WHITE WINE
    ½ TSP BLACK PEPPER
    ½ TSP ALLSPICE
    ¾ CUP CREAM
    HOG CASINGS

    Fry the onions in the lard until soft. Soften the pork fat to the point of translucency by heating gently in a pan. Tip in the onions and bouquet garni and cook for 20 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and stir continuously as you pour in the blood. 1 litre of pig’s blood, which you prevent from coagulating either by draining it straight from the hanging carcass and stirring over hot embers, or by diluting with 1 tablespoon of wine vinegar. Add wine, salt, pepper and allspice. Sieve out any unmelted fat, add cream and stir thoroughly. Pour the mixture through a funnel into the casing which you have taken the precaution of knotting at one end (or wear stout galoshes). Squeeze it along with your hand until you have 4 to 6 inches of filled sausage, then twist repeatedly and carry on filling to form into links. Knot the top end and drop into boiling water. Cook the boudins at just below boiling point for 20 minutes and prick as they swim to the surface. When a brown liquid oozes out they’re done. Drain and cool.
    To serve, grill for 5 minutes on each side and lay on apples fried in pork fat. Alternatively, fry onions in pork fat, keep them warm while you fry the boudin in the same fat, then serve together with pieces of pig’s liver and heart. This, says Elizabeth David, is a good, rough, old-fashioned French way of serving the blood sausage, ‘but is not exactly easy on the digestion.’ Well worth trying.

    Two pretty variations from Alsace: Schwarzwurst (black sausage) - made from pig’s blood, crackling, ears, boned head and trotters, fat and onions - and Zungenwurst (tongue sausage) - which is a normal boudin noir ornamented with geometrically inserted pieces of pig’s tongue wrapped in bacon.
B LOOD SAUSAGES
(2) - G OGUES

    These are from Anjou, and are less crude than their colleagues, as the presence of cream and vegetables suggests.

    9 OZ EACH OF SPINACH BEET, SPINACH ,
    LETTUCE AND ONIONS
    SALT
    PEPPER
    3 TABLESPOONS LARD
    9 OZ STREAKY BACON
    CINNAMON
    MIXED SPICE
    6 TABLESPOONS DOUBLE CREAM
    ½ PINT PIG’S BLOOD
    HOG CASING

    Chop the vegetables, add salt and pepper, set aside for 12 hours. Dice the bacon and fry without browning. Melt the lard in a casserole,