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

gently cook the vegetables in it, then add the bacon together with a dash of cinnamon and mixed spice. Stir. Remove from heat. Add cream and blood. Fill the hog casing, and make a twist every 6 inches. Tie the open end and poach in hot (not quite boiling) water for half an hour. Prick the skins as the sausages float to the surface. Drain and cool. Slice thickly and fry in butter or lard until they turn brown.
B LOOD SAUSAGES
(3) - W ELSH B LOOD P UDDING

    This refreshing recipe comes from the Principality via Antony and Araminta Hippisley Coxe, authors of The Book of Sausages .

    T HE BLOOD OF A FRESHLY KILLED PIG
    1 PINT WELL WATER
    SALT AND PEPPER
    ONIONS
    HERBS TO TASTE
    A LITTLE FAT FROM THE INTESTINE
    OATMEAL
    HOG CASINGS

    Gather the blood into a big bowl while it is still warm and stir until it is cold. Add the well water and a little salt and leave the liquid to stand overnight. Wash the casing well and also leave to stand overnight in salt water.
    Next day, chop the onions and the fat and coat them with oatmeal, season with herbs and pepper and stir into the blood. Push the mixture into the casing. Tie both ends with string; boil for about 30 minutes and then hang to dry. It can be served sliced and fried with rashers of thick, salty bacon.

    Finding a dessert to round off this meal is not easy. Robert May in his book Accomplisht Cook, written in 1660, mentions a very fine fancy. A stag is sculpted out of painted sugar and almond paste and filled with softly set claret jelly. The stag is then stuck with an arrow in such a way that when it is drawn by one of the guests, the jelly pours out like blood oozing from a wound. An amusing alternative to the stag would be a Saint Sebastian, life-size perhaps, thus allowing more than one guest the pleasure of drawing an arrow. For those who may not have the time to sculpt a life-size St. Sebastian, the following Scottish recipe is a possibility.

    ½ PT OF BLOOD
    ½ PT OF CREAM
    S ALT
    C INNAMON
    N UTMEG
    A SPRIG OF MINT
    C HIVES
    F AT

    Lamb’s blood is recommended as being the sweetest. Stir it and remove any clot, or else pass it through a sieve. Mix it together with the cream. Season with the salt, a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg. Finely chop a sprig of mint and the chives. Mince the fat and add it with the mint and chives to the mixture. Pour into a heavy saucepan and cook in the oven or on top of the stove.

    If that doesn’t appeal as a dessert, try this instead. It’s a traditional recipe at Boodle’s, with a difference - rather than using ordinary oranges, use blood oranges.
C RIMSON T ART

    4 BLOOD ORANGES
    2 LEMONS
    1½ PINTS OF CREAM
    8 SPONGE CAKES
    ¼ LB CASTER SUGAR

    Mix the juice of all the fruit with the grated rind of a lemon and 2 oranges. Stir in the sugar, and beat in one pint of the cream. Blend well. Cut each sponge cake into four pieces and put into a bowl. Pour the mixture over the cakes. Chill for several hours and pour the remaining whipped cream on top before serving.

    A daring alternative is Blutwurst. These are eaten cold in Germany. Their purplish-crimson flesh is highly suited to the Decadent table, and their cloying, fungal, slightly rotten taste makes them a lavish and unsettling dessert.
B LUTWURST

    DICED BACON
    CALF’S OR PIG’S LUNG
    PIG’S BLOOD
    CLOVES, MACE, MARJORAM
    BULLOCK RUNNERS, CUT TO 15 INCH LENGTHS

    Season the blood with the herbs and spices in a bowl. Boil the chopped lungs and bacon. Tie one end of the bullock runner with string, fill with blood, lungs and bacon, tie the other end, and boil for half an hour. Serve cold in very thin slices, with a blanket of chocolate sauce.

    As for drink to accompany this meal, the most obvious choice is Egri Bikavér, the famous Hungarian red wine otherwise known as “Bulls’ Blood”. There is a legend that during the Middle Ages bulls’ blood was indeed added to the wine to give it its dark red, almost black colour. The other possibilities are somewhat more