# The Return of the Christmas Blood Sausage! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 27, 2020, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-the-christmas-blood-sausage/929036 "2020-12-27T20:18:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2020, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-the-christmas-blood-sausage/929036/1 "2020-12-27T20:18:29Z")
When I was growing up, after the Christmas morning present-a-plooza šŸŽ šŸŽ šŸŽ, my mom always made us Christmas brunch: bacon and eggs, toast, orange juice, and blood sausage (or black pudding, for the squeamish) (non D&D variant), plus porridge. Mmmmm, good. Black pudding with little white bits. Nice Brit-ethnic brunch. Then time passed. It became hard to find blood sausage. ā€œNot much call for it anymoreā€, said our small town butcher. And Maple Leaf meats stopped making it. Finding the blood sausage for Christmas brunch became a quest every year. Occasionally found some variants, greatly inferior to the Maple Leaf version I grew up with. Until it stopped. No more blood sausage at Christmas. šŸ˜© Years go by. Mrs Piper is browsing our local Italian deli web-page, looking for a charcuterie board for Christmas Eve. ā€œDo you know the Italian deli sells blood-sausage?ā€ she asks. Whoo-hoo! Blood sausage is advertised. Not a traditional Italian delicacy, so far as I know, but blood sausage! I go off to the deli the next morning, as soon as it opens. Canā€™t take a chance on it selling out! Yay - they have blood sausage! Honking big ones, not the little one-family size that Maple Leaf used to make. I order a good sized chunk, and bring it home. Excelsior! We didnā€™t do Christmas brunch, but I made it this morning to go with pancakes and bacon. A bit tricky to cook without a non-stick pan, but, THE BLOOD SAUSAGE HAS RETURNED! A Christmas tradition revived! šŸŽ„ šŸŽ„ šŸŽ„ šŸŽµ šŸŽ¶ Hark the Herald Angels singā€¦ šŸŽ¶ šŸŽµ ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2020, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-the-christmas-blood-sausage/929036/2 "2020-12-27T21:25:24Z")
Congratulations! That does sound enticing. Iā€™m rather fond of the stuff despite not being of UKish birth or recent descent. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2020, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-the-christmas-blood-sausage/929036/3 "2020-12-27T21:27:20Z")
Enjoyable! I had some last year in Spain. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2020, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-the-christmas-blood-sausage/929036/4 "2020-12-28T09:03:47Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Blood sausage is advertised. Not a traditional Italian delicacy, so far as I know, but blood sausage! I believe most European countries have some sort of blood sausage. They even have it at the canteen at work (Switzerland). I have a friend from northern Italy who makes (and eats) tripe, so I could imagine that blood sausage is also available in his area. Glad you enjoyed it. I really enjoy a big cooked breakfast, but my husband doesnā€™t, so I only get that when we travel. Something else to look forward to. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2020, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-the-christmas-blood-sausage/929036/5 "2020-12-28T14:02:55Z")
Yes, itā€™s all over the place in the world. In Italy itā€™s _sanguinaccio_ or _biroldo_. In Poland itā€™s _kiszka_. In the German-speaking countries, itā€™s _Blutwurst_. In Hungary, itā€™s _kiszka_. In France, itā€™s _boudin noir_. In Spain (and other Spanish-speaking countries), itā€™s _morcilla_. And so on and so forth. I know Iā€™ve seen types of blood sausages in Asian stores, as well. There are many, many cultures that have blood sausage. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2020, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-the-christmas-blood-sausage/929036/6 "2020-12-28T14:12:19Z")
That said, around here, the only dependable place to get blood sausage is Eastern European groceries. The ones near my house almost always have _kiszka_ or _kaszanka_, the Polish version of such. I still have it for breakfast with a lot of pepper as a side for soft-yolked fried eggs and a piece of Polish rye from time to time. Mexican _morcilla_ Iā€™ve only been served at a restaurant ā€“ havenā€™t seen it at any of the Mexican shops. Thereā€™s also an Irish grocery here that sells both black and white sausages. Iā€™ve seen what I think were blood sausages or variations on such at Asian markets, but those I wasnā€™t sure about. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2020, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-the-christmas-blood-sausage/929036/7 "2020-12-28T14:20:41Z")
Dammit, in Hungary itā€™s _vĆ©res hurka_. Still waking up. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2020, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-the-christmas-blood-sausage/929036/8 "2020-12-28T14:40:16Z")
Iā€™ve tasted blood sausage in Germany, but i donā€™t recall either loving or hating it. There are other ways of cooking with blood. I remember a Polish friend going to some effort to buy duck blood around the holidays to thicken her soup. Anyway, congrats! Itā€™s always nice to find those forgotten treats. Speaking of whichā€¦i have a piece of smoked mackerel in my fridge, that i bought yesterday. I havenā€™t been able to buy smoked mackerel where i live since the deli of my youth shut down, decades ago. I used to love the stuff. I bought some in Germany last year that was as delicious as i remember. I hope todayā€™s lunch lives up my memory, too. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2020, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-the-christmas-blood-sausage/929036/9 "2020-12-28T15:56:27Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > There are other ways of cooking with blood. I remember a Polish friend going to some effort to buy duck blood around the holidays to thicken her soup. _Czarnina_ or _Czernina_, duck blood soup. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2020, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-the-christmas-blood-sausage/929036/10 "2020-12-28T16:48:45Z")
I took a Mediterranean cruise a couple of years ago and the ship had black pudding in the breakfast buffet. I quite liked it and I ate more than my fair share every morning. I havenā€™t had it before or since, though. On the other hand, I wasnā€™t a big fan of Nanjing-style duck blood and vermicelli soup when I had it. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-the-christmas-blood-sausage/929036/11 "2020-12-29T05:31:59Z")
The only black pudding I eat is made by Jello. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-return-of-the-christmas-blood-sausage/929036/12 "2020-12-29T06:25:56Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Mexican _morcilla_ Iā€™ve only been served at a restaurant ā€“ havenā€™t seen it at any of the Mexican shops. I know morcilla as a Puerto Rican dish and wasnā€™t aware of the Mexican version. I also donā€™t recall having encountered it for retail sale.