Flönz

The fat shows as white specks in a red-brown sausage, and that is what the eye is meant to check.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains pork, sausage casings, which are gut unless it says otherwise.

Ingredients

• 500 ml pig's blood, strained
• 400 g pork rind, boiled soft
• 300 g pork head meat, boiled and diced
• 250 g pork back fat, in 1 cm dice
• 2 onions, chopped and softened
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
• natural hog casings

Method

1. THE FAT SHOWS AS WHITE SPECKS IN A RED-BROWN SAUSAGE, AND THAT IS WHAT THE EYE IS MEANT TO CHECK. The article describes the finished thing before anything else: the sausage IS RED-BROWN ON THE OUTSIDE, WHILE IT IS ALSO RED-BROWN INSIDE WITH VISIBLE SPECKS OF WHITE PORK FAT.
2. SO THE FAT MUST STAY IN PIECES, which decides how it is cut and how it is mixed. Centimetre dice, folded in by hand at the end and not a moment before. Minced with everything else it melts into the blood and the slice comes out an even dark brown -- edible, and not this sausage.
3. AND THE RIND IS WHAT SETS IT. The article's list is PORK, VARIOUS PARTS OF PIG SUCH AS RIND, HEAD, AND PIG'S BLOOD, WITH THE ADDITION OF SALT AND NATURAL SPICES. Boiled rind gives up the gelatine that holds a slice together once it is cold; without it the blood sets crumbly.
4. STRAIN THE BLOOD AND KEEP IT COLD. It clots, and a clot becomes a hard dark lump in the slice.
5. EVERYTHING ELSE GOES IN COOKED AND COOLED. Rind and head meat boiled soft first, onions softened, all of it down to room temperature before the blood sees it -- warm ingredients start to set the blood in the bowl.
6. SEASON IT HARDER THAN SEEMS RIGHT. Blood is flat and cold food tastes of less; the marjoram and cloves are what stop it being merely rich.
7. FILL THE CASINGS LOOSELY, no more than three quarters. The mixture swells as the blood sets and a tight casing splits.
8. POACH AT SEVENTY-FIVE DEGREES AND NEVER LET IT BOIL, for about an hour until a skewer comes out clean. Boiling bursts them and the pot turns red.
9. COOL IT COMPLETELY BEFORE SLICING, ideally overnight. Warm, it will not hold a slice at all.
10. IT IS AN INGREDIENT AS MUCH AS A DISH, which the article says outright: Flönz goes into Himmel und Erde, as on its own page, and into Cologne Caviar. It has held a protected geographical indication since 2016.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Germany · All recipes