Blodpudding
Swedish blood pudding with rye flour, firm and sliceable. It is fried in thick slices and served with lingonberry jam and bacon. A classic of the Christmas Julbord.
| Fresh pig’s or ox blood | 400 ml |
| Rye flour | 150 g |
| Wheat flour | 80 g |
| Melted lard | 150 g |
| Dark beer (svagdricka) or broth | 150 ml |
| Grated onion | 80 g |
| Fine salt | 15 g |
| Ground white pepper | 2 g |
| Ground allspice | 2 g |
| Ground ginger | 1 g |
| Malt syrup or molasses | 20 g |
| Wide beef casing (Ø 60–80 mm) or loaf tin | — |
- Preparing the batter: Mix the flours with the salt and the spices. Gradually add the beaten blood, warm melted lard, beer (or broth), and malt syrup. Whisk to a smooth batter without lumps.
- Adding the onion: Add the grated onion.
- Resting: Rest the batter for 30 minutes to let the flours absorb the liquid.
- Stuffing or moulding: Stuff into the wide casings without packing too tightly (the blodpudding swells), or pour into buttered loaf tins.
- Poaching: Cook in barely simmering water at 75–80 °C for 1½ to 2 hours according to diameter. Never boil.
- Cooling: Leave to cool completely before turning out or slicing.
- Serving: Slice into rounds 1.5 cm thick. Fry in butter over medium-high heat until the crust is golden. Serve with lingonberry jam (lingonsylt) and crisp bacon.
The firm, sliceable texture of the blodpudding, close to that of a meatloaf, results from the high proportion of rye and wheat flours in the forcemeat. It sets it apart from the suppler French boudin noir and the more crumbly Finnish mustamakkara. The malt syrup or molasses brings a sweetness characteristic of the Nordic charcuteries.
The blodpudding has long appeared in Swedish cookery compilations. Its making was bound to the autumn pig slaughter, the blood having to be transformed within hours. The svagdricka, a light malted Swedish beer brewed in monasteries and on farms since the Middle Ages, is the historic ingredient in the recipe. It brings a slight bitterness and a malty note that balance the sweetness of the blood and the syrup. Contemporary recipes often replace it with broth or dark beer, but it remains the reference in the artisanal versions.
It is served in slices fried in butter, with lingonberry jam (lingonsylt) and crisp bacon. It appears on the Julbord, the great Swedish Christmas buffet, alongside the julskinka (Christmas ham), the prinskorv (see the following recipe) and gravlax.
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