Boudin Créole Pimenté
Réunionese blood sausage, bound with bread and strongly flavoured with onions and parsley, lifted with kaffir lime and chilli. It adapts the French blood-sausage technique to the island’s products and differs from the Antillean boudin by its proportion of fresh aromatics and by the absence of diced fat.
| Fresh pig’s blood (or salt-preserved) | 500 ml |
| Stale bread soaked in milk or water | 200 g |
| White onions, sliced and softened | 200 g |
| Oignons-pays (chives), finely shredded | 100 g |
| Flat-leaf parsley, chopped | 30 g |
| Pork fat (jowl), melted | 100 g |
| Garlic, crushed | 15 g |
| Fresh ginger, grated | 10 g |
| Fresh Creole thyme, chopped | 5 g |
| Kaffir lime zest, finely grated | 3 g |
| Hot local chilli, deseeded, very finely chopped | 1 (or ½) |
| Old agricultural rum | 30 ml |
| Fine salt | 18 g |
| Ground black pepper | 3 g |
| Ground allspice | 2 g |
| Hog casing (Ø 32–36 mm) | — |
- Preparing the blood: Beat the blood vigorously to loosen it and remove the clots. Strain through a fine sieve. Keep cold.
- Preparing the bread: Cut the stale bread into pieces, soak them in the milk or lukewarm water, then press to remove the excess liquid.
- Aromatic preparation: Soften the white onions over gentle heat until translucent. Separately, melt the jowl fat. Shred the raw onions. Leave to cool.
- Mixing: Bring together the blood, the pressed bread, the softened and raw onions, the melted fat, the garlic, the ginger, the parsley, the thyme, the kaffir lime zest, the chilli, the rum and the spices. Mix to a homogeneous, supple mass.
- Seasoning test: Poach a small quantity of the forcemeat, then taste to adjust the salt and the chilli.
- Stuffing: Stuff into the hog casing, avoiding air bubbles. Form portions without excessive tightening.
- Poaching: Poach in simmering water (around 85 °C), without letting it boil, until a prick no longer releases red liquid.
- Serving: Serve hot, or cool, then reheat. The boudin créole is eaten as an aperitif or cooked in a rougail.
The Réunionese boudin créole belongs to the French charcuterie tradition carried into the Indian Ocean from the seventeenth century by settlers from Poitou, Brittany and Normandy. Its basic technique, blood mixed with a binder, stuffed then poached, is inherited from the continental boudin noir. Its composition places it elsewhere: bread, oignons-pays and parsley in abundance, kaffir lime, Creole thyme, chilli and old agricultural rum define it as a preparation proper to the island.
The kaffir lime (Citrus hystrix) is the signature spice. This small citrus with a warty skin, naturalised in Réunion, is used exclusively for its zest, whose essential oil diffuses a complex citrus aroma, close to that of the Thai kaffir lime. Its presence in the Réunionese boudin is attested by family recipes since the nineteenth century. The old agricultural rum, at 30 ml per kilo, plays a dual role: aromatic and preservative.
The soaked bread, pressed and then worked into the forcemeat, gives the Réunionese boudin its supple texture, setting it apart from the Antillean boudin, which is richer in fat. The recipes vary: some add turmeric, others lemongrass or aubergine leaves. The coastal versions are generally more supple, while those of the Hauts are denser.
The boudin créole is eaten grilled or pan-fried, as a starter or with a tomato rougail. Its making belongs to the kalou cochon, the collective pig slaughter practised in the Hauts of the island (Cilaos, Saint-Joseph, Plaine-des-Palmistes), which gathers the extended family around the complete transformation of the animal.
The book
All 144 recipes and their histories, gathered in a single volume.