Boudin noir

The boudin noir is a pig’s blood sausage whose basic composition (blood, animal fat, a cereal or starch binder, and aromatics) is common to charcuterie traditions found on every continent. The immediate use of blood after slaughter, a perishable material available in quantity, belongs to a logic of transformation that precedes any established charcuterie tradition.

Homer’s Odyssey mentions a paunch filled with blood and fat roasted over embers, which several commentators regard as the first written description of a blood sausage. Gastronomic tradition sometimes attributes its invention to a Greek cook named Aphtonite. The De re coquinaria of Apicius, in the fourth century, transmits the oldest explicit recipe for a cased pudding preserved in Western literature, based on cooked egg yolks, pine nuts, onions and leek; blood does not appear explicitly in it, but the structure (prepared mixture, stuffing, poaching) is the one that would define the boudin for two thousand years. The etymology of the word boudin remains disputed. The line most commonly retained by modern dictionaries attaches it to the root bod-, meaning "swelling," which also gave Old French boudine (belly, navel), a vivid description of the swollen casing. The filiation with the Latin botulus (sausage), long proposed, is today contested by linguists because of the difficulty of the phonetic passage.

Mastering blood coagulation during poaching is the decisive technical step: too high a temperature produces a lumpy texture; too low a temperature leaves the forcemeat too liquid.

The French regional variants are numerous. The principal ones are:

• The boudin parisien with melted onions,
• The boudin lyonnais with cream,
• The boudin aux châtaignes of the Limousin,
• The boudin aux pommes of Normandy,
• The boudin valdôtain with red beetroot,
• The strongly spiced boudins créoles of the overseas departments.

In Europe, comparable preparations include the British black pudding, the Spanish morcilla, the German blutwurst, the Finnish mustamakkara, the Swedish blodpudding, the Polish kaszanka and the krvavica of the Balkans. In Latin America, analogous preparations exist under the names moronga in Mexico, prieta in Chile and morcela in Brazil. In Asia, the Korean sundae, the Tibetan gyurma of yak’s blood and the Philippine pinuneg belong to the same family. The list is endless.

It is eaten grilled, pan-fried, or reheated in the oven, with sautéed apples or mashed potatoes, depending on the region. In many traditions, its consumption is bound to the season of the pig slaughter, in autumn and winter.

The town of Mortagne-au-Perche, in the Orne, has been associated with the boudin noir since the nineteenth century. In 1931, at the Exposition Coloniale in Paris, the boudin du Perche won national renown. The Confrérie des Chevaliers du Goûte-Boudin, founded in 1963, holds an international fair each year on the third weekend of March, drawing several thousand visitors, including a competition for the best boudin noir that brings together producers from several countries.

The boudin noir has also left its mark on the French language. François Rabelais, in his Quart Livre (1552), stages the Andouilles and their allies (the ‘Saulcissons montigènes’ and the ‘Boudins saulvaiges’) in a satire that critics generally read as an allegorical evocation of the Protestant peoples.

The Légion Etrangère (French Foreign Legion) owes one of its identity markers to it: there, the boudin designates not the charcuterie but the rolled tent canvas carried on the pack. The verse denying the Belgians their boudin recalls an episode traditionally attached to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, when King Leopold II, bound by Belgian neutrality, recalled the Belgian nationals serving in the Legion, who had to hand back their equipment.