Polish blood sausage
When I young there were always a few traditional Polish foods that I was leery of. Polish blood sausage was not one of them. Why? I did not know it by its English name ‘blood sausage’. My parents would just serve them up with onions and butter and under the Polish name Kiszka. I loved it.
If I knew as a kid, how you make blood sausage there is no way I would have eaten it. What Kiszka is a mix of Kasha or buckwheat (or barely) and pig’s blood. Pig intestines are used as casing. Jewish Kiszka is uses kosher beef intestine stuffed with matzo meal. The Germans have something similar and there is also blood pudding, which does not sound too good to me.
There are different ways that Kiszka is prepared, including spices added to the sausage, such as paprika.
It sounds disguising but it is not only delicious but very healthy. Buckwheat, which is technically not a grain but a fruit, has a lot of Rutin. Vitamin P or rutin is a flavonoid good for capillary permeability. Blood has a lot of nutrients. It serves as the gravy in a lot of meat dishes but here is the main flavor in addition to spices. But the reality is most of this is Buckwheat and the pork is more the flavoring. That is why the price is pretty cheap compare to kielbasa or ham.
Kiszka I bought at the local market. There are many people who make it at home and sell it in Poland.
The way how to prepare Kaszanka is pretty wide open but here is how I do it..
How to cook blood sausage
- Onions are the typical main ingredient that you add. Chop the onions and garlic and butter. The objective is to make the Kiszka crispy. Do not overwhelm it with too much Onions. This should just accent the
- Pepper is a secondary ingredient. I do not add salt as pork has salt anyway, but you can add this.
- Cook it in a pan, I like a black iron skillet as it tastes the best and over a gas stove, but you have to work with what you have. I cook it medium, not high heat. As it cooks I use a fork and break it up.
Cooked Polish blood sausage, it comes apart as you cook it.
Eastern European food is great. I grew up on in the USA and when I moved to Poland I thought it was even better. On any day, no matter where I am I can walk outside my house and get authentic traditional Polish cooking, and it is very cheap also. I think I paid for the above blood sausages about $1.30 total, maybe not even that. It is about 11 Polish złoty per kilogram. That comes out to about 1.50 a pound. Good Polish ham here in Krakow will cost 2 or 3 times that price per kilogram. I have no idea how much it would cost in the states but I do know, that when I am in the USA I can not find food that tastes as good as the food in Poland, even at the Polish shops. Sorry but its true, and I am an American. I guess has to do with the Polish method of farming and the soil and the freshness.
Let me know about your thoughts about Polish blood sausage or Kiszka or Kaszanka. There is also a bloodless version of this sausage and I am sure there is a vegetarian version also, somehow.
5 responses to Polish blood sausage – Kiszka
I love kiszka, too. Here’s my recipe for it, if you try to make it homemade (I don’t use the snouts, etc.) — easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/polishsausages/r/kiszka.htm
My grandparents had a butcher shop that I worked in growing up. They were first generation Polish American. We ate a lot of strange foods and kiszka was one of my favorites. We just put the whole ring into a pan and cooked it slow then browned the outside casing till crisp. At the table we would split the top and add lots of ketchup. Yum!
When Kiszka is cripsy it taste better. I love this. What it amazing about this is it is not only good for you but less than half price of Kielbasa.
Kiszka was one of my favorites when I was a kid until the day that I found out what it was made of. Now I wish they had never told me. Someone should invent a new English name for it too, “blood sausage” just doesn’t make you want to eat it.
Polish sausages are the best for taste
My parents are German but grew up in Poland. The best sausage I ever tasted were from Poland. My grandparents made sausage that you would cut into rounds and fry on the stove. Oddly enough it had plums mixed right into the meat. I was very young and cannot remember the name of this type of sausage. I’ve looked every where to find a similar recipe but no one has ever heard of a fruit/meat sausage. It was a very deep purplish red color similar to blood sausage. I hope someday, somehow, I will find such a recipe. I totally agree with your comments about polish foods tasting very good.
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