Blood & Health

We've been talking about blood as food, and some recipes using blood in cooking, but now let's talk about health-related blood.

Blood was considered one of four "humors" that were the key to health and personality. I wrote about these humors before. When the four humors were in balance, health was maintained.

Hippocrates would have it that "The people who have red blood are friendly. They joke and laugh about their bodies, and they are rose tinted, slightly red, and have pretty skin." The adjective sanguine to denote a person who was optimistic or notably positive in their outlook starts in the Middle Ages. The word comes from Old French sanguin(e) "blood red," from Latin sanguineus "of blood," from sanguis, "blood."

The other humors were yellow bile, phlegm, and black bile, but blood was the easiest one to see. Galen believed that blood carried the pneuma, the spirit, which accounted for its red color. Blood was associated with the element of air, and an excess of blood was thought to be responsible for inflammation, fever, and aggression.

To rid a suffering person of excess blood, phlebotomy, the practice of opening a vein and letting blood out, was developed. Ancient Egypt and the 5th-century BCE time of Hippocrates used bloodletting to help patients heal from illness. Just as menstruation was believed to purge women of "bad humors," bloodletting became a common technique.

In 1163, Pope Alexander III decided it was inappropriate for monks and priests to shed blood (repeated at the Fourth Lateran Council), so their time as practitioners of the medical techniques came to an end. Clergy could still be physicians, but not surgeons.

Medieval art symbolized a physician with a man holding up a flask. That flask, however, was not filled with blood.What it was filled with, and how it was used to diagnose illness, we'll discuss next time.

Blood Recipes

We talked yesterday about preparing and preserving blood for culinary use, now let's look at some more specific uses in medieval cuisine. Today we actually discuss some recipes using blood. (For the record, I never have and never intend to make any of these.)

Viking Blood Bread

At an archaeological site in Sweden, a piece of bread was discovered that was found to have blood in the mix. In the book An Early Meal by Daniel Serra and Hanna Tunberg, you will find a hypothetical version of the recipe that produced the "blood bread."

Take 2 cups fresh blood (strained to remove clots), 1 cup sourdough starter, 1.5 cups water, 1-2 tbsp honey, and roughly 6 cups whole wheat or barley flour. (No salt is needed: blood is already salty, which you know if you've ever split your lip).

Then, stir the sourdough and honey into the blood. Combine the mixture with the flour and water, kneading until smooth and slightly sticky. Let the dough rise for about 90 minutes to 2 hours until doubled. Shape into loaves, allow to rest, and bake at 425°F (220° C) for 25 to 30 minutes. [link]

Galantine (Blood sauce)

Galantine is a word used for different recipes, and not all use blood, but here's one that makes dark sauce for roasted meats.

Along with fresh blood, take red wine or verjuice (the juice of unripe grapes or apples), spices like cinnamon or cloves, and stale breadcrumbs. Combine the red wine or verjuice with shallots (or garlic) and the drippings from the roasted meat. Simmer over low heat, then stir in the breadcrumbs and blood to thicken (remember not to let the blood boil, lest it curdle as was mentioned yesterday). Pour over roasted meat and serve.

A little more on blood tomorrow, and then we'll find another topic, I promise.

Blood as Food

There's a scene early in The Name of the Rose involving barrels of pigs' blood. It was autumn, and time to slaughter the pigs, but of course you wouldn't want to waste the blood.

You could not, however, just let the blood pour into a container and sit, because it coagulates quickly and becomes unusable. If you intend to try any recipes using fresh blood, remember that you must immediately stir the fresh blood constantly while it cools (if you've ever made a hollandaise, you'll know how tedious this can be).

Vinegar or wine could also be added to the blood. The acidity in them lowered the pH and slowed bacterial growth, keeping the blood smooth. (Consider this site if you want modern pointers on this process.) None of this is unusual for cultures that used every part of an animal. Blood was a rich source of protein as well as flavoring.

As for the actual use of the preserved blood? It acts as a binder, and could be used to give texture to a broth. It could also thicken a sauce, but blood curdles when heated, so it would be stirred into a sauce just before serving.

Casual reading about life in the Middle Ages will often turn up references to black pudding, made with pork sausage, pigs' blood, and suet. Blood sausage was made by combining blood with oatmeal, suet, breadcrumbs, and spices, then stuffed into casings (cleaned-out intestine), and allowed to cool and "set." Once parboiled then chilled, they could last awhile before being eaten. (The picture here comes from this site with a detailed recipe.)

Tomorrow I'll share some recipes from different medieval cultures.