Some cultures consume blood as food, often in combination with meat. This may be in the form of blood sausage, as a thickener for sauces, a cured salted form for times of food scarcity, or in a blood soup. The Maasai of Tanzania consume the blood of cattle—which is let directly from the neck of the live animal and the wound allowed to heal—mixed with milk. In other cultures, blood is a taboo food.
Sausage[]
Blood sausage, rice pudding or black pudding is any sausage made by cooking animal blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled. Pig or cattle blood is most often used. Typical fillers include meat, fat, suet, bread, rice, barley and oatmeal. Varieties include drisheen, moronga, black pudding, blutwurst, blood tongue, kishka (kaszanka), biroldo, morcilla, mustamakkara, verivorst, and many types of boudin.
Pancakes[]
Blood pancakes are encountered in Scandinavia and the Baltic; for example, Swedish blodplättar, Finnish veriohukainen, and Estonian veripannkoogid; and Galicia, filloas de sangue.
Soups, Stews and Sauces[]
Blood soups and stews, which use blood as part of the broth, include czernina, dinuguan, haejangguk, mykyrokka, pig's organ soup, tiet canh and svartsoppa.
Blood is also used as a thickener in sauces, such as coq au vin or pressed duck, and puddings, such as tiết canh. It can provide flavor or color for meat, as in cabidela.
Solidified[]
Blood can also be used as a solid ingredient, either by allowing it to congeal before use, or by cooking it to accelerate the process. In Hungary when a pig is slaughtered in the morning the blood is fried with onions and is served for breakfast.
In China, "blood tofu" (Chinese: 血豆腐; pinyin: xuě dòufǔ), is most often made with pig's or duck's blood, although chicken's or cow's blood may also be used. The blood is allowed to congeal and simply cut into rectangular pieces and cooked. This dish is also known in Java as saren, made with chicken's or pig's blood. Blood tofu is found in curry mee as well as the Sichuan dish, maoxuewang.
In Tibet, congealed yak's blood is a traditional food.