Krvavice

The story

Krvavice are the blood sausages of continental Croatia, and rural households cannot imagine kolinje, the family pig slaughter, without them. They use the parts left over from the other work: the head, skin, heart, tongue, spleen and lungs, simmered until the meat slips off the bone. The same broth half-cooks the grain. Each region has its own mix. In Međimurje cooks bind the meat with buckwheat porridge, in Zagorje with rice or buckwheat, and in Turopolje with corn grits, while Slavonian krvavice leave out grain and add hot paprika. Some regions call them devenice, a name already found in seventeenth-century guild records from Varaždin. The sausages are stuffed loosely so they do not burst and poached below a boil; a needle that draws out clear fat shows they are done. Croatian rules for commercial krvavice cap the blood at one fifth of the mix. Fresh krvavice are fried and served with sauerkraut or sour turnip and boiled potatoes. Plan the project for a weekend, and order the blood and casings several days ahead.