Navajo Blood Sausage

Navajo Blood Sausage
Indigenous, appetizer, main course, beef
You can purchase frozen beef blood at just about every Asian market.

Navajo Blood Sausage

Every culture on every continent makes a blood sausage of some sort. They all consist of the animal’s blood(sheep, beef, or pork), a filler(cornmeal, rice, barley, buckwheat, etc), and seasonings; stuffed into either sheep stomach, and beef or pork intestines. They are then boiled until cooked through. The sausage is then eaten out of the casings(both sheep stomach and beef casings being inedible in this instance).
Blood sausages can be traced back in the Navajo tribe to the 1600’s when they started farming sheep. They would traditionally use sheeps blood mixed with cornmeal, potato, chilies, and seasonings, stuffed inside a sheep’s stomach.
Unless you know a farmer, finding lamb’s blood and stomach will be hard to find. Using beef blood and pork casings is an acceptable substitute. The sausages will be in a ring bologna shape instead of a softball-sized stuffed sheep stomach.
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time1 hour
Course: Appetizer, Main Course
Cuisine: Indigenous
Keyword: appetizer, Beef, Indigenous, main course, USA
Author: Alex Gorgos

Equipment

  • sausage stuffer

Ingredients

  • 20 oz beef blood
  • 12 oz pork fat cut into tiny cubes
  • 2 cups cornmeal
  • 1 large potato peeled; cut into small cubes
  • 1 medium onion finely chopped
  • 1 large jalapeño finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp salt
  • 1 tbsp black pepper
  • pork casings

Cranberry Mustard

  • 1/4 cup spicy brown mustard
  • 1/4 cup cranberries
  • 1 tbsp sugar

Instructions

  • Bring a small pot of salted water to a boil. Boil the potatoes until cooked through; about 8 minutes. Drain and cool completely.
    Indigenous, appetizer, main course, beef
  • In a large bowl, season the blood with salt and pepper.
    Indigenous, appetizer, main course, beef
  • Stir in the rest of the ingredients.
    Indigenous, appetizer, main course, beef
  • Using your sausage stuffer, pipe the filling into the sausage casings.
    Indigenous, appetizer, main course, beef
  • Carefully twist the sausage into rings.
    Indigenous, main course, appetizer, beef
  • Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the blood sausages to the water. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer the sausages for an hour.
    Indigenous, appetizer, main course, beef
  • Let rest for 15 minutes before serving.
    Indigenous, appetizer, main course, beef
Indigenous, appetizer, main course, beef
Thinly slice the blood sausage. You can see the potato and studded pork fat throughout the sausage.
Indigenous, appetizer, main course, beef
I served the blood sausage with a cranberry mustard(brown mustard, cranberries, and a little sugar puréed with an immersion blender.