Asturian-American Migration Forum

When I way a young boy, morcilla was made and served at Carril's Market in Fairmont City, Ill. I also notice it in numerous recipes. Does anyone have an authentic recipe?

I've heard of it, can't say I've tried them. Are they similar to chorizos?
Since you like old Spanish cuisine, here's a recipe for ya

Morcilla as my grandparents made it was blood sausage. The major ingredients were pork blood and onions. People from the mountains put rice in their morcilla, but my family did not. The exact recipe has been lost, but I don't have a reliable source of pork blood anyway, so I just buy morcilla already made from La Tienda.

I can remember traveling with my father and grandmother in the 1950's from Niagara Falls to the Polish market in Buffalo, the only local source of fresh pork blood. Duck blood too, for that matter. Los polacos made duck blood soup, chornina.

Here's our affiliate link for La Tienda (click on the image):

Regarding the Manjar Blanco, I had to use my Spanish dictionary to translate. It looks like a chicken, seasoned with safffron, cooked with milk, sugar, rice flour, and finally asadero cheese. If I am correct, isn't this a very sweet chicken dish?
Regarding the morcilla, the owner of Carril's Market, late in life told me that onions, fatback, and paprika were used to make morcilla. He also said smoke it for about 8 hours. Many of the canned products from Hispanic markets have morcilla in them. I always thought of it as more flavoring, but the old Spaniards used to eat it from the cocido like chorizo. As kids, we always thought it was gross. I presently make chorizo regularly and would like to have a more exact recipe for morcilla.

OK, I haven't tried it and can't vouch for it, but here is a recipe from one of my Asturian cookbooks. The translation and interpretation are mine. I note the lack of specific proportions.

1 kg pork fat
blood (pork)
3 kg onions
sweet and cayenne pepper

Chop the pork fat well and mix it with 3 kg of chopped onion. Add salt (I recommend one tablespoon per pound for any sausage), paprika (half sweet and half hot). Mix well. Add a big glass of pork blood (Your guess is as good as mine, but given the size of the recipe I would certainly have a quat or two on hand). Mix well and stuff into casings, making links the size you want. Be sure to eliminate all air from the casings (You can use a toothpick or pin to prick them as you stuff them or afterwards.)

I would smoke them at this point, although the recipe does not call for it, maybe 8 hours of cool smoke (oak or applewood). The freeze them well and tightly wrapped.

I cannot vouch for the safety of the recipe, and personally I would just buy ready made morcilla and let it go at that. Maybe some of our Asturian members have suggestions. If my childhood memories are correct, the blood clots, which is a bit disturbing, but doesn't affect the quality of the final product.

I wish I had my grandarents' recipe, but it has been lost. My dad doesn't eat onions, so the recipe has been lost in our branch of the family, and almost everone else has died, their recipes with them.

yeah now that I read the blood part I remember eating this... man it's been ahh more than a couple of years. It's an acquired taste though as a kid I hated it but around 10 or 12 I started liking the thing. I used to 'fix it' with lime juice

Here's another recipe from the net, I have never tried this one though.

[edited to add] on that 'Manjar Blanco' recipe, did you notice the date? originally taken from a Spanish cookbook from 1525

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http://perso.wanadoo.es/jmarron/morcill6.htm

LA MORCILLA DE BURGOS

Ingredientes:

1 Kg de arroz.- 1Kg de cebolla.- 50 gr de pimentón dulce.-20gr de pimentón picante.-50 gr de sal.- 1Kg de manteca de cerdo.- 20 gr de pimienta negra molida.- 1 litro de sangre de cerdo.-5 metros de tripa, a ser posible de cerdo de 5 cm de diámetro.

Procedimiento:

Se pica la cebolla menuda, y la manteca, se mezcla con el arroz y con todos los demás ingredientes, se remueve , para mezclarlo bien; a continuación , después de estar las tripas bien lavadas se rellenan con la mezcla teniendo en cuenta que se debe rellenar en un 50% debido a que el arroz aumenta de volumen.deben coserse en trozos de 20 cm.y quedarán por lo tanto , unas 25 morcillas flácidas Se ponen a cocer en agua hirviendo con una pizca de sal y se tienen durante una hora. Se saca del llamado ahora caldo mondongo 25 morcillas hermosas y apretadas.

QUE OS APROVECHE OS DESEA MILA, Morcillera Mayor de la Cofradía

La morcilla de Burgos GRACIOSA debe ser SOSA Y PICANTOSA.

Who would have thought we would have such a popular thread on morcilla (blood sausage). The mere thought of the taste takes me back to a time when I was a little boy, and the grandkids (I was one) fought over the morcilla and chorizo in the various dishes. It was rich and smokey and earthy. We didn't see anything odd at all about eating blood sausage, even when we went along to purchase the purple-red blood.

Same thing with tripe (callos) which many people won't even try. In a tomato sauce with pigs feet, chorizos and pimientos....

My dad had a farm and he kept all sorts of animals some for decorative purposes i/e peacocks, pheasants, dears other for household consumption pigs, lambs, rabbits etc, every now and then a 'lechon' (young pig) would find it's way to the table and they would collect the blood for this purpose. Now that I think of it, pigs and lambs were the only animals they did this with.... wonder why?

There's an art to doing it right though, it can't be done too fresh, but you can't take too long. Honestly I was not involved in that so I don't know the specifics but I do know that it had to go through a 'ritual' of sorts. Like the pork if it was for a meal the next day they would always leave to 'orear' it would hang exposed to the air for x amount of hours before they took it to the kitchen. As I recall they said that it would taste better that way.

What I found most interesting about the making of morcilla (blood sausage) is that there really isn't that much blood in it, especially after you boil them. It's almost more a dye than a major ingredient.

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Lo que me interesa sobre la fabricación de morcilla es que de verdad no hay mucha sangre en morcilla, especialmente despues de hervirlas. Es casí un tintura más que un ingrediente mayor.

Morcilla = yuk!

That is, unless it's in a fabada or soup to add flavor, which it does very well. (I'm convinced morcilla is the "secret" ingredient that keeps me from making decent fabada over here.) By itself, it literally makes me gag.

But, be advised, that's just me. My aunt Jovita loves it!

I can tell you from many years of personal experience that the secret of a good fabada is good ingredients. I've found that commercial morcilla is fine to use, but the chorizos really have to be chorizos caseros asturianos, home made and home smoked by you or someone else. Commercial products just aren't the same. The origin and variety of the beans make a big difference, too. Try to find the same ones that are used in Asturias.

The responses are interesting. I went fishing with cousin and friends so the conversations were very good. My cousin John whose dad used to make the morcilla also says they were boiled before smoking. Art mentioned that in his piece. Also John's dad had told me in the past that not a lot of blood was used. He suggested a pint. Anyway I will keep the morcilla on my agenda and of course checking the web site for other suggestions/recipes.

Xose I agree with you...morcilla double yuck! Most of my family did love them though...

My Grandmother used it in her Spanish Soup many times...I just never could get used to the taste...but, I absolutely love chorizos.

Didn't know that Jovita loves them...

Barbara

Gee, Vince, if all you need is a pint, you could use your own blood! Ouch... just the thought grosses me out. Somebody show me the door!

¡Que bruto, Art!
Estais manteniendo un hilo muy gracioso acerca de la morcilla, unicamente queria deciros, que con la morcilla en España, ocurre como con el chorizo, hay casi tantas variedades como pueblos, el ingrediente principal siempre es la sangre de vaca o cerdo, pero el resto varìa, dependiendo de donde se haga.
En Asturias la morcilla lleva cebolla picada muy menuda, hierbas aromáticas (orégano, hierbabuena, perejil) y pimenton, dulce y picante al gusto. Una vez embutidas en la tripa, se cuecen ensartadas en un palo, despues se ahuman. Las morcillas asturianas se secan enseguida y ofrecen un aspecto reseco, negras, arrugadas, en fin, nada apetitosas, sin embargo, en cuanto empiezan a cocer en el pote de berzas, o en la fabada, recuperan su aspecto original y le dan el mejor sabor del mundo ¡que fame!
En Burgos, la morcilla lleva arroz, en Galicia piñones y pasas, en León lleva...pues no se que lleva, ademas de sangre, pero no se prepara cocida, sino que se extrae de la tripa y se dora en la sarten, luego se unta en pan de hogaza tostado como si fuera un patè...¡¡¡que rica!!!, repito ¡¡¡que fame!!!

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Translated by Bob

¡How crude, Art!
You are carrying on a very nice thread about morcilla, and I just wanted to tell you that morcilla in Spain, as is the case with chorizos, has as many variations as there are towns, the major ingredient is always cow or pig blood, but the other ingredients vary, depending on where they are made.
In Asturias morcilla has very finely chopped onion, aromatic herbs (oregano, mint, parsley) and ground red pepper, sweet or hot to taste. Once the sausages are stuffed in casings, they are cooked on a skewer and then smoked. Asturian morcillas are then dried and look a bit dried out, black and wrinkled, not at all appetizing. Nevertheless, once they begin to cook in a pote with kale or in a fabada, the regain their original appearance and give the greatest flavor on earth. ¡It makes my mouth water (what hunger)!

In Burgos, morcilla has rice, in Galicia, pine nuts and raisins, in León it has...well I don't know what it has other than blood, but it is not cooked during preparation, it is just extruded into casings and browned in a frying pan, then spread on toasted bread as if it were a patè...¡¡¡how delicious!!!, repito ¡¡¡que fame!!!

Translator's note: That does indeed sound like what my grandmother used to make (I had forgotten about the herbs), and your post has just driven me into a mindless frenzy of hunger.