Kryvianka

Ingredients

The sausage

• 600 gkryvianka
• bought ready made
• or kaszanka, the Polish equivalent
• or any buckwheat blood sausage
• not home-made, see the note
• from a Belarusian, Polish or Eastern European shop

To fry

• 2large onions, sliced
• 2 tablespoonslard or oil
• or a knob of butter
• 1apple, sliced
• optional, see the note
• black pepper
• a pinch of marjoram
• optional

To serve

• boiled or mashed potatoes
• sauerkraut
• kvashanaya kapusta
• black rye bread
• mustard
• gherkins
• sour cream

Directions

1. Salt, pepper and marjoram season it. It is then simmered gently until set. Heat all the way through addresses it. It should be firm and dark.
2. Check the date and use it promptly. Cut it into thick slices. Leave it on for neat fried slices.
3. Take it off if you want a crumbled hash. Fry it over medium heat and leave it alone. Blood sausage is soft and it falls apart.
4. Turn it once. A soft hot centre. Use a fish slice rather than tongs. Fry the onions separately, or first, until deep brown and sweet. Give them fifteen minutes.
5. Fry the onions, lift them out, fry the sausage in the same fat, then return them.
6. Use a firm tart apple. A soft sweet one collapses to sauce. Oil or butter work. Start with less than you think.
7. Serve it hot from the pan. Cooked, it keeps two days refrigerated.

Technique

• Buy the sausage ready made. The atlas gives no method for it because blood must be used within hours of slaughter and cannot be bought fresh in most places, blood is an excellent medium for bacteria and spoils faster than almost any other ingredient, and the sausage is made at a slaughter as part of one rather than as a detached kitchen procedure.
• It is sold already cooked, so you are reheating rather than cooking from raw — but reheat it thoroughly all the way through. This is a cooked meat product handled after cooking, which is exactly where contamination happens.
• Fry it over medium heat and leave it alone. Blood sausage is soft and falls apart, and moving it before a crust has formed breaks it up. Four or five minutes a side, turned once, with a fish slice rather than tongs — tongs squeeze it and it breaks.
• Too hot and the outside burns before the middle warms; too cool and it never crisps and simply collapses. Medium and steady.
• Fry the onions first, lift them out, fry the sausage in the same fat and return them. Onions need fifteen minutes to go deep brown and sweet, and cooking them together means one or the other is wrong.
• Leaving the casing on holds the slices together; peeling it off gives a crumbled hash. Both are eaten.
• Use a firm tart apple if you add one. A soft sweet apple collapses to sauce.
• The sausage releases fat as it fries, so start with less than you think.
• Serve it straight from the pan — the crust softens as it sits.
• Judge it by firm dark flesh, an intact casing and a clean cooked-meat smell. Sliminess, a sour smell, or a bulging or leaking pack all mean leave it. Blood sausage has a short shelf life, so check the date.
• Buckwheat is a seed related to rhubarb and sorrel rather than a grass, and is naturally gluten free — but the sausage may still contain wheat as a binder or from shared equipment, so anyone avoiding gluten must read the label.
• Blood sausage is very high in haem iron, the form the body absorbs readily. The atlas records that as fact and makes no dietary recommendation; anyone managing iron intake for haemochromatosis will already know.
• Blood and pork are both avoided in several religious traditions. Say plainly what a dish contains.

Substitutions

• Polish kaszanka substitutes exactly.
• British black pudding, French boudin noir or Spanish morcilla all substitute with a different grain.
• Barley replaces buckwheat in some regional versions.
• Butter or oil replace lard for frying.
• Pear replaces apple.
• Fried buckwheat with onion and mushroom is the meat-free dish of the same kitchen.

Variations

• Kaszanka in Poland is the direct equivalent.
• A crumbled version is fried without the casing as a hash.
• Baked kryvianka with apple and onion in the oven is a common household version.
• Black pudding with apple in Britain follows the same logic.
• Morcilla de Burgos uses rice instead of buckwheat.
• Kishka is the name used in some communities for a related sausage.

History

Made at the winter pig slaughter by mixing blood with buckwheat or barley, a dish of the Belarusian countryside.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kryvianka?

Kryvianka is a charcuterie & cured from Belarus: blood sausage bulked with buckwheat groats, fried in slices. Made at the winter pig slaughter by mixing blood with buckwheat or barley, a dish of the Belarusian countryside.

How long does Kryvianka take to make?

Kryvianka takes 10 minutes of preparation and 20 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 4. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Kryvianka?

Yes, within limits. Polish kaszanka substitutes exactly. British black pudding, French boudin noir or Spanish morcilla all substitute with a different grain. Barley replaces buckwheat in some regional versions. Butter or oil replace lard for frying. Pear replaces apple. Fried buckwheat with onion and mushroom is the meat-free dish of the same kitchen.

What is the most important thing to get right in Kryvianka?

Turn it once. A soft hot centre. Use a fish slice rather than tongs. Fry the onions separately, or first, until deep brown and sweet. Give them fifteen minutes.