Ingredients
Filling
- 500 mlfresh pig’s blood, strained
- 200 gpearl barley
- 150 gpork back fat or fatty belly, finely diced
- 2onions, finely chopped
- 30 gbutter
- 150 mlmilk
- 2 tspfine salt
- 1 tspground black pepper
- 1 tspdried marjoram
- ½ tspground allspice
- ¼ tspground cloves
Casing
- 3m natural hog casings, soaked and flushed through with water
To serve
- 200 glingonberry jam
- 400 gsauerkraut, braised with a little butter
- boiled potatoes
- butter for the roasting tin
Directions
- Simmer the barley in salted water for 30 minutes until just tender but still with a bite, then drain and cool. Undercooking it here is deliberate, because it swells again inside the casing.
- Fry the onions in the butter over low heat 12–15 minutes until soft and golden, then cool completely.
- Strain the blood through a fine sieve to catch any clots, then whisk in the milk, salt, pepper, marjoram, allspice and cloves.
- Fold in the barley, onion and diced fat. Fry a teaspoon of the mixture in a small pan and taste it for salt, since the raw mixture cannot be tasted.
- Slide the flushed casings onto a funnel or sausage stuffer and fill them loosely, no more than two thirds full, twisting into 15 cm lengths and tying the ends.
- Prick each sausage several times with a needle. Overfilled or unpricked sausages split as the barley swells.
- Poach in water held at 80°C (175°F), never allowed to boil, for 25–30 minutes, until a skewer pushed into the middle brings out clear juice rather than red.
- Lift out and cool completely so the filling sets firm. Verivorst is always cooked twice, and the poaching stage is usually done a day ahead.
- Roast in a buttered tin at 200°C (400°F) for 20–25 minutes, turning once, until the skins blister, crisp and split slightly. Serve with lingonberry jam, braised sauerkraut and boiled potatoes.
Technique
- Verivorst is Estonian Christmas food, sold from late November onwards and always eaten with lingonberry jam, whose sharpness cuts the iron richness.
- The poaching water must never reach a boil. At a boil the blood sets hard and fast, the filling expands and the casings burst.
- Food safety: fresh blood is highly perishable. Use it within 24 hours of collection, keep everything below 4°C (40°F) at every stage, and take the sausage to a core temperature of 75°C (165°F).
- A little salt or vinegar stirred into the blood at collection keeps it from clotting before you can use it.
Substitutions
- If fresh blood is unavailable, some butchers sell it frozen, or dried as powder; reconstitute dried blood at one part powder to five parts water and expect a flatter, more mineral flavour.
Variations
- Verikakk and verileib, Estonian blood dumplings and blood bread, use much the same mixture without casings, baked or boiled.
- Some regions add a handful of soaked rye bread crumbs alongside the barley for a softer, denser filling.
History
Blood sausage with barley made at the December pig slaughter, when nothing could be wasted; it is the centrepiece of Estonian Christmas dinner.
Frequently asked questions
What is Verivorst?
Verivorst is a main from Estonia: barley blood sausage with lingonberry jam and sauerkraut; Christmas. Blood sausage with barley made at the December pig slaughter, when nothing could be wasted; it is the centrepiece of Estonian Christmas dinner.
How long does Verivorst take to make?
Verivorst takes 45 min of preparation and 1 hr 30 min of cooking. The recipe makes 8 sausages, 4–6 servings. It is rated hard to make.
What can I substitute in Verivorst?
Yes, within limits. If fresh blood is unavailable, some butchers sell it frozen, or dried as powder; reconstitute dried blood at one part powder to five parts water and expect a flatter, more mineral flavour.
What is the most important thing to get right in Verivorst?
Poach in water held at 80°C (175°F), never allowed to boil, for 25–30 minutes, until a skewer pushed into the middle brings out clear juice rather than red.
