Verivorst

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

1. 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.
2. Fry the onions in the butter over low heat 12–15 minutes until soft and golden, then cool completely.
3. Strain the blood through a fine sieve to catch any clots, then whisk in the milk, salt, pepper, marjoram, allspice and cloves.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Prick each sausage several times with a needle. Overfilled or unpricked sausages split as the barley swells.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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

A blood sausage, made from pig’s blood mixed with barley groats and often pork fat, documented in Estonian cooking for many generations and most closely associated specifically with Estonian Christmas celebrations, when it traditionally forms an essential part of the holiday table rather than being eaten with regularity throughout the rest of the year. Its combination of blood with barley, a grain long cultivated across Estonia’s agricultural land suited to the country’s cooler Baltic climate, reflects a broader European tradition of using an animal’s blood after slaughter rather than wasting any part of a butchered animal. Verivorst remains one of the most symbolically significant traditional Estonian holiday foods, closely tied to Christmas specifically within Estonian cultural and culinary identity.

Frequently asked questions

What is Verivorst?

Verivorst is a main from Estonia: barley blood sausage with lingonberry jam and sauerkraut; Christmas. A blood sausage, made from pig’s blood mixed with barley groats and often pork fat, documented in Estonian cooking for many generations and most closely associated specifically with Estonian Christmas celebrations, when it traditionally forms an essential part of the holiday table rather than being eaten with regularity throughout the rest of the year. Its combination of blood with barley, a grain long cultivated across Estonia’s agricultural land suited to the country’s cooler Baltic climate, reflects a broader European tradition of using an animal’s blood after slaughter rather than wasting any part of a butchered animal. Verivorst remains one of the most symbolically significant traditional Estonian holiday foods, closely tied to Christmas specifically within Estonian cultural and culinary identity.

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.