Yesterday I ate some of the most adventurous food ever in my life. Kevin is pretty brilliant in the kitchen. He took ingredients ordinarily found on Fear factor and turned them into palatable delicacies; Tongue, liver, raw heart, kidneys, blood. The thought of it all I'll admit made me cringe. But then seeing all of the preparations and beautiful plating and smelling just what was cooking had my mouth watering.
I got to help make sausage. Sausage making is a very hands on like, well, most cooking techniques. I could never have imagined just how it is done. I supposed it was something done with a machine and required an assembly line. I pictured great whole hunks of mystery meat going into a giant hopper only to come out extruded into perfect uniform hot dogs. Like most Americans, I didn't know where my beloved food came from. I ate it and enjoyed it and if you told me what exactly was in it and how it was made, i probably would have spit it out. Then again, there is such a vast disconnect with the process that I'd most likely choose not to believe you and continue eating it. I'd brush off the hearsay poppycock urban legends and go on with my day. I've heard many a mother upon learning that hot dogs are encased in pig intestines vow they'd never feed that crap to their kids again then ultimately once junior refuses to eat anything else, bend to his picky palate. It is the thought of what you're eating that turns you off not the food itself. But there is a saying "if it tastes good, eat it."
We made duck blood sausage. Now if that doesn't make you cringe...
Kevin flavored it with sweet spices like cinnamon, clove, fennel, tarragon, white pepper, and in combination the flavors enhanced the duck-ness. The real meat of the sausage was duck breast. The blood was added not necessarily to bind, but to keep things moist. We then smoked the little buggers which in essence cooked them while adding that je nes sais quoi. If I could eat duck blood sausage every day, I would.
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