Whats for Dinner?
Back in 2008, renowned Danish chef René Redzepi and restaurateur Claus Meyer opened a peculiar test kitchen in Copenhagen. The Nordic Food Lab was a space for chefs to experiment with the weird, new, and taboo in a way they never could in a working kitchen. Ever since, they’ve scored headlines with reports on cooking with fermented grasshoppers, pheasant essence, and even beaver anal glands. But perhaps no report they’ve issued has garnered as much attention as how to substitute blood for eggs.
Blood-based cooking has certainly been a part of Western cuisine since the time of ancient Greece, and in all likelihood, people have used animal blood for sausages, soups, pastes, or drinks since the first animal slaughter. But sometime in recent history, we forgot how to use blood. A few modern chefs have dared, in recent years, to whip up dishes like blood tarts with fig soaked in grappa and espresso, blood custard with rosemary topped with pickled pears, and blood-chocolate pudding with bing cherries. It was supposedly a blood macaroon served at the world-ranked Mugaritz in Spain that triggered the Food Lab’s interest in finding new and innovative uses for this ubiquitous but culinarily neglected slaughterhouse byproduct. Sounds Delicious!
In parts of Europe, this would also be to solve the intolerance to the kitchen staple is one of the most common among children. Making specialized gastro-enchanced delicacies more inclusive for anyone with a sweet tooth.
In fact, eggs and blood show similar protein compositions, particularly with the albumin that gives both their coagulant properties. Based on these similarities, a substitution ratio of 65g of blood for one egg can be used in the kitchen. Using this method, they have developed recipes for sourdough-blood pancakes, blood ice cream, blood meringues, and ‘chocolate’ blood sponge cake. If you are curious and I know you are the texture of blood pastries in comparison to egg pastries is intriguingly similar. When whipping blood, more time and stepwise increase in speed are however required.
Now if that doesn't get your blood flowing, no worries it's not all red slushy uses. They also have gastric adventures in bugs, larvae, and molds. Nordic Food Lab members never shy of controversy, one recently argued in a Munchies article that feces should be explored as a source of food. After all, young elephants and many other mammals eat their mother’s feces to introduce useful microbes into their digestive systems. Evidence shows that a diverse microbiome in the gut is vital for our health.
Head Chef Flore “says we are experimenting with ALL types of Blood. We are an inclusive group that way”
Mmmm…..Order up!
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