Blood Recipes

We talked yesterday about preparing and preserving blood for culinary use, now let's look at some more specific uses in medieval cuisine. Today we actually make som e recipes using blood. (For the record, I never have and never intend to make any of these.)Viking Blood BreadAt an archaeological site in Sweden, a piece of bread was discovered that was found to have blood in the mix. In the book An Early Meal by Daniel Serra and Hanna Tunberg, you will find a hypothetical version of the recipe that produced the "blood bread."Take 2 cups fresh blood (strained to remove clots), 1 cup sourdough starter, 1.5 cups water, 1-2 tbsp honey, and roughly 6 cups whole wheat or barley flour. (No salt is needed: blood is already salty, which you know if you've ever split your lip).Then, stir the sourdough and honey into the blood. Combine the mixture with the flour and water, kneading until smooth and slightly sticky. Let the dough rise for about 90 minutes to 2 hours until doubled. Shape into…