Boudin

I’d like to get back to Depression food.  I don’t know what city folks ate in the 30’s, but I have a good recollection of what my family survived on.  Remember that Dad was earning only 400 dollars a year.  He had a wife, four kids, and he was building a house.

One food item I recall was”boudin” which is a French-Canadian name.  Sometimes we called it blood pudding.  Usually we had it as a sausage that was fried in a skillet.  Having grown up with it, I thought that it tasted fine.  Sometimes we had it sliced from a bread pan, but I don’t remember Mother making it.  I do recall once when Aunt Irene showed up on a November day while  we were butchering a hog.  She carried a large cast iron skillet with some salt sprinkled on the bottom.  She held a dish towel on the pan handle to protect her hand from the heat.

I used to help during the butchering, and that is a story in itself.  We boys, usually Corky and I, would hold the pig down while Dad inserted a long, thin knife into the animal’s carotid artery in its throat.  He would feel its throat to find the pulse, them very slowly and carefully he would sever the artery and slide the blade all the way to the heart.  This actually seemed painless to the animal.  It would just lie there, sometimes grunting slightly.  Soon bright red blood would come spurting from the wound as the heart continued to pump.  Then the animal would seem to fall asleep.

Meanwhile, Irene would catch the blood as it spurted out; then she would hurry to the kitchen with it so she could prepare the boudin.  I’m not sure what all was in it, but it seemed like there were tiny bits of fat  along with some condiments such as nutmeg or cinnamon.  I guess that I should Google a recipe for it although I’m not planning to sticka pig any time soon.  I wonder what it would be like with deer blood?

I’m sure that many city folk will find this whole idea gross.  Yet, remember that we are talking about survival.  We are also talking about self-reliance and absolutely shunning any kind of social assistance.  In those days you also raised and killed your own chickens.  Nowadays, most modern cooks have never plucked a chicken nor drawn the intestines.  Food items from the grocery store are usually ready-to-cook and sometimes precooked.  Let’s not get into fast foods.  I’m not sure if many people have any idea where Big Macs come from.  I can still find blood sausage, boudin, blut polska, or whatever in local food stores although it has been a while since I’ve had any.

Some other kinds of Depression food were: baked beans, rice, home-canned vegetables and meat that we raised and Mother canned in glass jars. sauerkraut and spare ribs, fish from the lake or brook, some venison, wild berries for jelly, a lot of “patates” (Québeçoise for potatoes), sow belly and salt pork, oatmeal, and the list goes on.  I wonder, however, that if there was a really bad depression if modern-day people could adapt and survive on old-style cooking.  Next, maybe I should tell you about how to make head cheese.