Polish · soup

Czernina (Duck Blood Soup)

Czernina (Duck Blood Soup) reads sweetness 6.5, sourness 5.8 and fruity 5.0 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Polish soup, about 2 hr 3 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Sweetness 6.5 · Sourness 5.8 · Fruity 5.0 · Salinity 3.5 · Allium 2.8 · Umami 2.8 · Floral 2.7 · Richness 2.4 · Herbaceous 1.8 · Earthy 1.7 · Warm Spice 1.3 · Citrus 1.1 · Bitterness 1.0

What's in it (16)

Time & effort: about 2 hr 3 min · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 39.4 kcal, 1 g protein, 0.3 g fat, 8.5 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains egg — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (9 steps)

  1. Order the blood when you order the duck. A poultry butcher will collect it for you, and it must be whisked with a little vinegar the moment it is drawn or it clots and is useless. This is not a dish you can improvise a substitute into.
  2. Put the jointed carcass in a pot with the water, onion, carrot and celeriac. Bring to a boil, skim the grey foam thoroughly, then simmer 1 hour 30 minutes.
  3. Add the prunes and dried pears and simmer 20 minutes more, until the fruit is plump and the broth tastes faintly sweet.
  4. Lift out the duck pieces, pull the meat off in shreds and return it to the pot. Discard the bones.
  5. Whisk the flour into the blood until perfectly smooth, then whisk in two ladles of the hot broth, a little at a time. This tempering is the whole technique.
  6. Take the pot off the heat entirely and pour the tempered blood back in a thin stream, whisking. Return it to the lowest possible heat and hold it below 80 C for 5 minutes, stirring, until it thickens to the body of single cream and turns a deep mahogany brown. If it boils it will curdle into grains and there is no rescue.
  7. Season with the vinegar, sugar, allspice, marjoram and salt. Czernina is balanced sweet-sour and should taste of dried fruit and vinegar as much as of duck; add sugar and vinegar in small amounts until the two meet.
  8. Boil the egg noodles 4 minutes in salted water, drain, and divide between bowls. Ladle the soup over.
  9. Substitutions: apple rings can stand in for the dried pears.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.