Franconian Stechbrühe – Slaughter-Day Blood Soup with Potato Dumplings

Description

A dark, velvety soup from the Bamberg area: the broth in which pork belly and offal were cooked is bound with fresh pig's blood, seasoned with marjoram and filled with small cubes of the cooked meat. It is eaten from a deep plate with two Franconian potato dumplings.

1. 1

   Rinse the pork belly and pork heart in cold water, put them in a large pot and cover with 2.5 litres of cold water. Add 1 tsp salt, the bay leaves, allspice berries and peppercorns, bring slowly to the boil and skim off the foam several times as it rises.

   ⏱️ approx. 15 min
2. 2

   Roughly chop the carrot, leek and celeriac and add them to the pot. Let everything simmer gently over low heat for about 1½ hours, until the heart is tender. Add the liver in one piece only for the last 15 minutes.

   ⏱️ approx. 90 min

   💡 Tip: Liver turns dry and crumbly if it cooks too long – that is why it goes into the pot last.

3. 3

   While the broth simmers, make the Franconian potato dumplings (or use ready-made dumpling mix) and let them poach in barely simmering salted water for about 20 minutes.

   ⏱️ approx. 30 min
4. 4

   Lift out the meat and offal, strain the broth and measure off 1.2 litres. Cut the belly, heart and liver into small cubes of about 1 cm.

   ⏱️ approx. 15 min
5. 5

   Finely dice the onions and soften them in the lard until translucent. Pour in the measured broth, add the marjoram and simmer for 10 minutes. Then pull the pot off the heat until the broth stops boiling.

   ⏱️ approx. 15 min
6. 6

   Pour the blood through a fine sieve into a bowl and stir it smooth with a ladleful of hot broth. Let this mixture run into the broth while stirring constantly, and keep stirring over low heat until the soup turns dark brown and slightly creamy. From now on it must not boil.

   ⏱️ approx. 10 min

   💡 Tip: If the soup comes back to the boil after the blood has gone in, the protein curdles and the soup turns grainy.

7. 7

   Add the meat cubes to the soup and let them heat through. Season with salt, pepper and a little more marjoram. Ladle the Stechbrühe into deep plates and set two dumplings in each.

   ⏱️ approx. 5 min