The Polish blood sausage of buckwheat groats, pork, and onion seasoned with marjoram, fried in slices with onions until the edges crisp
Origin: Kraków & Lesser Poland
From the journey of Buckwheat.
Kaszanka takes its name from kasza, the groats that make up most of it, and in Poland those groats are usually buckwheat. They are cooked, mixed with pig's blood, minced pork offal and fat, fried onion, and a generous quantity of marjoram and pepper, and filled into casings, and the marjoram is the flavour that tells a Pole this is kaszanka and not somebody else's blood sausage. Some regions use barley instead of buckwheat, and the argument over which is correct is conducted with feeling. It is peasant food that never lost its place. Bought ready-made from the butcher, it is sliced and fried with onions until the edges crisp and the inside softens, or grilled whole at summer barbecues, where it bursts open in the heat, and it is eaten with bread, mustard, and pickled cucumbers. Making it at home means blood, which few home cooks can buy; this recipe gives the method for frying the finished sausage, which is how nearly everyone in Poland meets it.
Buckwheat kaszanka is the commonest; the barley kind is milder. To grill it whole, prick it and cook over medium coals for 15 minutes, turning often.
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