Anonymous Sideways Kielbasa Maneuver

Hmmm...It sounds dirty when I title it like that...

The Kielbasa Kings, doing a song called "Czarnina Polka", and if yr Polish and old enough, you know what Czarnina is...

Duck Blood Soup...

Well, actually, it's probably just called Duck Soup, but when you slaughter the duck (or goose if yr even older), you must save the blood, to be made into a tangy vinagrette, which will ultimately be mixed with sour cream and flour to make and even tangier sauce, that is then mixed into a broth of duck drippings, celery and raisins...More elaborate Czarnina recipes call for any number of small fruits - cherries, prunes, crabapples, but my grandma stuck to celery and raisins, if I'm not mistaken...Maybe some parsnip, since she liked to use parsnip...

My grandma didn't slaughter the ducks herself - she had an old school butcher up on Capitol Drive do it for her, saving the blood vinagrette (gotta mix the blood with vinegar immediately to keep it from clotting)...Once upon a time, however, growing up on a farm, you bet she slaughtered ducks, and geese, and all manner of fowl and critters...Slitting throats and chopping heads...Saving all the rich and delicate innards, removed with the speed and precision of short Polish farmgirls and transplant surgeons...Saving the blood...

Once upon a different time, her husband, my grandpa had a Polka band with his two brothers and a couple of chums from the neighborhood...They played at taverns Legion Halls around the edges of Milwaukee, found spouses, but no reknown...

He also liked my grandma's Czarnina, but he lived and died for her kielbasa, heavy on the garlic and marjoram (there's an herb you don't use every day)...He'd mix horseradish sauce into his mashed potatoes, and then plunge huge forkfuls of the sausage into the mess...

I found a Polish butcher a few months ago...A short 50ish guy who just opened a small shop in a strip mall, of all places...Maybe I should have him slaughter a duck for me, and save that bloody vinagrette...

You know, I've ended up with plenty of my grandma's and mom's recipes, and sometimes I think I ought to open a small restaurant...I mean, the record store dream is deader than dead, but food...and booze...and Polka...That's forever...

Thanks, anonymous...

Hotcha! Hank