Duck Blood Soup (Strybl)

[Tara]

Collect the blood of a freshly-killed duck or goose and stir in 1/4 cup 6% vinegar. Seal and refrigerate until ready for use. In pot, combine duck or goose wings, neck, rump, heart and gizzard with 8 cups of cold water. Bring to a boil, skimming off scum until no more forms, reduce heat and simmer one hour. Add several peppercorns, cloves, and allspice grains and 1/2 to 1 bay leaf plus the standard portion of soup greens (minus the Savoy Cabbage) and simmer another 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until meat comes easily off the bone. Dice the giblets, remove the meat from the bones, dice, and return to the strained stock.
The soup vegetables may be diced and returned to the pot or used in another dish per your preference. Add about 2 cups dried fruit: prunes, apples, pears, raisins, and simmer another 15-20 minutes. Fork-blend 2-3 Tbs flour with the blood and vinegar mixture, add about 1/2 cup stock 1 Tbs at a time, stirring constantly, then return to the pot. Season with salt and pepper, a pinch or 2 ground juniper berries (optional) sugar and a bit more vinegar if needed to get a sweet, sour, winey flavor with subtly spicey undertones. Simmer gently several minutes and serve over egg noodles, noodle squares, grated potato dumplings or cooked, diced potatoes.

Variation: Fork-blend 1/2 cup sour cream with the flour and the blood-vinegar mixture before adding to the stock.

The soup greens are the standard Polish mix.