I was idly flicking through my food delivery app, looking for inspiration. This momentarily baffled me. At first I thought it was a black trash bag but then noticed the whitish semi-transparent top.
Then the penny dropped. The contents are an ingredient for dinner. It is a mixture of duck blood and rice vinegar. The vinegar prevents the blood from congealing and adds tartness. Used in a Yao minority dish called 醋血鸭 (cù xuè yā), literally ‘vinegar blood duck’.
A young duck is chopped on the bone and stir fried with garlic, ginger, chilli, bitter melon, sesame and peanuts and finished in a rich sauce made from the bird’s blood and vinegar. Served with green vegetables of choice and rice, it makes for a delicious lunch or instead can be served as part of a larger family style meal. The vinegar cuts the richness of the blood, whereas the blood limits the astringency of the vinegar, leaving the duck tender and juicy, but not at all greasy.
I have made the dish but never seen the premixed blood and vinegar before. Very fresh blood is on sale in my local market so I grab it before it congeals.
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Yao Blood and Vinegar Duck
