食用血(英語:Blood as food)存在於許多文化之中,它們通常會與肉類食物做搭配結合。食用血也常常被製成血腸,可做為醬汁的增稠劑,以及防腐的鹽醃手法,亦可製成湯品。[1]
食用血的來源通常來自於馴養動物,而處理方式,通常是在馴養地或是屠宰場將動物的血管開口,並在第一時間將血液流入容器,使其可以被迅速食用或做進一步處理。由於在多數文化之中,這些馴養動物通常是被宰殺的,因此有些文化之中,血液是一種禁忌食物。
在中国大陆、台湾和一些東南亞地區,凝固的雞血、鴨血、鵝血或豬血在飲食中可常常發現,像是中国大陆及台湾的血豆腐常製成湯品,或是泰國的泰式豬血湯(Tom Lued Moo)和泰式辣血湯(英语:Nam tok (food))。而食用血也常常見於麵食之中,像是金麵。[7]在臺灣,著名的豬血糕便是以豬血和糯米製成的,常以蒸、炒、或是以火鍋料的方式呈現在料理中。
在葡萄牙,一些北方的地區像是米尼奧有著一道傳統血湯血糊(葡萄牙語:Papas de sarrabulho)(Papas de sarrabulho,Papas意思是糊狀物,而Sarrabulho則是葡萄牙燉血(葡萄牙語:Sarrabulho))。血糊是以豬血加上雞肉、豬肉、火腿、莎樂美腸、檸檬、麵包製成,並灑上孜然增添些獨特氣味。血糊在冬天比較常見,因為這是一道大的菜色,且在葡萄牙南方比較少見。而葡萄牙黑布丁在葡萄牙也同樣非常有名。另一到葡萄牙傳統美食血鴨飯,會以雞肉或是兔肉,加上牠們本身的血夜製成,有時亦會加入醋提味。
在西班牙,西班牙血腸是以豬血加上香料、脂肪、以及一些蔬菜製成。在南方的安達魯西亞的著名美食洋蔥拌血(西班牙語:Sangre encebollada,巴倫西亞語為Sang amb ceba),是以凝固的雞血或豬血加上洋蔥拌炒製成。[13]
^Davidson, Alan. The Oxford Companion to Food. 2nd ed. UK: Oxford University Press, 2006., p. 81-82.
^Ma Jian, Stick Out Your Tongue Chatto and Windus London, 2006.
^Borré, Kristen. "Seal Blood, Inuit Blood, and Diet: A Biocultural Model of Physiology and Cultural Identity." Medical Anthropology Quarterly 5 (1991): 48–62.
^Karl Josef von Hefele(英语:Karl Josef von Hefele)'s commentary on canon II of Gangra NPNF2-14. The Seven Ecumenical Councils. [2010年10月11日]. (原始内容存档于2016年12月20日). (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆) notes: "We further see that, at the time of the Synod of Gangra, the rule of the Apostolic Synod with regard to blood and things strangled was still in force. With the Greeks, indeed, it continued always in force as their Euchologies(英语:Euchologies) still show. Balsamon(英语:Theodore Balsamon) also, the well-known commentator on the canons of the Middle Ages, in his commentary on the sixty-third Apostolic Canon(英语:Canons of the Apostles), expressly blames the Latins because they had ceased to observe this command. What the Latin Church, however, thought on this subject about the year 400, is shown by St. Augustine in his work Contra Faustum, where he states that the Apostles had given this command in order to unite the heathens and Jews in the one ark of Noah; but that then, when the barrier between Jewish and heathen converts had fallen, this command concerning things strangled and blood had lost its meaning, and was only observed by few. But still, as late as the eighth century, Pope Gregory the Third (731) forbade the eating of blood or things strangled under threat of a penance of forty days. No one will pretend that the disciplinary enactments of any council, even though it be one of the undisputed Ecumenical Synods, can be of greater and more unchanging force than the decree of that first council, held by the Holy Apostles at Jerusalem, and the fact that its decree has been obsolete for centuries in the West is proof that even ecumenical canons may be of only temporary utility and may be repealed by disuse, like other laws."