Forgotten Recipe Found: Mulce of Gorica

By , 08 Jan 2020, 22:49 PM Gourmet
Forgotten Recipe Found: Mulce of Gorica Photo: Neža Loštrek

Share this:

As a child I remember how occasionally my gourmet grandpa showed up at our house with a couple of sweet blood sausages called mulce, wrapped in a newspaper. We would put them in the oven and in an hour or so one of the best desserts I can remember was ready. Their skin was crispy and on the inside there was this crumbly but still consistent chocolaty filling with all the best stuff one can find in the potica-like dishes of Gorica.

Over time I have met some people who have claimed to have eaten mulce but did not like their overwhelming blood content. I had no idea what they were talking about as with all the nuts, raisins and chocolate, blood really couldn’t do much more than provide some consistency to the mixture.

Apparently even Slovenian ethnographers do not seem to be aware of the Gorica version of the dish, but rather associate it with the impoverished countryside recipes of Karst and Brda, where they could simply be called black pudding.

Last year my grandma informed me that she had found my now long gone grandpa’s mulce recipe, that she had kept in a very safe place. Being a historian he probably typed it himself, but when exactly these investigations took place remains unclear. He grew up under Italian fascism in Kanal and after the war his family moved to Gorica, the source of the recipe he not only preserved but upgraded a little through the practice he continued by visiting the farms around Idrija, where he later worked and died.

This is what he typed:

mulcerecipe.jpg

Translation:

Ms. Smuk-Scarrel; butcher in Gorica. These blood sausages were made by Ms. Vuk, who went from butcher to butcher where she manufactured them for money. She was using filling for gubanica (a form of potica) of Gorica. This way we get Mulca of Gorica, which is an exquisite dish. Other sweet blood sausages, which are made in Karst and Brda are rarely good. 

3.5 l blood
1 l milk
600 g raisins
600 g sugar
600 g bread crumbs
400 g white flour
350 g candied orange and lemon peel (thinly cut)
Jest of 4 lemons
cinnamon
300 g pine nuts
150 g buckwheat flour
80 g salt
 
Preparation:
Flour:
White
Buckwheat
Sugar
Salt
Breadcrumbs

Mix the ingredients well while dry.

Then add boiling milk (and wait so that the mixture bloats – a couple of minutes), then raisins, pine nuts and candied peels – pour over half a litre of lard (not too hot). Make a mixture of a thickness that would allow it pass through the sausage funnel. Sausages need to cook in boiling water for about 15 minutes. The cow intestines for sausages are best.  

Change of recipe: butcher Gigetta from Old Gorica. Instead of flour we use crumbled dry bread. A little of breadcrumbs, milk and bread to make a thick mixture. Everything else like before. Mulce are easier to make according to this recipe.

Additional instructions: rather less fragrances and can add some chocolate or cacao.

 

This websie uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.