The prospect of cooking with blood and adding it to everyday foods would make most people queasy – but not TikTok creator @bloodnbooks.
Scarlett, who recently hit ten thousand followers on TikTok, began using blood in baked goods after being vegetarian for eight years.
The 23-year-old from North Virginia told Brig: “I got into cooking with blood when my friends jokingly passed me a cookbook about it, just over a year ago.
“When I went to read it on the train ride home, however, I was shocked by how fascinating everything about blood in food was to me.”
The book in question was Blood with Recipes by Jennifer McLagan, which Scarlett highly recommends to anyone interested in this type of cooking.
After a few months of research, they bought their first batch of blood – not human, like their comment section would have you believe, but pig from H Mart (an Asian supermarket chain).
“I had been experimenting on my own,” they said. “Mostly with replacing eggs in baking recipes before I started a TikTok account to document my journey.”
Eggs are very structurally similar to blood; they can easily be substituted for one another because they cook almost identically. One egg equals approximately 50g of blood.
The reaction on the app to their recipes has been varied, to say the least. Whilst some are genuinely interested, others are ignorant or plain disgusted by Scarlett’s content.
“Ultimately I do it because I find it interesting,” they concluded.
“That being said, there is an element of undoing the white food culture that dominates north American food.
“So much of so many animals go to waste just because the social norm says not to eat it and that’s crazy to me.”
Many cultures already use blood in sausages, pancakes and stews. Maybe it’s time more of us gave it a try.
Featured Image Credit: @bloodnbooks on TikTok
Film, media and journalism student. I like writing about my inability to eat gluten.
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