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| Ingredients Calcione, Calcioni, caveciune, caveciuni, cauciune, cauciuni, cauciun', calciume, calciumi, calciune, calciune, calciuni, caucione, caucioni, caucine, caucini, calzangie, cavazune and cavazuni*
Directions Make caveciune or caucini pastry dough.
Notes Mrs. Maria Brenna, a first generation Italian-Canadian, notes that in her town of Sante Croce, farmers made blood pudding with freshly slaughtered pig's blood and mosto cotto. The mosto cotto was made in the fall, after the grape harvest. It was prepared from the "must" of the grape that was used to make wine. The must was taken right after the grape had been crushed, so there was no alcoholic content, as the must had not yet boiled. This must or juice taken from the crushed grape was then placed in a large pot and boiled down. This boiled down grape juice or syrup (mosto cotto -- "cooked" must) was then conserved in glass jars and used for various desserts and food dishes. In Santa Croce, mosto cotto, besides being used to flavor cookies, was also used to make blood pudding. In the winter, after the pigs had been slaughtered, cooks would combine freshly slaughtered pig's blood with the mosto cotto, boil it down and turn it into a kind of pudding or jelly. Apparently, the pig's blood had to be absolutely fresh as it coagulated very quickly. The cook who was preparing this delicacy had to be highly experienced and skilled for the recipe to come out right. While the resulting blood pudding might not sound appetizing to second generation Italian Canadians, Mrs. Maria Brenna notes that when she was growing up in the early 1940s most individuals liked it. The resulting blood pudding was used to stuff caveciune or caucini which in her town were made for the Easter holidays. Image ID: The New York Public Library, Digital Gallery #1587584. |