Flönz is part of Rhenish culture. This cooked blood sausage is celebrated in songs and appears in carnival speeches or as treats thrown into the crowd. Old craftsmanship lies behind its production. Butchers make the sausage mixture from diced pork fat, pork, and pig's blood. Each butcher has an individual spice recipe, which creates different flavor profiles.
Traditional craftsmanship lies behind Flönz
After the gentle cooking of pork rinds and pork, the butcher cutters—or grinds—the meat mixture. The fat cubes are cooked separately because if they were raw, they would soak up the blood and lose their white color. The ground mixture is combined with salt, spices, pig's blood, and fat cubes. Afterward, the butchers stuff the so-called sausage meat into artificial or natural casings to form ring-shaped sausages, which must be cooked again and, if necessary, smoked. The consistency of Flönz is soft but firm enough to slice. The red-brown sausage is interspersed with white fat cubes.
Kölscher Kaviar with onions and mustard
Rhinelanders serve Flönz both cold and hot. Classically, the blood sausage is served in the dish "Himmel un Ääd" (Heaven and Earth) with potatoes and apples. During carnival, Flönz is served in a bread roll with mustard and onions as Kölscher Kaviar.
Only the following regions and cities are permitted to produce Flönz:
Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Neuss, Dormagen, Leverkusen, Bergisch Gladbach, Rösrath, Wesseling, Brühl, Hürth, Frechen, Pulheim, Monheim, Ratingen, and the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis.
