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Black Puddings

A blood sausage made with grits, milk, hog's lard, hog's blood, herbs, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Black Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Clean the grits and boil them in milk until soft.

  2. Mix the melted hog's lard with the grits in an earthen pan.

  3. Stir the hog's blood with salt until cold, then mix it with the grits.

  4. Add seasoning, herbs, grated bread, eggs, and new milk. Mix well.

Fill and cook

  1. Prepare cleaned hog casings.

  2. Fill the casings with the mixture, adding pieces of fat.

  3. Divide the filled casings into links.

  4. Prick the links.

  5. Boil the links for 30 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Winter savory + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together780 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Winter savory + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together455 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Grits
Bulk that thickens the mixture and gives the pudding its body once cooled.
Hog's blood
Binds the filling and sets firm as it cools, giving the pudding its dark color and richness.
Hog's lard
Adds fat, which keeps the filling moist and tender rather than dry.
Eggs
Help bind the filling so it holds together when sliced and cooked.
Bread
Adds soft crumb that keeps the filling light and moist.

The step that matters

Stir the blood until cold before mixing. Blood thickens and can scramble when it meets hot grits. Cooling it with salt first keeps it smooth so it blends evenly into the filling.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, pepper, winter savory, thyme, marjoram, bread, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, pepper, winter savory, thyme, marjoram, bread, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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