Skip to main content
Main

Black Puddings

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 in sliced hog's lard until melted, then cover in a dish.

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

  4. Add salt, pepper, herbs, onion, grated bread, eggs, and new milk; mix well.

Fill and cook

  1. Fill cleaned hog's hides with the mixture and divide into links.

  2. Prick the links and boil 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
Provides the bulk and starchy body that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Hog's blood
Sets when cooked and gives the pudding its dense, firm texture and dark colour.
Hog's lard
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich after cooking.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so it holds its shape in the links as it sets.
Grated bread
Absorbs liquid and adds softness, helping the filling hold together.

The step that matters

Prick the links before boiling. Pricking lets steam and expanding air escape from the casing, so the links do not burst while the filling sets.

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.

More black pudding recipes

Irish 6French 3 See all 71 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes