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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) · 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 and boil the grits in milk until soft.

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

  3. Stir in cold hog's blood, salt, and pepper until well combined.

  4. Add chopped herbs, onion, grated bread, eggs, and new milk; mix thoroughly.

Fill and cook

  1. Prepare cleaned hog's hides and fill them with the mixture, adding pieces of fat.

  2. Divide into links, prick them, 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
Cooked soft in milk, they form the bulk and body of the filling.
Hog's blood
Sets with heat and binds the filling into a firm, sliceable mass.
Hog's lard
Adds fat for moisture and a rich, tender texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it hold its shape when cooked.
Grated bread
Absorbs liquid and adds softness, keeping the filling from becoming dense.

The step that matters

Prick the links before boiling. Pricking lets steam escape as the filling heats and expands, so the casings are less likely to burst during boiling.

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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