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Hog, or Black Puddings

A blood sausage made with hog blood, milk or stock, suet, oatmeal, onion, herbs, and seasoned, then boiled in skins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Hog, or Black Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Add a little salt to the blood as soon as it is drawn and stir well.

  2. When cold, strain the blood.

  3. Mix the strained blood with ½ cup of milk or stock.

  4. Stir in ⅔ cup of finely‑shredded beef suet and ⅓ cup of dried oatmeal until it forms a stiff batter.

  5. Add pepper, coarse sea salt, the chopped onion, and herbs if desired.

Fill and cook

  1. Thoroughly cleanse the sausage skins and cut them into equal lengths.

  2. Fill the skins with the mixture and sew them securely.

  3. Place them in boiling water and boil gently for one hour, pricking them with a large needle to release air.

  4. Hang them in a dry place until needed.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Blood from hog
Sets when cooked, forming the firm, sliceable body of the pudding.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and tender as it cooks.
Dried oatmeal
Absorbs liquid and thickens the batter so it holds its shape.
Milk or good stock
Loosens the blood into a pourable batter that fills the skins easily.

The step that matters

Pricking the skins while boiling. Air and steam trapped inside expand as the pudding heats and can split the casings. Pricking with a large needle lets them escape, keeping the skins intact.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, beef, pepper, onion):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Celeryfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, beef, pepper, onion. 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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