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Black Puddings

A blood sausage made with blood, grits, milk, suet, eggs, herbs, spices, and hog fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Winter savory and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 780 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Black Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Stir the blood with salt until cold.

  2. Soak the grits overnight in water.

  3. Soak the bread crumb in hot milk.

  4. Wash and prepare the guts with salt and water, changing the water several times.

  5. Chop the herbs and spices finely.

Make and fill the links

  1. Mix the herbs, spices, suet, and beaten eggs with the soaked bread and grits.

  2. Fill the cleaned skins with the mixture, adding hog's fat at intervals.

  3. Tie the skins in links, leaving them half filled.

Boil and cool

  1. Boil the links in a large kettle, pricking them to prevent bursting.

  2. Lay the boiled links between clean cloths or on straw to cool.

  3. Hang the cooled links in the kitchen.

Finish and serve

  1. Scald the links in water for a few minutes.

  2. Wipe the links.

  3. Place the links in a Dutch oven.

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Thyme + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

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

  4. Winter savory + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together287 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Winter savory + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together690 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Blood
Thickens and sets the filling, giving black pudding its dense, sliceable body.
Whole grits
Absorb liquid and add bulk and a firm, slightly grainy texture to the filling.
Eggs
Bind the filling so it holds together when cooked and sliced.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and tender as it cooks.
Milk
Softens the bread crumb and adds moisture to the filling.
Hogs fat
Adds pockets of fat through the filling for richness and moisture.

The step that matters

Boil the links with pricking. Filled skins swell as they heat, and steam trapped inside can burst them. Pricking lets steam escape so the links stay intact while the filling cooks through.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, beef, egg, winter savory, thyme, pepper, allspice. 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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