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Black Hog Puddings

A blood pudding made with hog blood, groats, fat, and spices, cooked in hog casings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Black Hog Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the blood

  1. Secure the blood while warm, then stir in the salt until cold.

  2. Simmer the groats in just enough water until tender, and strain if necessary.

Mix and stuff

  1. In a bowl, mix the cold blood with the groats and the remaining ingredients.

  2. Stuff the mixture into cleaned hog casings, tying them into 9‑inch links.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil gently for 20 minutes.

  2. Cool on clean wheat straw.

  3. Broil or bake before serving hot.

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. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Sage + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together331 recipes

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

  4. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + peppertop 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

Blood
Sets into a firm, sliceable pudding when cooked and cooled, and forms the body of the mixture.
Embden groats
Add bulk and a tender, starchy texture that holds the pudding together.
Inside fat of the hog
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding from drying out during cooking.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help bind the mixture into a cohesive texture.
Fresh sage
Contributes a savory, aromatic flavour that defines the pudding's taste.

The step that matters

Stir in the salt while the blood is warm, then chill it. Blood clots quickly as it cools, so it must be handled while warm and kept from setting before it is mixed evenly with the other ingredients.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sage, thyme, pepper, cream):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sage, thyme, pepper, cream. 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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