Why it works: Marjoram and thyme 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 grits and blood
Boil the grits in water for 30 minutes.
Drain the grits and place them in a large pan.
Kill the hog.
Save 2 quarts of hog's blood, stirring it until cold.
Mix the blood with the grits and stir well.
Season and fill
Season with salt, cloves, mace, nutmeg, and chopped herbs to taste.
Dice the hog's leaf.
Clean the hog's gut.
Tie one end of the gut.
Fill it with the mixture, adding fat as you go.
Fill the skins three-quarters full.
Tie the other end of the skins.
Prick the skins with a pin.
Cook and finish
Boil the filled skins in a kettle of water for 1 hour.
Remove them and lay on clean straw.
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.
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Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,225 recipes
Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).
-
Winter savory + thymetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together780 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Winter savory + marjoramtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together455 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,686 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Nutmeg + winter savorytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together406 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
- Grits
- Provides the starchy body that holds the pudding together once cooked.
- Hog's blood
- Sets with heat and adds richness, binding the mixture into a firm filling.
- Hog fat
- Adds moisture and richness so the filling stays tender rather than dry.
- Cloves, mace, and nutmeg
- Contribute warm aromatic flavour that defines the pudding's character.
The step that matters
Fill the skins three-quarters full. Overfilling can burst the casing as the mixture expands during boiling, while underfilling leaves air pockets and a loose texture.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, nutmeg, winter savory, marjoram, thyme):
- Allspicefits better
- Sagefits better
- Rosemaryfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against clove, nutmeg, winter savory, marjoram, thyme. 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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