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To Make Black Puddings

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 ↓

To Make Black Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Stir the blood with salt until cold.

  2. Soak the grits in 1 quart of blood overnight.

  3. Soak the crumb of the loaf in 2 quarts of hot milk.

  4. Prepare the guts by washing, turning, and scraping with salt and water, changing the water several times.

  5. Chop winter savory, thyme, and penny-royal, then mix with pepper, salt, cloves, allspice, ginger, and nutmeg.

  6. Combine the chopped herbs with beef suet and beaten eggs.

Make the sausage

  1. Mix the soaked bread, grits, and seasoning thoroughly.

  2. Fill the cleaned guts with the mixture, adding pieces of hogs' fat at intervals, and tie in links.

Cook and store

  1. Boil in a large kettle, pricking them as they swell to prevent bursting.

  2. Once boiled, lay them between clean cloths until cool, then hang in the kitchen.

  3. To use, scald them in water for a few minutes, wipe, and place 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
Provides the main body and binds the filling into a firm, dark mass.
Grits
Adds bulk and a coarse, starchy texture that helps the filling hold together when cooked.
Bread crumb
Absorbs liquid and keeps the filling moist and tender after cooking.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and gives a rich mouthfeel.
Eggs
Bind the filling so it holds its shape when cut and cooked.

The step that matters

Pricking the links as they boil. As the filling heats, steam and expanding air build pressure inside the casing. Pricking lets it escape, so the links do not burst.

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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