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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 ↓

Black Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Stir the blood with salt until cold.

  2. Soak the grits in the blood overnight.

  3. Soak the bread crumb in hot milk.

Prepare the guts

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

Make the filling

  1. Chop the herbs and spices finely.

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

  3. Fill the prepared skins with the mixture, adding pieces of hogs' fat at intervals.

Boil and store

  1. Tie the skins in links, leaving them half filled, and boil in a large kettle, pricking them as they swell to prevent bursting.

  2. Once boiled, lay them between clean cloths to cool and hang them 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
Sets when cooked, binding the filling into a firm, sliceable texture.
Whole grits
Soaked in blood, they add body and a grainy texture to the filling.
Bread crumb
Soaked in milk, it adds moisture and softness to the filling.
Eggs
Bind the filling and help it hold together when cooked.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich during boiling.
Hogs' fat
Pieces melt during cooking, adding richness and moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Pricking the skins as they boil. As the filling heats, it expands and steam builds inside the casing. Pricking lets steam escape so the skins do not burst, and leaving the links half filled gives the filling room to swell.

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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