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Black Puddings in Skins

A blood sausage made with milk, parsley, onions, suet, oatmeal, and spices, boiled in skins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Black Puddings in Skins

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Break the clots of blood and run it through a sieve.

  2. Mix in sweet milk according to the quantity of blood.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt, black pepper, chopped onions, and a little shredded mint.

  4. Add small pieces of suet and mix in oatmeal.

Fill and cook

  1. Cut the casing to equal lengths, fill with the mixture, and tie the ends.

  2. Boil water in a pan, then reduce to a simmer by adding cold water before adding the puddings.

  3. Prick the puddings with a pin while boiling to let out air.

  4. Boil for about an hour.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Chive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + chivetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together623 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Blood
Sets when heated, giving the filling its firm, sliceable body.
Oatmeal
Absorbs liquid and helps bind the filling so it holds together.
Suet
Melts during cooking, adding fat that keeps the filling moist and rich.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and loosens the blood so the mixture fills the casings evenly.

The step that matters

Keep the water at a simmer. Boiling the puddings too vigorously can split the casings and let the filling escape. Lowering the heat with cold water keeps the cooking gentle, and pricking releases trapped air that would otherwise swell and burst the casing.

Swap the chive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, parsley, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, parsley, pepper. 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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