Skip to main content
Main

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
Jump to recipe ↓

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 components

  1. Stir the blood with salt until cold.

  2. Soak the grits in the blood overnight.

  3. Soak the bread crumbs in hot milk until softened.

  4. Prepare the skins by washing and scraping them with salt and water, changing the water several times.

Make the filling

  1. Mix the chopped herbs, spices, beef suet, and beaten eggs in a bowl.

  2. Combine the soaked bread, grits, and seasoning mixture until well mixed.

  3. Fill the skins halfway with the mixture, adding diced hog's fat at intervals.

Boil and store

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

  2. Once boiled, lay them between clean cloths or on straw until cool, then 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. Winter savory + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together690 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Blood
Forms the body of the pudding and sets firmly when cooked, binding the filling.
Whole grits
Provides bulk and a firm, toothsome texture within the sausage filling.
Bread crumbs
Soaked in milk, they add moisture and keep the filling tender.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the filling together and help it hold its shape when cooked.

The step that matters

Pricking the skins while boiling. As the filling heats, it expands and steam builds inside the casing. Pricking lets steam escape so the skins do not burst.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, beef, egg, winter savory, thyme, pepper):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, beef, egg, winter savory, thyme, 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.

More black pudding recipes

Irish 6French 3 See all 71 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes