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Black Puddings

A blood sausage made with onions, pork fat, pig's blood, and spices, boiled and served sliced.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Stew the chopped onions in hog's lard.

  2. Add the diced pork fat and the pig's blood, seasoned with parsley, pepper, salt, and allspice; mix well.

Fill and cook

  1. Clean the puddings thoroughly, ensuring there are no holes.

  2. Fill the puddings to your desired length and tie them securely with twine.

  3. Boil the puddings for 20 minutes; they are done when fat oozes out upon pricking.

  4. Hang the puddings to cool.

Serve

  1. Serve by boiling to warm, frying in thick slices, or serving cold in slices.

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 + allspicetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Blood of 1 pig
Sets when cooked, binding the filling into a firm, sliceable mass.
Pork fat
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the cooked filling tender rather than dry.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they soften slowly in the lard.
Hog's lard
Carries the onion flavor and adds fat for a smooth, rich texture.

The step that matters

Filling the puddings without holes. Any gap or tear in the casing lets the filling leak out and cook unevenly during boiling. Thorough cleaning and secure tying keep the filling contained and the sausage intact.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, parsley, 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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