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Black Puddings, to Make

A blood sausage made with blood, grits, bread, 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, to Make

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the blood and grits

  1. Stir the blood with salt until cold.

  2. Soak the grits in the blood overnight.

  3. Soak the bread in hot milk.

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

Make the filling

  1. Chop the winter savory, thyme, and pennyroyal finely. Mix the chopped herbs with beef suet, beaten eggs, and seasonings.

  2. Combine the soaked bread and grits with the seasoning mixture.

  3. Cut hogs' fat into large pieces and add it while filling the skins.

Cook and hang

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

  2. Once boiled, lay them between clean cloths until cold, then hang them up.

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
Binds the filling and gives the pudding its dark colour and rich body.
Whole grits
Absorbs liquid and adds bulk and a firm, slightly grainy texture.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and tender during cooking.
Eggs
Help bind the filling so it holds together when cooked.
Bread
Soaked in milk, it adds moisture and softness to the filling.
New milk
Softens the bread and adds moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Pricking the filled skins before boiling. Steam forms inside the filled casings as they heat. Pricking lets it escape, so the skins do not burst and the filling stays intact.

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.

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