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Black Puddings

A blood sausage made with sheep's blood, Embden grits, suet, hog fat, spices, herbs, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Black Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Stir the sheep's blood with the coarse sea salt until cold.

  2. Boil the Embden grits in enough water to swell them, then drain.

  3. Add the drained grits to the blood along with the suet, nutmeg, mace, cloves, allspice, hog's fat, parsley, sage, sweet herbs, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper. Mix all ingredients well.

Stuff and cook

  1. Stuff the mixture into well-cleaned casings and tie them in links.

  2. Prick the casings to prevent bursting while boiling.

  3. Boil for 20 minutes.

  4. Cover with clean straw until cooled.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together331 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sheep's blood
Sets when cooked, forming the dense, firm body of the pudding.
Embden grits
Absorb liquid and swell, giving the filling body and a firm, sliceable texture.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and tender as it cooks.
Hog's fat
Adds fat in pieces that melt during cooking, enriching texture and moisture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help bind the filling into a cohesive mass.

The step that matters

Prick the casings before boiling. As the filling heats, steam and expansion build pressure inside the casing. Pricking lets steam escape so the casing does not burst during boiling.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nutmeg, clove, allspice, parsley, sage, bread, pepper):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, clove, allspice, parsley, sage, bread, 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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