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To Make Black Puddings

A blood sausage made with blood, grits, bread crumbs, suet, eggs, hog fat, and spices.

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 ↓

To Make Black Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Stir the blood with salt until cold.

  2. Soak the grits overnight in 1 quart of blood.

  3. Soak the bread crumbs in 2 quarts of hot milk.

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

Fill and tie

  1. Mix the chopped herbs, spices, suet, and beaten eggs with the soaked bread and grits.

  2. Fill the cleaned guts with the mixture, adding pieces of hogs' fat at intervals.

  3. Tie the filled skins into links, leaving them half filled.

Cook and store

  1. Boil in a large kettle, pricking them as they swell to prevent bursting.

  2. Once boiled, lay them between clean cloths until cool, then hang 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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Thyme + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

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

  4. Winter savory + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together287 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Blood
Thickens the filling and sets firm when cooked, giving the pudding its body and dark colour.
Grits
Absorb liquid and provide bulk, giving the filling a firm, slightly grainy texture.
Bread crumbs
Soak up milk to add moisture and softness, keeping the filling tender.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the filling so it holds together when sliced after cooking.

The step that matters

Pricking the skins while boiling. As the filling heats, steam and expansion build pressure inside the casing. Pricking lets steam escape so the skins do not burst.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, winter savory, thyme, pepper, clove, 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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