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Black Puddings

A blood sausage made with blood, grits, bread crumbs, milk, suet, eggs, herbs, spices, and diced 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Stir the blood with salt until cold.

  2. Soak the grits in the blood overnight.

  3. Soak the bread crumbs in hot milk.

  4. Prepare the skins by washing and scraping them with salt and water.

Make and fill the sausage

  1. Mix the chopped herbs, spices, and beef suet with the beaten eggs.

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

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

  4. Tie the skins in links and boil in a large kettle, pricking them to prevent bursting.

Cool and serve

  1. Once boiled, lay them between clean cloths or on straw to cool, then hang in the kitchen.

  2. 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
Binds the grits and bread into a dense, sliceable mixture and adds rich flavor.
Whole grits
Provides bulk and a firm, slightly grainy texture once soaked and cooked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb milk and blood, adding moisture and a softer texture to the filling.
Eggs
Set when cooked, helping hold the filling together in the links.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and tender as it cooks.
Hogs fat
Melts during boiling, leaving pockets of richness throughout the filling.

The step that matters

Pricking the skins before boiling. Air and steam expand inside the filling as it heats. Without pricking, the casings can burst, releasing filling and leaving the links dry and misshapen.

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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