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To Make Black Puddings

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

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 the base

  1. Stir the blood with salt until cold.

  2. Soak the grits in the blood overnight.

  3. Soak the bread crumbs in hot milk until softened.

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

Make the filling

  1. Mix the chopped herbs, spices, beef suet, and beaten eggs in a bowl.

  2. Combine the soaked bread, grits, and seasoning mixture until well mixed.

  3. Fill the cleaned guts with the mixture, adding pieces of hog's fat at intervals.

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

Boil, cool and store

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

  2. Once boiled, lay them between clean cloths to cool and 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. 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.
Grits
Provides bulk and a firm, slightly chewy texture once cooked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb milk and add softness, keeping the filling moist.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and tender as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the filling so it holds together when sliced.
Hog's fat
Melts during cooking, adding richness and moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Pricking the links while boiling. The filling expands as it heats and steam builds inside the casing. Pricking lets steam escape, which prevents the skins from bursting.

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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