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Black Puddings

A blood sausage made with blood, grits, bread crumbs, milk, suet, eggs, herbs, and spices, cooked in hog 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 ↓

Black Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Stir the blood with salt until cold.

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

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

  4. Prepare the guts by washing, turning, and scraping with salt and water, changing the water several times.

  5. Chop winter savory, thyme, penny royal, pepper, salt, cloves, allspice, ginger, and nutmeg finely.

  6. Mix the chopped herbs with beef suet and beaten eggs.

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

Fill and boil

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

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

  3. Once boiled, lay them between clean cloths until cold and hang them in the kitchen.

Serve

  1. 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
Thickens the mixture and sets firmly when cooked, giving the pudding its body and dark colour.
Whole grits
Provides bulk and a firm, slightly chewy texture as they absorb liquid.
Bread
Soaked in milk, it adds moisture and softness that keeps the filling tender.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich during boiling.
Eggs
Bind the herbs and suet together so the filling holds its shape.
Hogs fat
Melts during boiling, leaving pockets of richness and moisture through the filling.

The step that matters

Pricking the skins while boiling. The filling expands and steams as it heats, so the casings can burst if not pricked. Pricking lets steam escape while the links stay 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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