What Is Black Pudding, Anyway? (2024)

FAQs

What Is Black Pudding, Anyway? ›

Black pudding is a distinct regional type of blood sausage originating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is made from pork or occasionally beef blood, with pork fat or beef suet, and a cereal, usually oatmeal, oat groats, or barley groats.

Like haggis, Stornoway Black Pudding is a U.K. favorite that contains sheep's lungs. This ingredient makes it illegal to import into the United States, despite it being a regular menu item across the pond.

Black Pudding is a combination of suet or fat, grain or cereal, onion, seasoning and, there's no denying it, cow or pig's blood, all stuffed into a natural casing (animal intestine).

Black pudding is the version of blood sausage native to the British Isles. While the term "blood sausage" in English is understood, it is applied only to foreign usage (e.g., in the story The Name-Day by Saki), or to similar blood-based sausages elsewhere in the world.

'Black pudding does have some benefits. It's a source of protein, which can keep you feeling fuller for longer. It can also be rich in iron as it contains blood. Nutrient contribution will vary depending on the manufacturer, so iron levels are not always guaranteed to be high.

Black pudding has a complex flavor described as meaty, earthy, and nutty. Onion, herbs, and exotic spices enliven black pudding and create flavor profiles ranging from mild to hot.

A Healthy Alternative

There are relatively few calories in black pudding, especially when compared with other types of sausage and back pudding is rich in iron and zinc, two nutrients that are frequently missing from the average adult's body. If you're ready to try something different, give black pudding a try !

If you didn't buy your black pudding from True Bites, or are unsure on how your supplier might have handled your black pudding, or even whether you might have mishandled it yourself, then you should cook your black pudding to a minimum of 75°c before eating. It's better safe than sorry.

It is usually made of pig's blood, onions, and various spices and herbs such as nutmeg, ginger, and mace, all bound together with barley or, more commonly, oatmeal and then stuffed into tripe skins. The sausages are then boiled or baked, grilled or fried.

While the dish has been known as black pudding for centuries, blak podyngs having been recorded c. 1450, a number of dialect names have also been used for the dish, such as black pot (in Somerset), and bloody pot.

What's the difference between black pudding and scrapple? ›

Scrapple is similar to European black puddings, so it's easy to see the influence of the culinary customs German and Swiss immigrants brought with them. One significant difference is that scrapple does not include blood in the recipe. Also, the addition of cornmeal makes scrapple more distinctly American.

So, what makes Stornoway Black Pudding the best black pudding? It's the fact that its main ingredient is beef suet; this means there are no lumps of fat, unlike other variations. It's moist, rich, tasty and well-seasoned, and has a lovely crumble to it, which makes it perfect for more than your simple morning fry up.

While the black pudding is sealed, it will stay fresh until 'Use by' date on product. Once the skin is broken, please consume within one week. Suitable for freezing for up to 3 months. We recommend you slice and wrap your pudding in portions before freezing.

Black pudding was hailed as a superfood that year. The description of that title being a food that is superior to other foods in the diet, for its nutritional values. Superfood status is given to this humble blood pudding because of its rich iron and protein content.

Banned in the USA. Black pudding is banned in America for sanitary reasons. Other 'blood cakes', such as the ti-hoeh-koe from Taiwan are also banned.

Loose Black Pudding

We would also always recommend heating loose, unpackaged black pudding to a minimum of 75°c before eating because they are not packaged and have, most probably, been handled and could possibly have been displayed on a counter with raw meats.

Outside of certain ethnic communities, blood sausage of any sort is not popular in the US (the name alone puts most people off) and is not commonly found in our markets. It definitely wouldn't be something Americans ate as part of breakfast.