ENGLISH BLACK PUDDING RECIPE

“Black pudding” is a traditional English blood sausage, which started becoming a delicacy in the 15th century, but the history of the blood sausage actually goes back to 800BC and mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey “We’ve got these goat paunches on the fire, Stuffed with fat and blood, ready for Supper.” And the oldest detailed recipe is attributed to Apicius in the 4th Century where the lengths of intestine are mentioned along with using hard boiled eggs yolks, pine kernels, onions and leeks.

​There is no point being squeamish about the prospect of eating or making a sausage with blood as the principal ingredient – it is in fact highly nutritious and inexpensive to make and being a great source of zinc, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron and protein. Many countries have blood sausages and it has been part of our diets for thousands of years.

English Black Pudding (Blood Sausage)

​I find it frustrating that in the UK alone we dispose of more than 38 million litres of pigs blood when pigs are sent for slaughter due to lack of popularity because it is made with blood (or least a dried version of it). In the UK at least it is also illegal to sell pigs blood to the general public and its only available to specialist butchers and limited sausage producers – I learnt that producers actually prefer to use dried blood as it is more consistent and they can control the viscosity of the final mix.
 
When you buy black pudding it is already cooked, so can be eaten as is, so when it is in the pan or a recipe you are merely reheating it not cooking it.

Ordering small amounts of dried pigs blood online was relatively easy and available through the supplier I use for casings. You can also order plastic casings that shrink back on the blood mix during the second stage. These are probably more recognisable if you have ever bought commercially produced black pudding. Use these if you are not confident with hog casings – as long as you don’t over stuff these – the blood mix expands a bit when it cooks in the hot water during the cooking stage.

INGREDIENTS
 
50g Dried Pigs Blood
350ml of water – at room temperature
200g of diced pork back fat (blanched and cooled)
50g of pre cooked and cooled pearl barley (cook as per packet instructions)
200g of rolled porridge oats (not cooked or soaked) blitzed in food processor
½ large onion – finely diced
2g ground pepper
3g ground coriander
5g salt
2g of all spice (a blend of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves)
Chosen casings (hog or plastic) the above makes around 75cm in length of black pudding (or 3 horseshoes) on a 30-34mm casing.

METHOD
 
1.Precook the pearl barley – gently simmer as per the instructions – you don’t want to overcook these as the ends start to split and break. This takes generally 30-40 minutes. Don’t let the water rapidly boil either. Better to have these slightly under done than overdone. Once done quickly cool in cold water or iced water, drain and set aside.

2.Blanche the diced fat in rolling boiling water for 30 seconds, remove, cool in iced water and pat dry. This does 2 things – firstly it removes any impurities, and secondly it keeps the fat being a lovely pearly white when the final sausage is cut and cooked.

3.Whilst the barley is cooking take a small amount of the fat and start gently sweating the diced onion in a pan for 10 minutes. You are not looking to colour or crisp the onion at all – this will soften and reduce the acidity of the onion. Then set aside and let it cool.

4.In a large bowl mix the dried blood and water and mix thoroughly ensuring there are no lumps.

5.Add the salt, pepper, ground coriander and all spice and mix through.

6.Now add the porridge oats, and mix through

7.Finally add the cooled onion and diced fat and mix thoroughly. The mix will have the consistency of la sloppy loose jam, it won’t be runny like a pancake mix. You should be able to draw a spoon through it and it leave a slow collapsing chasm. (see image)

8.Stuff into your desired casing – I used 30-34 hog casings -  I found it easier to use a wide funnel going straight into the widest sausage casing tube that I have that I use for beef middles.

9. Fill to your desired lengths - I found 25-30cm lengths perfect mangable and flexible to create their renowned horseshoe shape. When tying your sausage links don’t try to expand the natural casing too much – these will actually expand when cooked and you don’t want your pan to look like a punch bowl for a party with Freddie Kruger and Jason Vorhees.

10.Now to cook them you have 2 options
Option 1 : In pan of hot water on the stove you want to keep the temperature between 72-83C (170-180F), and will take about 20-25 minutes. After 10 minutes or so the sausages will have expanded and firmed up and you can prick them with a pin to relieve some of the pressure. The risk here is they can expand too much and burst (messy) or you take your eye off the heat and it starts to boil and again they will split. You can tell if they are done by pricking through to the middle and if no blood seeps in the water they are done.
Option 2 : I found that vacuum packing them and putting them in a water oven (sous-vide) set at 82C (180F) and leaving for 35 minutes was perfect.

11.Once cooked, chill immediately in ice water and dry.

12.These will last in the fridge for a good 7-10 days and can be frozen as well.
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13.To use, cut ½ inch/1cm slices and gently fry in the pan for a minute or two each side with your other breakfast items on a medium high heat.
 
They are very very filling tying up any hunger for hours! A breakfast of a few fat slices of black pudding will keep you going for hours!

Black Pudding Mix

Mix of this consistency

Filling the casings

Quite flexible lengths as they expand

After cooking in water and cooling.

Gently fry for 1-2 minutes each side to reheat.