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In Praise Of …Black Pudding
So good it gets the lowest nutri-score rating
Black pudding is a traditional breakfast food, popular in Britain and Ireland. We’ve been eating it for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
It goes back a long way, which to some nutrition experts means it must be a serious threat to health, in need of correcting with something punitive and wholegrain. The label warns you off with the lowest possible nutri score.
It certainly looks lethal, black as night and studded with blobs of white fat. The black part is congealed blood.
What’s not to love?
Black pudding is like sausage, but without the meat. Sometimes it’s called blood sausage, which is not to put too fine a point on it.
This delicacy is made by mixing cooked pig’s blood with a filler, usually oatmeal, until it is thick enough to congeal. It also contains lots of fat, usually pork fat. What is added after that varies from one recipe to another, but usually includes onions, salt, pepper and herbs. Quality black pudding will contain little or nothing else.
We may think of black pudding as quintessentially British but most countries where pork is produced have their own version of this thrifty dish. As to where it originated, I’m staying out of that argument…
