One food I’ve been really keen to get my hands on since arrival is a proper Black Pudding.

Black pudding or Blood Sausage (as it’s known throughout the rest of Europe) is exactly as it sounds, though more sausage than pudding. It’s generally pork blood, barley and oatmeal in a sausage skin or in Europe it’s likely to contain onion to soak up the bloodiness.

Not having had Black Pudding before, I was curious to see if it tasted really bloody. You know that metallic taste you get from raw blood? Or that distinctive taste from a really rare steak?

As someone who likes my steak practically mooing, the thought of a sausage filled with it doesn’t really make me balk but I can definitely understand why the mere mention of it makes people cry out with an involuntarily EW! Heck, there are people out there that faint at the sight of blood let alone gobble it up for dinner.

In the UK it’s not too hard to find dishes that incorporate Black Pudding into the menu. In an Oxford pub we found a delicious croquette version that was insanely tasty … but then again isn’t everything deep fried insanely tasty? I also found it mixed into a burger bun. Whilst the burger pretty much hid all trace of the pudding, the croquette had a deep and rich taste that was almost like a rich beef pate or slow cooked meat. Not bloody at all.

Thanks to a friend’s suggestion on how he used to eat Black Pudding in the UK , I ventured to a local butcher to buy myself some pud to cook at home. Immediately a little bit of panic set in when I had to choose which type I wanted. Though according to the butcher “Nah it doon matta, theyrall te seam.” Right.

 

With three fat slices in hand I was pretty chuffed with my purchase (see top image) and excited at the prospect of cooking it at home. The meal I had in mind was a pretty simple brekky consisting of a crusty roll, filled with the pudding (lightly fried first), cheese, spinach leaves, red onion, runny eggs and lashings of sauce (Thanks Pete!).

It’s probably a sin that I didn’t use HP sauce and opted for tomato instead. It’s best I leave the country tonight actually as I’m likely to be deported.

Carrying on …

It’s when you cook the pudding that you realise why it’s called black. It’s actually goes black. Then it goes sticky. Then it sticks to your spatula. Then you realise why they encase it in bread crumbs or mix it into burgers. It quickly turns into bloody mush.

Luckily I managed to get it out of the pan and into the bun in fairly in tact pieces without too much swearing and I constructed … THE BEST BREAKFAST EVER!

Well not really … but wow was it yum! The pudding was so rich in flavour and when put together with egg and sauce it’s a great combination. I want some more! Seriously I’m thinking of buying it back home, though if I ate that every morning I’d probably turn into a sausage shaped person .. It’s not the lightest of food options.

In fact I think HP sauce would be too strong with it … waits for the police.