If you’re intrigued by the idea of making blood sausage at home, you have to give this simple recipe and tutorial a try. Popular in many parts of the world, this unique sausage has a rich history and an unforgettable flavor.

And while many of us here in the United States probably haven’t heard of black pudding or know entirely what it is, it has been prized in Europe for centuries.

What is black pudding?

Black pudding is a traditional blood pudding that is made of blood (generally pigs), suet, cereal and spices.

Nothing like what we American’s call pudding, this dish is more similar to modern day sausage while the British will say that what we call pudding is more similar to custard.

This dish was important to many farmer’s in Europe, especially during medieval times as even fairly poor families often owned at least a pig.

It was common practice, if not essential practice, to not allow any part of the animal to go to waste so blood pudding was often made.

It takes the whole nose to tail thing and puts it in an entirely new perspective, right? Society doesn’t eat much offal the way they used to. Things like heart, sweetbread, liver, and kidney aren’t utilized as readily as they used to be and neither is blood.

Traditionally, in Apicius, blood was blended with chopped hard-boiled egg yolks, pine kernels, diced onions, and leeks and stuffed into lengths of intestine.

The peasant farmers during medieval times would blend together pigs blood with minced onions, diced pork fat (or suet), and spice it with cloves and ginger and stuff it into lengths of intestine.

It can be precarious to stuff predominantly blood with some spices into casings in today’s world, though not impossible. Thankfully, today’s blood sausage is typically thickened with the use of cereal (oats or barley) and fat.

But… you want me to eat blood?

I know… if you’ve made it this far you’re probably cringing. It’s different to think of using blood as an ingredient. However, most countries and cuisines use blood as an ingredient.

Also, there is a lot of nutrition in blood, think things like iron and other minerals. In fact, black pudding has been considered a superfood by many.

Since black pudding isn’t made like traditional sausage, which requires copious amounts of salt to cure, it probably is healthier and tastes good.

What’s in black pudding?

Pork blood. While it has been said that you can utilize beef blood or lamb in black pudding, it is traditionally made with pork blood. Pork blood will stay moist in your pudding while beef blood kind of dries out and crumbles. Pork blood can be found in just about any Asian market if you have one nearby.

Cereal. Typically oatmeal though oat groats or barley groats can be used. The cereal is utilized as a filler and makes the whole production easier to stuff into casings.

Pork fat or suet. If you’ve got pork fat (un-rendered lard) I recommend using it. Beef suet or duck fat are other alternatives. The fat adds flavor.

Onions. Again… flavor. Dice them up fairly fine, you don’t want big hunks of onion in your pudding. You’ll caramelize these in a little lard.

Spices and cure. This particular recipe calls for white pepper, salt, coriander, cumin, and ginger along with a bit of cure to keep things safe.

Milk or Heavy cream. Which, can be omitted, but calms the flavor of the blood down just a touch.

What does black pudding taste like?

Not like blood. If you didn’t know there was blood in it, you probably wouldn’t notice at all. It’s a bit chunkier than typical sausage but not necessarily in a bad way.

If you don’t want to make it yourself, you can try morcilla which is similar to black pudding, but spiced differently.

How to Serve Black Pudding

Typically black pudding is sliced, fried, and served alongside eggs and other goodies at breakfast. But, it can also be crumbled and added to dishes.

It can be served cold, but most people slice it and fry or grill it before serving or cook it in a dish they add it to add richness and flavor (like mashed potatoes, for instance).