Food in Ireland----namely, black pudding.

It is just sausage made with blood...Irish version of the Spanish morcilla or the French boudin noir...Germans and Italians have their own versions, too.

LOTS of blood.

Oh, come on. You would never know it is blood unless someone told you. It just tastes rich. We always use it in venison stew here in my corner of Massachusetts, following Scottish practice.

If you are going the B&B route, you may find black pudding and white pudding on your breakfast plate.

I saw blutwurst (assume it's the same thing) on a breakfast buffet in Germany. Kept me off the meat end of the table for good (but then I've never had much except toast or cereal in the morning).

Suggest you google some pix and recipes before you decide.

Not know it was blood? Looks like clotted blood, tastes like a nosebleed!

apologies to the squeamish.

Even with alot of wine beforehand, I think I'll take a pass. I do like to try new food, but that's not going to be one of them.

I'll bet Anthony Bourdain would try it, though.

Perfectly safe to eat despite its rather scary origins.

You will find it most commonly offered as part of "The Full Irish", a true gastronomic test of the cardiovascular system, a breakfast plate with rashers (bacon slices), sausage (fried), eggs (yes, fried again), tomatoes (what else but fried). Any room left on the plate can be occupied with mushrooms (fried of course), white pudding (a close relation to your black pudding) and potato cake (yes, that's fried too)

In the northern counties of Ireland where nothing is left to chance, the Ulster Fry throws in some fried bread as an absolute guarantee that your cholesterol levels will hit numbers you've never dreamed of.

Black pudding has been elevated in recent times to higher cuisine than breakfast and appears on menus combined with apple puree and even with seared scallops.

Here's some pics of Clonakilty black pudding:

http://www.google.co.uk/images?rlz=1T4GGIC_enGB310&q=clonakilty+black+pudding&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=bNF6TO2yGYSQjAfRpsW3Bg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=5&ved=0CDkQsAQwBA&biw=1004&bih=462

if you think that's gross, you're lucky that you've never been offered "blutkucken". Here's a recipe [sorry, it's in german, but the important bit is that it requires 1/2 litre of pig's blood]

http://www.kochmeister.com/r/42113-thueringer-blutkuchen.html

the version I was offered was made with the meat from a wild boar's head, and the boar's blood of course. it was somewhat of an acquired taste and not what I personally would have served for a 25th wedding anniversary celebration, but it seemed to be very popular with the other guests.

It's among the reasons the wife goes vegetarian whilst we travel.

it's a Scottish thing also...can also be served with scallops for a dinner dish...

"Ulster Fry throws in some fried bread as an absolute guarantee that your cholesterol levels will hit numbers you've never dreamed of."

Fried bread is cholesterol-free. Fried tomatoes aren't just cholesterol-free too: the level of lycopenes and antioxidants in them is higher than in raw tomatoes - and infinitely higher than in junk food like those disgusting fat-stuffed croisssants the French stuff down them.

I'm a regular eater of proper breakfasts. I also regularly get my cholesterol level checked. It's never been remotely elevated after a nice plate of black pudding, fried tomatoes, baked beans and a couple of rashers of bacon.

"Black Pudding? And what exactly is it?"

I note that among all the nutritionally-illiterate ("a true gastronomic test of the cardiovascular system")attitudinising, no-one's bothered to answer your question.Par for the course, of course, with this shower of pig-ignorant numpties. Much easier to opinionate when you haven't got the faintest what you're yammering on about.

Black pudding is a mix of onions, blood, a tad of salt, pepper, mace and nutmeg and a high fibre binder: usually oatmeal or barley. Sauteed together for 5-10 mins, put into a casing then poached and left, refrigerated, for a few days.

Ounce for ounce, rather less blood - and far, far more taste -than those boring slabs of growth hormone Americans idolise as steak. Only with cholesterol-busting dietary fibre already cooked in.

Black pudding is very good.
Mind you, I only have the full English/Scottish/Irish breakfast when on holiday.
It's one of those things that some people get silly about, rather like haggis or offal.
I have never understood why it is perfectly fine to eat part of an animal's backside, but not its liver.

I'm not being silly about it, it tastes of blood to me, which I don't care for. To each his own, which I won't write in French as that will open another debate.

Interesting point about beef steak containing blood!

No one ever think of that when they dig into those Beefsteak Charlie hunks o meat!

flanneruk---thanks for the real description.

Another question----why is it called pudding? To me pudding is a chocolate or other flavored dessert.

I do eat steak med. rare, so I'll give it another thought. We'll see when I view it for real.

steak and kidney pudding is a traditional British recipe

It really does taste pretty good and does not look like congealed blood at all. I find that I taste the grains they use as filler more than anything else. It really is quite good and not at all nasty or bloody.

Flanner's knowledge of American steak is about equal to TPAYT's knowledge of black pudding as of Aug 29, 10 at 2:41pm.

My DH tried it and liked it, UNTIL I told him what was in it and then he suddenly decided he hated it. But he loves scrapple - you may not be familiar with that unless you live in certain areas of the US (here they describe it as made with "everything but the oink")
I don't taste the blood - if anything I'm not crazy about the texture - can be a little mushy sometimes.

I just had black pudding, and white pudding this morning for the first time. The black was tasty, but the white was better. If someone didn't tell me that it was blood you wouldn't know it. It doesn't even remotely taste bloody or like iron.

I would recommend trying it. I did....

All right, I'll bite. What is White Pudding made of?

I prefer white pudding (same as black..with no blood). Better quality pork = better taste! Not all black/white puddings taste the same

If you see black pudding with scallops on a menu I urge you to try it. It really is a wonderful pairing.

What's white pudding? here you are:

http://www.scottishrecipes.co.uk/white_pudding.htm

here in Cornwall you can get something called "hog's pudding" which is white[ish] and like white pudding, but made with minced pork, like a sausage.

both will probably appeal to the squeamish more than black pudding does.

Oh, lovely Annig; "-- traditional Scottish recipes for white pudding also used to contain sheep brain matter which was used as a binding agent rather than for its flavour."

In answer to the OP - should you try black pudding? Yes of course you should. If you don't like it leave it - but who knows you may enjoy it.

traditional Scottish recipes for white pudding also used to contain sheep brain matter which was used as a binding agent rather than for its flavour.">>

yes, that does sound yummy, nukesafe. i love the throwaway line about the sheeps' brains being used for binding rather than flavour.

In the upper part of South Carolina and perhaps in adjacent parts of Georgia, NC and Tennessee, you can buy "liver pudding", made from pig livers, pig lungs ("the lights"), corn meal, red pepper and onion. Not all that different from scrapple. Of course most of the residents of this area came from Scotland or Ulster, so they just adapted.

I know when I go to Ireland later this year, I plan on trying it. Of course, I like my "American" steaks extremely rare, so I don't mind the blood Whenever I make it to Scotland I plan on trying the haggis as well!

People eat this stuff all the time, it's popular because they like it.
If it's there eat it and don't think about what you don't like about it. If you're an American, you've eaten stuff that is a less tasteless and a lots more dishonest. What do you think goes into lunch meat and sausage?

Don't assume that because I am an American I eat tasteless and dishonest food. That is like saying all Koreans eat dog meat. Perhaps they do, I don't know, so wouldn't assume it.

My mother never bought or served lunch meat nor do I. As for dishonest food, well you just have to be vigilant and know your vendors. We all aren't drowning in a sea of chemicals and additives. Such an arrogant assumption.

We've eaten it every time we've been to Ireland. One B&B in Galway didn't serve it because, the owner said, not everyone liked it. (I don't care for fried tomatoes, but one was on my plate.) DH said he really liked it, so the next morning she served it to just us. Another guest saw it and asked for it.
But we like scrapple, too.

TPAYT, I must have had black pudding in Ireland at breakfast - didn't know exactly what I was eating. But I did try haggis in Scotland and suvived.

When I am in Ireland, I like to concentrate on the salmon, brown bread (unlike Boston brown bread), and delicious hearty vegetables especially turnips mashed with carrots. Love the roast lamb too. You will enjoy the food in Ireland...

I love the full Irish breakfast and the black and white pudding are little sliced things that do taste very grainy and are quite good, just the kind of things you'd like for breakfast, as is filling and not too spicy or sweet.