Black Pudding Breakfast Recipe

Black is Back! This time in the guise of the traditional Black Pudding. If you would like to know how to make black pudding or you're looking for a Black Pudding Breakfast Recipe then you've come to the right place.

As a Brit who as brought up in Yorkshire, Educated in Scotland, worked in Lancashire and now lives in Limousin, France, I must say that I should be quite an expert in the Black Pudding. The only place that is also famous for this brekfast dish and where I have never lived or visited is Ireland.

Known as black pudding in Britain, boudin noir in France and blood sausage in other places, the one thing that all these regions share is a love of this tasty sausage. You'll find it in a Full English Breakfast, a Yorkshire Breakfast, and Irish Breakfast and a Scottish Breakfast (black pudding is big in Stornoway).

In France we eat it as a supper dish so that's a whole new story.

There's more to this fascinating traditional food than I ever thought possible so why not find out more about a traditional food that is being discovered all over again.

This work by Barbara Walton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Please note that all images, unless otherwise attributed, are the property of Barbara Walton

An old favourite coming back into fashion?

Black pudding was the subject of a report on BBC Radio 4 Farming Today and it puts black pudding back on the Great British menu!

Yes, sales of black pudding are on the rise in the UK with some producers seeing an increase of up to 20 percent.

Andrew Bradley, a rare breed famer in Skipton, in the Yorkshire Dales, talks about producing black pudding from his rare breed pigs at The Blue Pig Company . These old fashioned breeds fell out of fashion (so to speak) because of the fat they carry. Thrifty Andrew Bradley didn't want to waste all this fat and so he asked his mother how to use it in black pudding.

How do you make black pudding? Andrew makes it using dried blood (because of health regulations - from 2013 blood from different species have to be separated, it then has to be stored by the abatoirs hygenically etc). To the dried blood he adds oatmeal and pearl barley. These ingredients are mixed together until it thickens (and looks like melted chocolate), then the diced back fat 6 kilos contains 1 kilos of fat. Not a health food then. All this is put into a stainless steel oven.

Celebrity chefs love it because they like cheap ingredients with plenty of good old-fahioned flavour.

so how do you make your own black pudding from scratch? Well, it's not so simple now - no longer can you begin with 1 bucket of blood ..... Andrew Bradley makes his black pudding from dried blood (because of health regulations - blood from different species have to be separated and then it has to be stored by the abattoirs hygenically - and so on and so forth).

So Andrew mixes dried blood with oatmeal and pearl barley until it thickens (and looks like melted chocolate). He then adds diced back fat - 6 kilos of black pudding contains 1 kilos of fat. Not a health food. Then the whole lot is put into a stainless steel oven.

Butcher making black pudding at Champagnac la Riviere, S W France

Eleven years ago I moved to Limousin in South West France to get back to a simpler life - to enjoy the good life in France. I haven't been disapointed. A lovely, green and pleasant land, not unlike the landscape of England but with French sunshine and weather. Of course I love to visit the fairs and exhibitions that the local people host in this area.

Every year Champagnac la Riviere, a small, sleepy village in Limousin, South West France, comes alive with a fabulous pig and apple festival. Last year I snapped this local butcher demonstrating how to make black pudding (or boudin noir as it's called in France).

Boudin noir is a real, traditional food in Limousin. You'll find it plain, or mixed with onions, or chestnuts. Limousin was a bit of a backwater (no of course it's THE best place to live!!) and a poor, agricultural region of France. One of he staples of the Limousin diet was chestnuts and one of the main animals kept here was the cul noir (black bottom) pig.

Another of these old, 'rare' breeds that are incredibly fatty, but put together pig's blood and chestnuts and what do you have? Limousin boudin noir!

Janet Street Porter doesn't mince her words or pull her punches when it comes to cooking with blood. Don't look if you really don't want to know what goes into blood sausages!

She swiftly puts the case for this nutritious and often wasted food, takes the pulse of people on the street and then shows you how it's made.

Grat stuff Janet!

How good is black pudding for you?

Serving Size 40 grams

Per Serving percentage of the Daily Value

Calories: 101 (from Fat - 50 calories)

Total Fat content 5.6g: (9%)

Carbohydrates 7.6g (3%)

Fiber 0g (0%)

Protein 4g

This picture was taken from the website of Bentham Lodge B&B in York (Rated 'Fabulous' on Booking.com!) For more information about this guest house and their English Breakfasts click here: Bentham Lodge, York, UK

If you want to sample a full Yorkshire breakfast and you'd rather stay in the country, why not stop off at Blackwood Hall? A lovely English country house set in a mature park you can enjoy all the pleasures of the English countryside as well as all that the ancient city of York has to offer. For more information click here Blackwood Hall

Black pudding is big in Lancashire too, especially in Bury and Ramsbottom - (home of The World Black Pudding Throwing Championships). I worked in Bury for a while and here you might find it boile, sprinkled with malt vinegar out of paper wrapping like propper, old-fashioned fish and chips.

Stornoway has made black pudding its very own speciality. Made on the Western Isles of Scotland, these black puddings have been given the 'Protected Geographical Indicator of Origin status' - in other words no pudding but the Stornaway pudding can call itself a Sornaway Black pudding. I've been to Strnoway too but didn't sample the famous pud).

Dracula's cookbook - what a name - you've just got to have it! Take a look and find more ideas for using blood in food.

Our B&B is siuated just on the borders of Limousin, the Charente and the Dordogne and this beautiful and undiscovered corner of France is just perfect for a family or a hide-away holiday. See our web site for more information www.lestroischenes.com

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