Black pudding

Ingredients

Filling

• 1 litrefresh pig’s blood, strained
• 400 gcooked rice, cooled
• 1large onion, very finely chopped
• 4spring onions, finely sliced
• 1 tbspfresh thyme leaves
• 1 tspground allspice
• 1 tspblack pepper
• 1Scotch bonnet, deseeded and minced
• 2 tbspsalt
• 100 ggrated sweet potato or pumpkin (optional, for a softer set)

Casings

• 2m natural hog casings, rinsed and soaked
• kitchen string

To poach

• water
• 1 tbspsalt
• 2bay leaves

Directions

1. Rinse the casings inside and out under running water and leave them to soak in cold water while you make the filling.
2. Stir the blood through a sieve into a large bowl to catch any clots — the sieve is not optional, and any lumps make a grainy pudding.
3. Fold in the rice, onion, spring onion, thyme, allspice, pepper, chilli and salt, plus the grated sweet potato if using. The mixture should be loose and pourable; rice swells as it cooks and a tightly packed sausage bursts.
4. Fry a teaspoon of the mixture in a pan and taste it for salt and heat before you fill anything. Once it is in the casing there is no adjusting it.
5. Slip a casing onto a wide funnel and ladle the filling in, leaving it no more than two thirds full. Tie into links about 15 cm long, leaving slack at each tie.
6. Prick each link two or three times with a fine needle.
7. Bring a wide pan of salted water with the bay leaves to 80°C — steaming, with the odd bubble, and never boiling. Lower the puddings in and poach 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a skewer comes out clean and the juices run clear rather than red.
8. Lift out and cool. Eat within two days, sliced thick and fried in a dry pan until crisp on both sides, or steamed through.

Technique

• Water that boils will burst every link. Keep it steaming and adjust the heat constantly; this is the whole difficulty of the dish.
• Fresh blood is the ingredient that decides whether this works. Order it from a butcher, keep it refrigerated, and use it within a day of collection — it must smell clean and metallic, never sour.
• Poach the puddings the day you fill them, and refrigerate immediately after. This is a fresh sausage, not a cured one, and it does not keep.

Substitutions

• Sweet potato in place of some of the rice gives the softer Nevisian style.
• Collagen casings work if hog casings are hard to find, though they split more readily.
• Where fresh blood cannot be had, this cannot honestly be made — there is no substitute for it, and the dish is the blood.

Variations

• Sold beside souse at weekend stands across Saint Kitts and Nevis, the two eaten together as a plate.
• The Bajan and Trinidadian versions lean sweeter, sometimes with grated sweet potato throughout and more thyme.

History

Blood sausage bound with rice or sweet potato and heavy seasoning, sold beside souse at weekend stands.

Frequently asked questions

What is Black pudding?

Black pudding is a snack from Saint Kitts and Nevis: rice-stuffed blood sausage, weekend delicacy. Blood sausage bound with rice or sweet potato and heavy seasoning, sold beside souse at weekend stands.

How long does Black pudding take to make?

Black pudding takes 45 min of preparation and 1 hour of cooking. The recipe makes makes about 8 links. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Black pudding?

Yes, within limits. Sweet potato in place of some of the rice gives the softer Nevisian style. Collagen casings work if hog casings are hard to find, though they split more readily. Where fresh blood cannot be had, this cannot honestly be made — there is no substitute for it, and the dish is the blood.

What is the most important thing to get right in Black pudding?

Stir the blood through a sieve into a large bowl to catch any clots — the sieve is not optional, and any lumps make a grainy pudding.