Making Black Pudding...

Always ones to try new things here at Redborne. It was decided to have a trial run at making black pudding. Here's how we did it and how it went...

Ingredients...

1 black pudding kit (Skins, blood, filler and seasonings)
1.3 kg of pork fat (Back fat is best)
1.980 kg of liquid (we used half warm water and half home brewed red wine)

The casings to the left soaking in freshwater and pudding funnel to the rear with stuffing attachment...

Important equipment...

A funnel (We used a specific black pudding funnel), Ladle, large mixing bowl, string, kitchen towel...

The Method...

1. We soaked the skins or casings. The beef runners (part of the cows intestines) come packaged in salt. This makes them tough and hard to work with so at least an hour before starting it's best to get them soaking in plenty of fresh water. We also put a large pan of water onto simmer...

2. The fat. A major characteristic of black pudding we were desperate to replicate is the mixture of soft fats in the farce (Black bit) and chunks of fat visible when cut and cooked. We took our kilo of fat trimmings and half were minced on a coarse plate and half chopped finely by hand...

Hand Diced...

Minced fat...

3. The fat, pudding mix and warm liquid (Not hot otherwise the mix will start to cook, not cold otherwise it won't mix) must be mixed together, if the water is warm this will be much easier...

The Black pudding mix...

4. Once the mixture is incorporated leave to stand for about half an hour. While the mix is resting cut your skins (casings) to your desired length. We estimated 50cm lengths as this allowed a good curve, plenty of skin for forming knots and room for expansion...

5. Tie a knot in one end of the skin and feed the open end over the funnels tip or attachment. Once upright slowly start to ladle the mixture into the funnel. This should be done very slowly a ladle at a time as you must leave about 2 inches of empty casing for expansion and knotting...

The casing knotted at the end, fed over the stuffing nozzle...

6. Once filled (almost) remove excess air from the remaining casing and knot. Using string tie the two knots together to form the characteristic horseshoe shape. This looks nice and helps lift the puddings in and out of the cooking pot...

Knotted and ready for the pan...

7. Once knotted add to the stock pots and cook for at least 80 minutes. Do not leave too long or they may rupture...

8. Once cooked remove and leave to cool. It's worth noting even after 80 mins the puddings that are wet will appear brown not black it is only as they dry they turn a deep black. They may also still be a little soft as the fats will not be set...
 
9. Once cool they can be stored for up to a week in the fridge, frozen or of course enjoyed fried in a little oil or butter...

The finished article with the remaining salt from the casings visible on the skins...

Our black pudding kit came from http://www.weschenfelder.co.uk/