Black pudding, Morcilla, Boudin Noir, Blutwurst whatever you wish to call them, they have been part of our food heritage for thousands of years. Yet today here in the UK they are made from a dried blood powder mix, this being produced from indoor reared pigs from the Netherlands, Belgium and Scandinavia.
OK, you may not have known, but now you do, what are you going to do about it ?
I can tell you what I do, I choose to only eat black pudding made from real blood and blood only from locally free range pigs. Also as a Judge I no longer award products using this dried blood mix.
I have friends who commercially produce black puddings for a living, they were forced into this type of production with dried blood powder during the foot & mouth era. But that is behind us now and we need to encourage them to go back to using real blood before we lose this artinsal craft.
Jay Rayner the food critic and journalist has mentioned about this food plight several times including giving it some air time on the BBC's television programme "The One Show", now when he mentions a plight like this, you know we have to listen at the very least. However it is up to us to decide wether we continue to eat these puddings with the knowledge of what goes inside them.
A campaign sounds a bit strong I know, but to encourage the chefs and food businesses to use artisan producers of black pudding, we'll list those producers who still use real blood here on this blog post.
So if you know of such a producer, then let us know to include them on this undermentioned list.
List of producers who use real blood in their black puddings are:
You know a good start up business for someone is to procure all the blood from an abottoir and sell & deliver it to individual black pudding producers.
1.
http://www.jackmccarthy.ie/shop/
2.
www.dukeshillham.co.uk/
3.
http://www.ludlowfoodcentre.co.uk (John the head butcher explains that dried blood is sometimes used when real blood is out of stock, he will happily advise you at your time of enquiry or purchase if requested.) Thank you for being so honest John.
4.
http://foragers.net/
5.
http://www.partridgefarmtiverton.com/
6.
http://www.laverstokepark.co.uk/
7.
http://www.pigandco.com/
8.
http://www.thebutcheryltd.com/
9.
www.dorsetcharcuterie.co.uk
10.
http://www.thewildfoodlarder.co.uk/
11.
http://www.fruitpigcompany.com/ (some of the best I've ever tasted)
12.
www.rustypig.co.uk
13. Lidl supermarket - Hazelmeade Farm (brand)
You can buy Black Pudding made with fresh blood (as well as loads of other fantastic stuff!) from Dukeshill - www.dukeshillham.co.uk
ReplyDeleteI fully agree that one should use fresh blood. As an amature sausage maker it was not hard at all to get fresh blood from your local butcher once you explain you're trying to make Boudin Noir. Only the amount (2 gallon drums) was difficult to manage. Making your own beats anything you can buy.
ReplyDeleteDoes someone have a recipe?
ReplyDeleteI have just found you and your blog .. fantastic . I have read through it all from end to start .. a bit backwards but never mind it is very interesting read.
ReplyDeleteSometime soon I hope to met you and your have some wonderful recipes on your blog ..
till then.
Sandy
Dangling by a Thread
We ( www.dorsetcharcuterie.co.uk ) only use local, free-range and fresh pigs blood in our puddings....
ReplyDeleteAt Arthur Howells Butchers in Wells next the Sea, North Norfolk, we make Black Puddings use fresh pigs blood from our own abattoir.
ReplyDeletewww.arthurhowell.com
Hi Everyone. We are a tiny little farm shop (revenue ~£2000 per month) who have been making black pudding from whole blood for the last two years. Unfortunately a new vet at our abbatoir has prevented them from collecting the blood for us unless they follow major changes in their process which they won't do. Does anyone know where we can source free range, whole pigs blood from? Thanks in advance.
ReplyDelete