Let’s be straight up with each other: when the average person conjures up a breakfast, the following foods come to mind: crispy bacon, maybe eggs (if you’re a fan), toast (if that’s your thing), and then there’s that one random portion staring up at you on some plates just begging for investigation and thought: black pudding. The sausage that has a backstory before you even chew it. Half the table is leaning in to take a closer look, while the other half is leaning back like it’s some kind of feat.

No use beating around the bush: black pudding is a blood sausage. That is the upshot. The main ingredient, as the name indicates, is blood, most often pig, sometimes cattle. But not blood straight from the ladle. The blood involved is dried blood, which helps to preserve it and gives it that deep, almost black color.

Along with that, there are two other fundamental components: fat and cereal. The fat is animal fat, often of pork origin, for richness, while cereals such as oatmeal or barley bulk it out and provide texture. It’s the cereals that create the substantiation, fullness, and helpfulness of the pudding.

Perhaps this helps to minimize the vagueness of the idea. I mean, if you have eaten sausage before, the form of black pudding can’t be that different. It’s the idea of the blood.READ MORE BELOW