Blood sausage

Blood sausage

Black pudding (boudin noir), before cooking
Alternative names	Blood pudding, Botifarró, Morcilla, Mixuegao, Boudin noir, Blutwurst, Marag Dubh (Scots Gaelic), Black pudding
Serving temperature	Hot
Main ingredients	Blood

Blood sausages are sausages filled with blood that are cooked or dried and mixed with a filler until they are thick enough to solidify when cooled. Variants are found worldwide. Pig, cattle, sheep, duck, and goat blood can be used, varying by country.

In Europe and the Americas, typical fillers include meat, fat, suet, bread, cornmeal, onion, chestnuts, barley, and oatmeal. In Spain, Portugal, and Asia, northern-climate cereals are often replaced by rice. In Kenya fillers include fresh minced goat or beef, fat, and red onions.

Black pudding is the native British version of blood sausage. It is generally made from pork blood and a relatively high proportion of oatmeal. In the past it was occasionally flavoured with pennyroyal, differing from continental European versions in its relatively limited range of ingredients and reliance on oatmeal and barley instead of onions to absorb the blood. It can be eaten cold, as it is cooked in production, grilled, fried or boiled in its skin. It is often served sliced and fried or grilled as part of a traditional full breakfast, a tradition that followed British and Irish emigrants around the world. Black pudding is now part of the local cuisine of New Zealand and the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Stornoway Black Pudding produced on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, is one of the most renowned varieties and has been granted Protected Geographical Indicator of Origin (PGI) status.