The dying art of blood as food in Irish cuisine
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Why is black pudding such an essential part of Irish breakfast culture?
Now it's an essential part of an Irish breakfast and a staple in supermarkets and homes throughout the country. But is the importance and the heritage of black pudding overlooked? Well, it's a topic my next guest has explored in her fascinating new book. It's called Blood Guts and Black Pudding, Ireland's dying art of blood as food. Its author is Kate Ryan. She joins us now from our Cork studio. Kate, good morning to you.
Good morning, David.
Is this something that people are squeamish about nowadays, uh the idea of blood as food?
I don't think so, to be honest. Uh I think the uh the taste and the love that we have in Ireland for our black puddings is something more powerful, I suppose, than just focusing on what it's made of. Of and obviously the core ingredient of it is blood, but there are other things in it as well. So I think really, you know, the way that there's something about the embeddedness of this food in the way that we eat and the way that we approach it as well. I think what's really unique about Iron is is just we're really uh versatile in how we kinda cook with it, not just on the fry, but it can appear on all kinds of dishes. So I think it's just like we're guided by flavour and taste. Um and then so then that kind of makes the the squeamishness or the fact that it's made from blood a sort of a non issue then in that regard.
Okay, and this uh I mean using blood as food has a very, very uh as you explore in this book, a lot of research has gone into it, but it has a very long history.
Yeah, it really does. I mean, uh further back than we actually even have records for.
How did ancient Irish warriors use blood as a food and super‑energy source?
So i th sort of the earliest records that I could pick up um anywhere were in an Irish context was around the Tom Baulculana, and apologies for my Irish pronunciation. Um so, you know, the the scholars of the ton widely accept that this epic tale was uh happened in around about the first century. Um But the retelling of it happened much later in later centuries. But I mean essentially there's this kind of tiny snippet in the ton. It's only sort of a couple of lines where it kind of says these warriors in the battle, they're resting uh along the the banks of the river and they're obviously hungry. Um and so uh and for want of food, as you would imagine, in a war or siege situation. Uh they're surrounded by cows, so in in in essence they're saying what can we have?
To eat. And they take a small amount of blood from s the living cows that are there. And there's a line that says the cows gave freely of their blood to the to the monster men. And that they would just drink it up like that as a as a raw elixir, if you like. Almost as though they kind of knew that blood is has the essential elements for everything that we need for life. And by kind of consuming it then that they would be restored. Restored and ready for battle again.
So the idea of using blood as food it's not just about using up every bit of the uh of the slaughtered animal or or the living animal in that case, it's is actually a superfood.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, it kinda got this moniker uh probably about ten years or ago or so when I suppose generally people were becoming quite obsessed with this term as superfood. In my opinion, all foods are super. Um but uh yeah, I suppose it's just because of what it is. You know, we call you know, you often you hear people say blood is the i is a lifeblood, you know, and it it's the very thing that gives life and sustains life.
What makes blood a nutritional ‘superfood’ in traditional black pudding recipes?
Um but it is actually highly nutritional. If we kind of use the modern parlance and language around food, uh, you know, it's very rich in iron, it's high in protein, um, it's got loads of essential amino acids, vitamins, nutrients, macro and micro. So, I mean, it really is a complete food, especially when when we talk about black puddings, when you mix it with grains, when you mix it with milk uh and oats and things like that, it is then a complete food.
And it's not just puddings we're talking about when you go when you and you've researched this uh back in history, it's it's blood was used in other foods in Ireland, stirrebout for instance, which is a kind of porridgey thing.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why is black pudding such an essential part of Irish breakfast culture?
0:00–1:30
2
How did ancient Irish warriors use blood as a food and super‑energy source?
1:30–3:16
3
What makes blood a nutritional ‘superfood’ in traditional black pudding recipes?
3:16–5:55
4
How were blood‑based dishes like stir‑rubite prepared and eaten in historic Ireland?
5:55–7:29
5
What role did women and community ‘pudding mechal’ play in preserving black pudding traditions?
7:29–9:17
6
Which folklore superstitions surround the making and eating of black pudding?
9:17–10:52
7
How has modern EU regulation and industrialisation changed Irish blood‑food production?
10:52–12:37
8
Where can you find the most distinctive regional black puddings in Ireland today?
12:37–13:22
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