Irish White Pudding
Some time back I posted about my trials of an Irish White Pudding recipe that I developed in collaboration with my forum mate John. His blog is mainly about curry but he also makes sausage, bacon, hams and luncheon meats.
Now, I have to admit, I can take-or-leave these Irish delicacies but I believe that this recipe is as close to the commercial ones, that I was sent, as we can get.
The final recipe stood up to the 'John's mother-in-law' test and passed with flying colours. John has since amended his version, but I'm happy with the original one. I may increase the amount of onion, not just for the fun of it, but because I have recently found the ingredients specification for Clonakilty White Pudding and notice that it has significantly more onion.
Ingredients
395gm Pork Shoulder (with plenty of fat)
265gm Medium Oatmeal
250gm Water
30gm Onion
23gm Potato Flour
15gm Salt
18gm Seasoning Mix - see below
Seasoning Mix
5gm White pepper
5gm Ground coriander
5gm Ground ginger
5gm Powdered sage
3gm Mace
3gm Nutmeg
2gm Allspice
Only 18gm of this mix is used in the sausage above.
Method
Soak the oatmeal in the water for 1 hour or so. Grind the meat and onion through the fine plate of a mincer, I used a 5mm plate, then add all the other ingredients and mix well. The sausage-meat will be on the stiff side. Stuff into large pigs' casings and boil/steam at 75°C - 80°C for 1 minute per mm of width of the sausage. The final internal temperature of the sausage should be 72°C Hold at this temperature for 2 minutes then cool in ice-cold water. To eat, slice crossways into 5 - 10mm chucks and fry until brown.
That reminds me, we had a postcard from St Ives in Cornwall today. Now, in that 'neck of the woods' they make a mean hog's pudding, a very similar beast to the white pudding but with more meat. I can feel a further experiment coming on!
There are twenty comments
I wouldn’t say that it’s a standard time, but it’s a good starting point. You should always test the internal temperature of the sausage/pudding to make sure.
The main thing to remember is to keep the temperature low, otherwise they’ll split and you’ll end up with porridge!
Hi phil,
Do you find it easier to use the skin as opposed to my way of using clingfilm to steam it?
John
No John it’s not. I did them in skins because some were for another person.
They hated them, by the way!
Just made some with english water & they are good. Had to modify the recipe becuse I couldn’t get pin oat; used barley instead. Will post full recipe when perfected. I make just a couple at a time so that I can quickly come up with final recipe. Jon.
I’ve only ever had white pudding fried or grilled. I’ve never heard of anyone boiling it. I had hogs pudding (steamed) in Cornwall once and it wasn’t nearly as nice as white pud.
Could you use cornflour instead of potato flour? I appreciate that this would make it essentially ‘un-Irish’ but I don’t have potato flour lying around in the cupboard (yet).
One idea – try using milk instead of water to soak the oatmeal. It works better soaking the breadcrumbs in sausages so I reckon is worth a try in white pud. I’ll be trying your recipe this week (with milk).
The boiling is in the preparation. When you buy them they are already cooked (boiled) by the butcher. You then fry or grill before eating.
Yes, cornflour should work – I chose potato flour/starch as it ‘sets’ at a temperature that’s low enough to bind the fat/water into the sausage before it boils and bursts the skins.
I hope you enjoy them – Although I prefer the firmer type myself.
I was sent two white puddings from Ireland. They were very different – one was like the recipe above (Shaw’s?) and the other was a pinkish colour and firmer texture (Olhausen’s?).
I was asked to produce a recipe for the softer one, but personally preferred the firmer Olhausen’s product.
HTH
Cheers. The only brand I know is Galtee, which most supermarkets sell. Not that nice. Usually I buy it from butchers, either in the UK or Eire – some butchers in the North West of the UK do it, along with Ulster slice.
I suppose that what I was really doing was highlighting that these were designed to meet one man and his mother-in-law’s personal tastes (They are near Dublin). You may need to adjust it (even quite a lot) to make it like the product you like best.
I was surprised by how different the two brands I tried were.
Sorry, Tom I’ve not done one of those – to start the ball rolling, the ingredientsa are given as:
Oatmeal (24%) , Onions , Water , Beef Fat , Dried Blood (4%) , Salt , Natural Spices .
I hope this helps.
Hove to say. tried the recipe today, its very good. not like the pudding 20 years ago but like the modern irish puding today. been making black pudding for a while now nice to have a white to go with it. i will make a few tweeks and make it my own though :D thanks. and massive well done on the website. its a trove of information. have only found it this week and reading it page by page.
Phew, I wondered what you were going to say then! I’m really glad that you liked it. Not being from Ireland I didn’t know that puddings had changed. I just formulated this one to how my mate John described it.
The two I actually tasted were very different from each other
About 35 years ago, I spent a winter in Aberdeen and loved a white pudding on the way home from the pub. Pure Heaven. I think it’s time I gave it a try again. Someone mentioned cling wrap as a method of holding the pudding while cooking. Could you explain a bit more about this method please. Thanks.
I have just started making my own Black and White puddings – is your comment ’1 minute per mm of width of the sausage’ a standard time to steam sausages ?