What is black pudding?

Black pudding is a distinct regional type of blood sausage originating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is made from pork blood, with pork fat or beef suet, and a cereal, usually oatmeal, oat groats or barley groats. The high proportion of cereal, along with the use of certain herbs such as pennyroyal, serves to distinguish black pudding from blood sausages eaten in other parts of the world.

Black pudding can be grilled, fried, baked or boiled in its skin. It can also be eaten cold, as it is cooked in production. In parts of north-western England and in the Black Country it was usual to serve a whole black pudding boiled as a complete meal, with bread or potatoes, but elsewhere in the UK and Ireland slices of fried or grilled black puddings are more usually served as part of a traditional full breakfast, a tradition that followed British and Irish emigrants around the world.

In Scotland and the north of England some chip shops sell deep-fried, battered black pudding.