The consumption of blood as food in Ireland is a lens through which we can view and understand attitudes to food, farming, sustenance and self-sufficiency; folklore, traditions, customs and rituals; and the craft, skill and knowledge of how to produce something delicious from a drop of blood.
– Blood, Guts & Black Pudding by Kate Ryan.
Black pudding has long fascinated multi-award-winning food journalist, small-scale market grower and academic, Kate Ryan, thanks to its tenure as one of Ireland’s oldest foods. Living in west Cork, near “The Haggart” – the one-acre garden she tends with husband, Jason, Kate – originally from Bristol – has called Ireland home since 2005. In 2011, she began writing about food and soon after developed Flavour.ie.
In 2024, Kate was the first in Ireland to earn a Master’s in Irish Food Studies and Irish Foodways from University College Cork (UCC). A year earlier, she was named 2023 producer champion at the annual Blas na hÉireann awards and, in 2022, she won the award for Food Writing at the Irish Food Writing Awards.
These are just a few of the accolades she has collected over the years, and now “venerated author” can be added to the list with the launch of her already acclaimed book, Blood, Guts & Black Pudding: Ireland’s Dying Art of Blood as Food.
“When we’re talking about Irish food, when you look across what I refer to as the ‘canon’ of traditional Irish foods, black pudding was missing every time,” she says.
“It’s just been brushed aside and commodified as a cheap food source. And we’ve lost that foodway, that nuance around how Ireland used to feed itself.”
Manifesto
In Ireland, we have always used blood from cattle, pigs and sheep for additional sustenance, but black pudding and its associated foods (like tripe and drisheen) have never held as honoured a place in Irish lore as its whiskey or butter counterparts.
You can take any strand of Irish history, the changes in the socioeconomic condition of the country, the changes in our food system. You can track all of that through the lens of black pudding
Kate focused on black pudding’s iconic past and somewhat muddled present while studying at UCC and presented a paper entitled Perfectly Civilised and Proper: the social and cultural history of blood as food in Ireland at the Oxford Food Symposium in 2023. The paper was well received, but Kate had more to say.
On shelves from 10 September and published by Nine Bean Rows, her book is a celebration of the Irish heritage around black pudding and, additionally, a call to action to preserve the traditions around its preparation.
Today, most puddings are made with dried, powdered blood, and for the remaining few producing with fresh blood, options are limited when it comes to sourcing.
“The book is a manifesto, in a way,” Kate says. “I’m just trying to hold up the mirror and say, ‘Look, this is what we’ve always done.’ You can take any strand of Irish history, the changes in the socioeconomic condition of the country, the changes in our food system. You can track all of that through the lens of black pudding, precisely because it is our oldest food.
"This simple, humble food is actually really complex and nuanced, and it’s been a sentient observer of everything that’s changed in this country over the last two centuries or more.
“This is one of our oldest foods, but it’s also one of our most modern and exciting foods because it’s so versatile and delicious. Everyone has an opinion on it. It’s very much an ‘alive’ food, in that way.”
Ireland produces some of the best quality beef, pork and lamb in the world, but when these animals are processed in large-scale abattoirs, it is considered inefficient to save the blood as they are killed. Kate believes this is a mistake – a missed opportunity to add value to our international reputation as a food-producing nation.
“It’s interesting, where we are now, with all the talk and worry around climate change, poverty and food sovereignty and how we feed ourselves into the future,” she muses.
“There is an answer right here, if we could just make a few tweaks to our food system to realise the value of using every part of the animal, including the blood. For a cow, [blood volume] can be anything up to 7% or 8% of its body weight. That’s a huge amount of food washed down the drain.
“While I think we should desperately hold on to our fresh blood pudding makers,” she adds, “I’ll never dismiss any maker’s decision to use dried blood. There’s a missing piece of infrastructure [here] in Ireland where, instead of relying on international imports [of dried blood], if we could capture blood, pasteurise it and powderise it, we could then say, ‘Yes, this blood pudding is made from dried blood, but it is 100% Irish.’”
Recognising women
With 2026 being the International Year of the Woman Farmer, it would be remiss to omit the fact that Irish pudding making tradition is largely thanks to women on farms.
In the past, the killing of an animal would be a momentous occasion and women would gather to help prepare the puddings – intestines carefully washed, blood captured and quickly utilised, recipes saved and handed down from mother to daughter.
Pudding making is an example of the domestic labour that farm women of the past were never celebrated or compensated for, and yet the making and sharing of puddings with family, friends and neighbours is an act fondly remembered by many.
“In the book, I make a point of saying that women’s work is never valued in the same way as men’s,” Kate says. “Puddings were a homespun food and pudding making was the industry of women. It was a communal event, the day that either the pig or the cow was killed, there was a sense of conviviality around that day. They knew, before we had the medical or wellness language, that this was a really important food.
“There was also the very tactile nature of just ‘knowing’ when the consistency of the pudding mixture was right, how much was needed to fill the casings, the prodding with the darning needle when it’s just under the boil.
The knowledge of these women was incredible and every house had its own recipe. That flows through to today, because those recipes have been picked up by commercial makers – largely men – but they’re still using the old recipes.”
Modern favourites
Kate’s book is a thoughtful read for anyone interested in food and agricultural history. Like the plethora of regional accents found throughout the country, so too will one find unique recipes, preparations and customs. She has spent ample time sampling the many puddings in existence; to list her favourites can be a painstaking task.
“I do have favourites, but they change – I decide I’m going to enjoy a particular style of pudding for a while, and then I’ll move on to something else,” she explains. “One I am loyal to [if you can put it that way] is a Clonakilty black pudding, but it’s not the Clonakilty Blackpudding. About four doors down from the original home of Clonakilty Blackpudding is a butchery called M J O’Neill & Sons, and it’s been on the high street for just over 100 years. It’s the only one left in town that still has its own abattoir. They make a fresh beef blood black pudding.
“So, for the fact that it is fresh and the last one of its kind in a town so synonymous with black pudding, that’s the one I will always buy first. It is actually fantastically spiced and it’s a good, rustic, grainy pudding, which is what the puddings are like in this part of Cork.
“I have to say, I love Annascaul black pudding [from Co Kerry],” she adds. “I also really enjoy Hugh Maguire’s smoked black pudding [from Co Meath] because of its smoky edge and rich pork flavour. But really, I roll around the map. If I’m somewhere and see an interesting-looking black pudding, I will buy it.”
Ultimately, Kate hopes readers of Blood, Guts & Black Pudding will develop an appreciation for one of Ireland’s oldest food traditions.
“There is a directory [of pudding makers] in the book, and I make the point of saying that it isn’t complete, because those still managing to make a bit of fresh blood black pudding are tiny businesses making it for customers in their town or village,” Kate explains. “They’re not going to have an online presence, but they’re there. If there is a butcher on your high street making their own black pudding, ask them, ‘Do you make your own black pudding? How do you make it? What kind of blood is it?’
“Their eyes will light up because you’re interested in their pudding,” she continues. “Then, buy it, support it and tell people about it. I think that’s the way we keep this craft alive: by supporting what is there. By telling the story about how delicious and versatile these puddings are, and how important the craft of black pudding making is.”
Find Blood, Guts & Black Pudding in bookshops across Ireland, or purchase online at ninebeanrowsbooks.com.
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