This is one of those reoccurring projects that you never seem to get right, but have to continue trying. I have this stubborn scottish heritage where I want to find some link to my past. Since making blood sausage or haggis has been strictly denied, I have been trying my hand to make white pudding. The last time I tried this was about 5 years ago, we had a long day and just finished producing 6 different sausages, about 120 pounds worth. All by hand with my little manual grinder. I was very proud of my creation a tossed the white pudding into a large pot and headed to the hot tub with the girls and a few pops. I had to get some refills for the girls, they were into the blender drinks and I was the cook, bartender and chief bottle washer. In I went to find the simmering pot in a roaring boil. The skins were all busted oatmeal overflowing in the pot and a big mess to clean up. I salvaged a few from the bottom of the pot and they resembled something that ought not be mentioned. My wife, the nurse, in a half tipsy slur, proudly stated "I have to wash those at work, I'm not touching them and there is no way they are going near my mouth." point made.

So a new recipe, new techniques and here we go again.  



I pulled a recipe from the net which called for oatmeal, onion and fat in equal portions. For the fat I used ½ the kidney fat and ½ fat back off the Berkshire, I knew it was going to be rich It went into hog casing and into a simmering pot of water. This is where good things go bad. The hog casing just is not strong enough and we lost 50% of our product even though I kept the simmer at 80(c )

The water was disgusting, with 1/2 the sausages broken a slick goo of melted lard and over cooked oatmeal and onions permeated my broth, this was not pretty by far.

Well here is the finish product and it was wonderful, if you a Scotsmen, I had some for breakfast along with some typical accoutrements

I served some samples for tonight’s dinner, everybody in the house thought they were filthy imitations of a food product. My son was excited to try a new recipe and took one bite and promptly stated that this was a fake sausage and that if there was no meat it could not be classified as a sausage, it was immediately refused. There was no luck with the others.

To call this a success you have to have at least one other person give a thumbs up; since I live with a bunch of transplanted francophone's, I was not getting anywhere. Perhaps if I covered this in cheese curds and gravy I would get a better response, but that is another story. Oh well I guess it back to the drawing board, on second thought, I think this is just something that can not be exported and no matter how good it gets, it will not be accepted in my household… I have to classify this with haggis, another no go.