Recipes, Heritage and the Dying Art of Blood as Food

Blood, Guts & Black Pudding – Recipe, Heritage and the Dying Art of Blood as Food

Ever wondered why Ireland has so many different types of black pudding? Or why everyone has their own personal favourite?

Black puddings were once a homemade seasonal food, relished for their deliciousness. Households held pudding meitheals sharing work associated with the annual pig kill; collecting blood for making puddings to a recipe known only to the woman of the house.

Black pudding has been a part of how Ireland fed itself for centuries. You could say puddings are in our DNA, but we are losing the connection to the recipes that made every piece of black pudding unique.

The “cheapification” of black puddings and rapid decline in access to fresh blood here means realising the heritage value of recipe in black pudding making has never been more urgent to preserve the skill and craft inherent in our black pudding traditions.

Award-winning food writer, Kate Ryan, author of Blood, Guts & Black Pudding – Ireland’s Dying Art of Blood as Food, discusses the heritage value of black pudding recipe with pudding maker Hugh Maguire.

This event is part of the Samhain Festival 2026 programme at the Red Chapel, kindly sponsored this year by &Smyth (https://andsmyth.ie/).

*Please note that due to the format of this event, we are unable to accommodate individual dietary requirements.

Description supplied by the event organiser.