Start Date
27-5-2026 11:30 AM
End Date
27-5-2026 11:45 AM
Description
Fresh blood black pudding is one of the oldest foods of Ireland, yet rapidly declining access to fresh animal blood means this is a food under threat of extinction. Underpinning this crisis is the shuttering of abattoirs capable or willing to collect blood at slaughter. However, this is a crisis hidden from view of the consumer as proliferation of cheap mass-made puddings reliant on imported dried blood obfuscates the issue. The result is that this is a food crisis experienced only by those who persist – by obligation to recipe, legacy and tradition – in keeping the practice alive. This paper discusses why the loss of fresh blood black pudding from the canon of traditional Irish foods matters and questions what else is lost once the blood is gone. The paper also discusses how makers of fresh blood black pudding are exploring ways to keep the practice extant as an example of a living tradition, and if Protected Geographic Indicators and food tourism has a role to play in supporting efforts of fresh blood black pudding makers. Finally, the paper explores how novelty, competition and a new and growing interest in craft butchery is seeking to place emphasis on the specialness of black pudding by celebrating the rarity of fresh blood itself.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Included in
A Crisis of Blood – The Slow Death of Ireland’s Fresh Blood Black Pudding Tradition
Fresh blood black pudding is one of the oldest foods of Ireland, yet rapidly declining access to fresh animal blood means this is a food under threat of extinction. Underpinning this crisis is the shuttering of abattoirs capable or willing to collect blood at slaughter. However, this is a crisis hidden from view of the consumer as proliferation of cheap mass-made puddings reliant on imported dried blood obfuscates the issue. The result is that this is a food crisis experienced only by those who persist – by obligation to recipe, legacy and tradition – in keeping the practice alive. This paper discusses why the loss of fresh blood black pudding from the canon of traditional Irish foods matters and questions what else is lost once the blood is gone. The paper also discusses how makers of fresh blood black pudding are exploring ways to keep the practice extant as an example of a living tradition, and if Protected Geographic Indicators and food tourism has a role to play in supporting efforts of fresh blood black pudding makers. Finally, the paper explores how novelty, competition and a new and growing interest in craft butchery is seeking to place emphasis on the specialness of black pudding by celebrating the rarity of fresh blood itself.