A CULINARY scholar on blood pudding culture, Kate Ryan, will be releasing her debut book Blood, Guts & Blood Pudding: Ireland’s Dying Art of Blood as Food this Autumn.
It’s the first book of its kind to explore how the much-loved blood puddings of Ireland tie together the country’s history, its people and their communities through the rituals and craft of this intricate, nuanced food way.
West Cork author Kate explained to The Southern Star: ‘The book is the culmination of seven years of research and writing and focuses on Ireland’s affinity and enjoyment of its myriad blood puddings throughout time, from the 1st century to the present day.’
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Kate also explores the critically low access to fresh animal blood – the central ingredient in black puddings – by our fresh blood pudding makers using recipes handed down through generations of their family.
In highlighting the paradox of puddings’ popularity in Ireland and the varied selection available on our supermarket shelves, against our long history of making and consuming puddings, she asks what else will be lost when the blood is gone?
Hosting an exclusive book event at this year’s Cork on a Fork food festival, visitors will get a first taste of Kate’s fascinating and compelling narrative of Ireland’s special relationship with blood puddings as she explores Cork’s great black pudding traditions and Ireland’s oldest foods. Believe it or not, it’s older than soda bread, potatoes, even whiskey!
Sharing tales from the quirky bloody history of Cork’s ‘offal-y’ delicious puddings, visitors will learn how the city was central to Cork’s offal eating traditions, spice trade and pudding making, why James Joyce wrote about drisheen in his novels as a proud tribute to his Corkonian roots, and why drisheen was prescribed to patients of St Finbarr’s Hospital. The traditional Irish breakfast fry will never look the same again.
Blood, Guts & Black Pudding: Ireland’s Dying Art of Blood as Food will be published on September 10th by Nine Bean Rows. It will be available online and at all good bookstores.
