Black Pudding

Cork has long been famed for its black pudding and for good reason – some of the world’s best blood sausage comes from this area.

Black pudding has long been a breakfast favourite, but it's a versatile ingredient for brunch, lunch and dinner, too. A wild mushroom sauce complements the crumbly texture and intensely rich taste of black pudding very well, as does a whisky, onion and cream sauce. Why stop there? Be imaginative – add tomatoes and basil or even add it to a pasta sauce?!

I love using it my menu in various new and challenging ways – my personal favourite is the black pudding pierogis that our guests come from far and wide to sample!

But it is not just my restaurant that recognizes black pudding as being the gem of Cork. In April, Jack McCarthy a well-known butcher from Kanturk, Co. Cork, became a 'Knight of the Black Pudding' and a proud winner of a gold medal for his 'Celebration Black Pudding' at the Black Pudding Championships in France.

This is the first medal won by an Irish establishment at the renowned competition that is held each year in the Normandy town of Mortagne au Perche. The competition is open to French producers but it also has an open category for non-French producers. The awards are organised by La Confrérie des Chevaliers du Goûte Boudin, or the Brotherhood of the Knights of the Black Pudding.

Now all we need is for one of our fabulous local butchers to find a White Pudding Championships and we will literally bring home the bacon!!!