A beautiful day, the pièce de résistance of the Full English

What a beautiful day. The sun is shining and I've got the day off work.  Had a trip to the town market this morning in preparation for this weekends breakfasts. My fellow housemates insist on a fridge full of ingredients to knock up a Full English (though there will be at least one of them on left-over take-away).  So I've got a bag full of locally sourced bacon, eggs, tomatoes, sausages and the pièce de résistance....Black Pudding.

Black pudding is a true Lancashire delicacy that be can simmered, steamed, grilled or fried.  It is a type of sausage made by cooking pigs blood  with a blend of onion, pork fat, outmeal and secret flavourings until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled.  It is then encased in a length of intestine.  I always buy the rings and my preferred cooking method is simply to simmer, very gently, in a pan of boiling water for 10 minutes then slice down the middle and 'butterfly'.

We even have a festival to celebrate it.  The World Black Pudding Throwing Championships are held every year in Ramsbottom, just outside of Manchester.  A high scaffold is erected and competitors compete to dislodge a stack of Yorkshire Puddings from the ceremonial plinths with the finest Bury Black Puddings.


Of course - the age-old rivalry between Lancashire and Yorkshire has nothing at all to do with this!

Link:       The Bury Black Pudding Company