Blood, Guts & Black Pudding

Blood...

The Irish have been dining on it for centuries and they love it.

It has sustained warriors in epic battles, staved off hunger, offered protection from bad luck and provided sustenance during winter; drawn from living animals and caught from dead ones, stuffed into guts and boiled until cooked or stirred into bloody porridges over turf fires. It’s in the mortar of castle walls. A Super Food.

Mostly we know it as the moody melange of blood and guts that completes the breakfast fry.

But this bloody food is older than potatoes, soda bread, whiskey, stout and coddle; an ancient food from a time when the Irish diet was one of milky, oaty, salty things. No surprise, then, that the best puddings are made when all four unite to form a singularly perfect food.

Yet Ireland’s ancient tradition of consuming the fresh blood of animals as food is in danger of disappearing forever, and with it an intricate nuanced foodway that ties together the history of Ireland, its people and their communities, rituals and recipe, craft and custom.

Blood, Guts & Black Pudding is a talk and tasting event that explores Cork's role in one of our oldest collection of foodways, traditions and customs with Ireland's culinary scholar on blood pudding culture - food writer, Kate Ryan of Flavour.ie. Learn how the Cork was pivotal to the city's offal eating traditions, spice trade, and pudding making; what makes the famous drisheen so Cork and why James Joyce wrote about it in his books to "big up" his Corkonian roots; and explore the reasons why we all have our favourite pudding! 

Kate is joined by Cork chef, Pam Kelly, who will cook up a delicious tasting plate of different Cork puddings, and we will wash it all down with a locally brewed craft beer.

A fascinating and unique event that celebrates Cork's famous black puddings and the history, traditions and customs behind our obsession with these bloody puddings of Cork!