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Kate Ryan Blood, Guts And Black Pudding

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Kate Ryan Blood, Guts And Black Pudding
Code 9781068405099

Blood, Guts and Black Pudding charts the complete history of Ireland's great pudding tradition, from pre-Christian times to the modern era, celebrating the many ways blood has been cooked, eaten and enjoyed, and questions what else is lost wh..

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Description

Binding: Hardback

Date Published: 10 Sep 2026

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. It's been 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 even in the mortar of castle walls.

Mostly we know it as the moody melange of blood and guts that completes the breakfast fry. But this food is older than potatoes, soda bread, whiskey, stout and coddle. Blood is 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 recipes, craft and custom.

Blood, Guts and Black Pudding charts the complete history of Ireland's great pudding tradition, from pre-Christian times to the modern era, celebrating the many ways blood has been cooked, eaten and enjoyed, and questions what else is lost when the blood is gone.

About the Author

Kate Ryan is an award-winning food writer and founder of Flavour.ie, a platform dedicated to promoting Irish food. Kate is a food features writer for the Echo, the Irish Examiner and Business Post newspapers. Her articles have also featured with BBC, Vittles, Food & Wine Magazine (Ireland) and Scoop magazine, among many others in print and online. She also writes on her blog, The Flavour Files. She is a member of the Irish Food Writers' Guild and holds First Class (Honours) in University College Cork's MA in Food Studies and Irish Foodways and Postgraduate Diploma in Irish Food Culture.

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Utterly fascinating, eminently jocular and written with a charming personal touch that runs throughout. A poignant record of a disappearing craft.

* Ken Albala, Tully Knoles Endowed Professor of History and 2023 Distinguished Faculty Award Recipient, University of the Pacific *

A bold cri de coeur to preserve one of Ireland's most ancient food traditions. This eloquent treatise on a neglected aspect of Ireland's culinary heritage deserves to be taken heed of.

* Sam Bilton, host/producer of the award-winning Comfortably Hungry podcast *

A timely, thoroughly researched volume containing many interesting snippets for food enthusiasts - a must read.

* Dr Mairtin Mac Con Iomaire, chair, MA Gastronomy and Food Studies, TU Dublin *

Blood, Guts and Black Pudding proudly and persuasively places black puddings as a pivotal element of Irish gastronomy. A landmark work that is both eye opening and jaw dropping.

* John McKenna, food and travel writer *

Richly researched and compellingly written, this captivating book reveals the remarkable place of blood in Ireland's food history and makes a timely case for celebrating and preserving Irish blood pudding.

* Jennifer McLagan, author of Blood: With Recipes *
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