Timoleague Brown pudding
Timoleague Brown Pudding
Timoleague Brown Pudding is a PGI blood sausage produced in Timoleague in the west of Co. Cork, Ireland. The meat based raw materials used in the pudding are sourced from the producers who farm within a six-mile radius of the factory at Timoleague. While the other ingredients used (cereals, onions, casings) are of necessity sourced outside the immediate area, these are all sourced in the southern part of Ireland within a 100-mile radius.
Fresh pigs’ blood is soaked in cereal the night before preparation of the pudding. The following morning, the remaining ingredients are minced together in a large bowl. The minced ingredients are then blended into the blood mixture and placed in the casing by means of a vacuum filler. Once filled, the puddings are boiled in water for 15 minutes, during which time they form naturally into rings. After boiling, the puddings are taken out and left to cool. The cooked pudding rings are delivered to shops where they may be sold whole in rings or cut into various weights as demanded by the customer. Cut puddings are also supplied vacuum packed by the factory.
The pudding is brown in colour, is a long cylindrical sausage shape which forms naturally into rings and is made from fresh pigs' blood, pork trimming, cereal, fresh onions, seasonings, spices and natural casings. It comes in weights of between 750 g and 1 kg.
The pigs are slaughtered on site thus ensuring that only fresh ingredients are used. As a result of the inclusion of fresh blood, the taste of the pudding can be described as very clean and rustic. The process of pre-soaking pig's blood in oatmeal is a continuation of the traditional west Cork method of combining blood and cereal in a pudding to give it its distinctive regional texture and taste. This gives the pudding a unique texture and binding quality when re-cooked. A long established West Cork tradition when slaughtering a pig for home consumption was to use all edible by-products for the process and manufacture of puddings. This practice of pudding making based on the traditional family recipe has been carried on down through the years and the producers now use a modern purpose built factory for the slaughter of animals and manufacture of the puddings.
Food awards that the pudding has received are the Irish Master Butchers Federation award and the Best Deli Product award in the Tesco National Food Awards.
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