Weird News

[DanaC]

I suspect that anybody who hasn't tried haggis has a very different idea of taste and texture to what it is really like.

That sentence totally doesn't scan. Don't care.

[fargon]

Guts Bad!!!

[Clodfobble]

Is black pudding the same as blood pudding? I had that once and it was horrific.

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Is black pudding the same as blood pudding? I had that once and it was horrific.

A search on Wikipedia for blood pudding re-directs to the black pudding page.
As Wiki is never wrong the answer to your question must be 'Yes!'.

Mum came from a large coal mining family in NE England and life was something of a struggle at times.
Added to that she was in her teens during WW2 when food rationing was in place so it was a question of being grateful for what you could get to eat.
Memory is a little hazy but I do recall eating black pudding as a child just once.
I think that mum served it up because she remembered it as something she had in the war years. A sort of trip down a culinary memory lane.
I'm pretty sure she wasn't aware of the ingredients and when she found out we never had it again.
Cruel and unusual nourishment.

Black Pudding Recipe

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Is black pudding the same as blood pudding? I had that once and it was horrific.

Black pudding is one variant of blood pudding/blood sausage. There are many different variations from lots of different countries. As you are in the USA you could have had any one of several different national versions of blood sausage

The british version is heavy on bacon accents to the flavour - not so much for the pine nuts, raisins, or cinnamon you get in some variants - no pig snouts either.


Here's the ingredients for a Bury black pudding (my preferred :P)

Water, Wheat Flour (with added calcium, iron, niacin & thiamin), Oatmeal, Pearl Barley, Dried Pork Blood, Pork Fat, Onion, Pork Rind, Salt, Mixed Herbs, Wheat Starch, White Pepper, Yeast Extract, Raising Agent: Ammonium Hydrogen Carbonate.

It's mainly flour, oatmeal and barley

[Carruthers]

Exploding coconut 'sent fear' through crematorium staff

A coconut that was placed inside a coffin "sent fear" through staff at a crematorium when it exploded.

Bolton Council has urged mourners to abide by crematorium rules and not "slip" items into coffins.

Donna Ball, Assistant Director of Community Services, said a "hell of an explosion can sometimes occur".

Other items of concern include mobile phones, TV remotes, e-cigarettes and bottles of alcohol.

Ms Ball told the BBC: "We are asking people to be considerate regarding the items they place into coffins before the cremation process.

"We have seen a rise in things like e-cigarettes, bottles of whisky and vodka, golf balls, sometimes golf clubs, and mobile phones. Mobile phones in particular are a real issue for us".

Ms Ball said: "Usually the funeral director will pick them up but sometimes things are slid inside peoples' pockets and they are just not picked up during the process, then when they go through the cremation process a hell of an explosion can sometimes occur".

She added that electrical items with batteries also push crematorium emissions up to "unacceptable levels".

Louise Walch-Grognet, of Fred Hamer Funeral Services, said they check the coffins to make sure contraband items are not slipped in.

"They've asked can they put love letters in, cigarettes, ashes of their pets," she said.

"I've had a biker whose family wanted him to wear his leathers. Obviously we couldn't do that".

The funeral director said on one occasion she was even asked if an extra set of underwear could be placed with the deceased.

Ms Walch-Grognet said it was her procedure to "look under the lining of the coffin" after the service due to mourners trying to sneak items in.

BBC Link

Talk about going out with a bang. Look, at least I saved someone else the effort, and probably the embarrassment, of saying it first.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Why couldn't he wear his leathers?

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Why couldn't he wear his leathers?

Noxious emissions, perhaps?

[DanaC]

Oh man - I love black pudding. Sliced and fried as part of a cooked breakfast it rocks

[BigV]

because of all the burned skin, obviously.

[DanaC]

Might be something to do with metal bits.

[Gravdigr]

Jewelry goes in sometimes, so I wouldn't think the metal would cause problems.

Maybe it wasn't that they were his leathers, but, rather, his "colors"? As in, motorcycle club colors.

[sexobon]

I think that generally it's only light weight clothing and no shoes. Heavy leather would require an extended burn time to be thorough. Additionally, much leather is chromium tanned which may make for harmful emissions and harmful residue in the ashes.

[Carruthers]

Going back to Black Puddings (Post #3780 et seq), their uses are many and varied.

Black pudding saves butcher trapped in freezer

A butcher who became trapped in a walk-in freezer escaped thanks to a frozen black pudding.

Chris McCabe, 70, said he got trapped after the freezer door in his shop in Totnes, Devon, blew shut behind him.

Stranded in temperatures of -20C (-4F), with the door-release button frozen shut, he said he used the 1.5kg (3.3lbs) sausage as a battering ram on the release mechanism.

Mr McCabe said: "No-one could hear me banging. Black pudding saved my life."

'Pointed and weighty'

Upon realising his predicament, Mr McCabe initially thought he "was OK because I could kick the safety button from inside", but "this time it was frozen solid".

Stuck in temperatures capable of killing a human in about an hour, the father-of-four searched frantically for an improvised tool to batter the button.

With the beef too slippery and the lamb too big, he happened on the "best thing" - the black pudding, made by the Queen's butcher HM Sheridan of Ballater, Aberdeenshire, who Mr McCabe has been buying the pudding from for more than 20 years.

He said: "It was the right shape. I used it like the police use battering rams to break door locks in. It was solid, pointed and I could get plenty of weight behind it.

"I'm lucky really. We sell about two or three each week and that was the last one in there."

Link

[Gravdigr]

Good thinking.