Boudins noirs aux oignons

I guess we've gone native, as the British say. We are eating boudins noirs, and not just because somebody invited us to dinner and served them to us. I actually bought some (it's not even the first time) and cooked them the other day.

What is boudin noir? It's what the British call Black Pudding. Or Blood Sausage. There is also a sausage called boudin blanc, which you might call White Pudding. Susan blogged about it on Days on the Claise a little while ago.

Boudin in French means "sausage" — or at least it's one of the words for sausage, along with saucisse and saucisson. Boudin is also the word that the English term "pudding" is derived from.

Blood sausage, or boudin noir in French

Pudding, then, must describe the consistency of the filling of the sausage. Really, what we call hot dogs — frankfurters, wieners — are boudin as well. Rather than the chunky, meaty filling you get in other sausages, like kielbasa or French saucisses de Toulouse or saucisses de Montbéliard, boudins or "pudding sausages" are filled with a smooth, creamy preparation that sets up when you cook the sausage.

So in England puddings are things like Christmas Pudding, which is more or less a fruitcake that has been completely moistened and steamed, but has that same kind of soft pudding consistency. And in America, puddings are what in French are called crèmes, as in crème brûlée or crème caramel — which is the same as Mexican flan. Custards, puddings...

It's all too complicated. Pudding is also a term used in England to mean any dessert or sweet served at the end of a meal. That's a long way from the meaning of the original term, boudin.

Anyway, the Robert Dictionary describes a boudin, as a boyau rempli de sang et de graisse de porc assaisonnés. That means a "bowel filled with pork blood and pork fat with seasonings." We would probably use some euphemistic term like "casing" in the place of boyau, but in French you just call it what it is. People are less squeamish about these things in France.

The boudins noirs I bought had blood as their first ingredient, but the second ingredient, 32% of the total, was onions. After that it was just pork fat, salt, spices, preservatives, and flavorings. You can also get boudins noirs that contain a good percentage of apple in the filling, and you can get little spicy hot ones that come from the Caribbean.

You cook boudins noirs either on a barbecue grill, in the oven, or in a frying pan. Grilling them outdoors is probably the best way, if you have that possibility. If you cook them in a pan, you brown them quickly (but they are already brown...) on two sides and then you turn down the heat and let them cook for 10 minutes on low to make sure they are done.

Boiled potatoes — we get such good spuds in France

Applesauce is a good side dish with Black Pudding. Or potatoes. I boiled some new potatoes, and then let them cool down out of the water. I peeled and diced them before tossing them in some duck fat and vegetable oil and putting them in a hot oven to roast. They browned on top and their crispiness complemented the softer texture of the sausage.

Diced boiled potatoes ready for browing in the oven.
Sorry I didn't take any pictures of the cooked food,
but we were too eager to sit down at the table and eat...

The only other things you need with that kind of food are some good bread and a big green salad. Wine, of course — red wine. And maybe a "pudding," in the extended British sense.

Next thing you know, we'll be buying, cooking, and enjoying eating andouillettes. Those are "chit'lin' sausages."