Unique Black Pudding Festival showcase in Northern Ireland

Spicy black puddings from China, Spain and Argentina will featured at Ireland's third Black Pudding Festival this month. The festival is being held again in Enniskillen, county Fermanagh from 1-25 September and is being co-ordinated by Pat O'Doherty, the managing director of O'Doherty's Fine Meats, an award winning butcher famed for his unique Fermanagh Black Bacon and Traditional Irish Corned Beef. The three-week festival features almost 20 black puddings from many parts of the world including China, a distinctively oriental sausage. Many chefs in Fermanagh will be producing dishes using black puddings during the festival, the only one of its kind on the island of Ireland. O'Doherty, among the best known personalities and creative butchers in the Northern Ireland food scene, launched the festival to showcase the distinctive flavours of black puddings and create greater consumer awareness. He was influenced by similar festivals held in other parts of the world including European foodie centres such as France. The French black pudding industry will also be represented at the Northern Ireland festival along with samples fromArgentina, Spain and other parts of the world. The event culminates in a competition in which dishes produced by black pudding enthusiasts will be cooked and judged by a leading chef. The festival is a development of O'Doherty's longstanding interest in the history of food particularly beef and bacon, a fascination that has led him to spend hours in the archives and has resulted in the revival of two products steeped in history - Fermanagh Black Bacon, a dry-cured bacon with spices that's based on a technique dating back generations, and Traditional Fermanagh Corned Beef. "I am really keen to draw out as many different black pudding recipes as possible because virtually every community has its own using different ingredients and way of making the puddings. The Chinese, for instance, were enjoying black puddings long before Europeans", he says. "The aim of the event is to reawaken consumer interest in a food product that's been around virtually since the dawn of time. "Each nation has its own ingredients. The Spanish version is based on paprika and garlic, while some South America puddings include chocolate and orange. The Mexican pudding is heavily seasoned with chillies and can be really fiery. I've also found Asian puddings made from chicken blood, probably a pudding too far for most consumers here! "In Britain, black pudding is considered a delicacy in the Black Country, Stornoway and the North West, especially in Lancashire, andsometimes in Greater Manchester, where it is traditionally boiled and served with malt vinegar out of paper wrapping. The Stornoway black pudding, made on the Western Isles of Scotland, has also been granted Protected Geographical Indicator of Origin status. Black pudding is now part of the local cuisine of the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, probably influenced by Irish emigrants." His research found the very first reference to the black pudding in 800 BC, when it was mentioned in Homer's classic saga 'The Odyssey'. Homer famously described the way people felt then about black puddings and wrote: As when a man besides a great fire has filled a sausage with fat and blood and turns it this way and that and is very eager to get it quickly roasted. "In the Odyssey, Homer had his champion Odysseus get into a fight "around the sausage" for a prize of a stomach stuffed with pig bloodand fat. Homer was a philosopher who clearly liked his black pudding!"