Black pudding is new posh nosh

One butcher in Dudley has reported a 50 per cent increase in trade thanks to the revival of the traditional snack as a meal of choice at dining spots in the area. Black pudding has in the past remained outside the culinary mainstream – perhaps because one of its major ingredients is pigs' blood.

But Stephen Grove, who runs STDN Meats in Delph Road, Brierley Hill, said a vogue for the pud as a regional specialty dish has helped send sales soaring.

He said: "During and just after the war, people loved black pudding, often along with fried breakfasts.

"It faded at one time, but now younger people are more daring, and it's coming full circle again they are trying the old-fashioned way of life in a different way.

"It's part of a resurgence of traditional dishes done differently.

"As daft as it sounds, black pudding is becoming popular as an expensive restaurant dish, as tastes have changed."

Mr Grove estimates his company regularly sells 100kg of black pudding every weekend.

Don Hirst, who owns The Dudley Arms in Himley, has it on his menu with a 10oz rib eye steak and stilton sauce at £8.95.

He said: "It is now one of our top selling meals on the specials board. It is no longer seen as a food which can only be served with a fried breakfast."

At the Mulberry Restaurant in Bewdley, they offer baked black pudding topped with a herb crust and served with a roasted shallot and red wine sauce as a starter.

Chef and owner, Jonathan Green, said it was popular dish.

Michael Kirk, of Michael Kirk Butchers, in Woolpack Street, Wolverhampton, said: "There has been an increase in demand rec-ently." His shop even makes a low-fat, black pudding sausage, which he said was also proving to be very popular.