Hog's Pudding

There is one thing that always goes down a treat on our table, whether it be for the kids or for us and that is the mighty sausage.  I have eaten many variants from a plethora of countries, spicy merguez from North Africa, currywurst from Germany and mustamakkara from Finland - I have enjoyed them all.  One thing I have not knowingly tried, though, is an offal sausage.  The thought of eating lungs and heart really arrests my appetite.  

Becca's parents were down at the weekend.  They live in North Devon and from time to time they present us with some attractive little local gastronomic delights.  Often they bring us some local faggots (yes, I know these have offal in them, but I've eaten them as a kid), sometimes they bring up a local cheese, or, as in this case they brought us some Hogs pudding.

Now, I was also struck by the name of this product.  I seriously have never heard of it before.  It turns out to be an offal sausage masquerading as some kind of minced sausage in a clingfilm bag.  It is made with, "Pork, groats, herbs and spices".  Only an ingredients list as vague as this could inspire such fear in a man of limited bravado, like me.  First up, what the hell are groats?  They sound like a complaint one might have if their intestines were swollen.  They turn out to be just milled cereal grains - mercifully.  The pork, it would seem is the hazy term.  Generic to say the least.  I would suggest Hogs pudding contains trotter, tail and tongue by all accounts.

Hog's pudding with baked beans and a fried egg!

Crisp on the outside, mushy on the inside with the consistency of something that might have died within the past month, I ate them with a certain degree of caution.  The cereals pack them out somewhat, to the extent where you are confused as to what you might actually be eating.

Both Becca and I turned to each other and said in unison, "they're OK, but I wouldn't buy them again).  'Nuff said.