Drisheen and Tripe

Drisheen is a blood pudding particular to Cork - sheep or beef blood set with milk and seasoned with tansy, made in a long soft coil rather than the firm sliced rounds of ordinary black pudding, and much softer in texture, closer to a savoury custard than a sausage. It is traditionally eaten with tripe, the honeycomb lining of a cow's stomach, both simmered gently in milk with onion and a great deal of white pepper. The combination was working-class Cork food, cheap, filling and made from what the butcher had left, and it was normal in the city into the mid twentieth century. It is now genuinely rare. A small number of stalls in the English Market still sell drisheen - the market's tripe and drisheen trade is a documented part of its history - and a handful of restaurants cook it. The texture is what defeats most people trying it, not the flavour, which is mild.

What you actually see

• The drisheen - a soft blood pudding in a coil, closer to custard than sausage.
• The tripe - honeycomb stomach lining, simmered in milk.
• The English Market stalls - the few remaining sellers.
• The decline - normal Cork food within living memory, now rare.

When to go

Any time; the English Market is open Monday to Saturday. Ask at the tripe and drisheen stalls - the trade is small and the sellers are few.

Honest expectations

Genuinely hard to find now, even in Cork. The texture of both components is the obstacle for most people. Very few restaurants serve it, and those that do treat it as a curiosity dish.

Nearby

The English Market is in central Cork; Shandon and the Butter Museum are north.