Stornoway Black Pudding

Stornoway black pudding gained protected geographical indication in 2013 after a long application, restricting the name to pudding made within the town's boundary. Four butchers in Stornoway hold the right, and the recipe is beef suet, oatmeal, onion, blood and seasoning, with the oatmeal proportion giving a texture that crumbles rather than slices dense and wet like many continental blood sausages. It is fried in slices and eaten at breakfast, and is also used widely by Scottish chefs in restaurant cooking, which is unusual for a regional butcher's product. The protection came partly because producers elsewhere had started using the name for pudding made nowhere near Lewis. Island tradition ties it to a household economy where nothing from a slaughtered animal was wasted.

Highlights

• The crumbly texture - a high oatmeal content that breaks rather than slices wet.
• The four butchers - the only producers entitled to the protected name.
• The town boundary rule - protection granted in 2013 to Stornoway itself.
• The restaurant use - a butcher's product adopted widely by Scottish kitchens.

When to go

Year-round; the butchers open normal shop hours, Monday to Saturday, and Lewis observes Sunday closing more strictly than most of Britain, so Sunday shopping is not an option.

Practical notes

It is a blood product and some visitors will not eat it on that basis. Much pudding sold elsewhere as Stornoway style is not the protected article. Shipping it off the island is possible but the butchers' mail order books up before Christmas.

Nearby

Callanish and the Lewis west side are a short drive; Harris lies south.