Here's another articles from todays edition of The Independent:

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/thi...cle1990382.ece

First vegetarian black pudding has Lancashire meat lovers spluttering
By Ian Herbert
Published: 17 November 2006

Black pudding is about as carnivorous as it gets - fresh pig's blood
and ox intestines go into a Lancashire speciality which was narrowly
edged out by tripe and jellied eels in a recent survey of the dishes
which the British find least palatable.

But in an attempt to overhaul the pudding's image, one of its most
successful producers has done the unthinkable - and produced a
vegetarian version.

The Real Lancashire Black Pudding Company's decision has been greeted
by howls of protest in Bury, the home of the black pudding. "What is
the world coming to?" asked the local writer Jonathan Schofield. "A
black pudding without pig's blood? Big wrong."

Customers seem to feel differently. First impressions of the "V Pud",
as the veggie version is known, seem so positive that the producers
have just earned their first contract with a supermarket, Booths. The
Vegetarian Society has also given a ringing endorsement.

The Real Lancashire company's owner, Andrew Holt, explains how he
substituted the meaty elements - blood, fat and ox intestines - of the
pudding. "We tried to make a liquid which would simulate the properties
of blood and get the right colour as well. We used beetroot and caramel
for the colouring, with GM-free whey and soya powders for the protein.

"People were telling us they either loved or hated black pudding. They
hated it because of the ingredients, and we decided a vegetarian
version could persuade both vegetarians and meat eaters to try it."

Mr Holt has won 136 awards for his puddings, and in 1998 he was sworn
in as a Chevalier du Gôute-Boudin - Knight of the Black Pudding - in
France.

In article .com,
says...
The Real Lancashire company's owner, Andrew Holt, explains how he
substituted the meaty elements - blood, fat and ox intestines - of the
pudding. "We tried to make a liquid which would simulate the properties
of blood and get the right colour as well. We used beetroot and caramel
for the colouring, with GM-free whey and soya powders for the protein.

I have actually tried this.
And while back to back, you can tell the difference, on it's own it
tasted just like a different variety of black pudding.

The spice mix is the same, so the only difference really is you don't
eat a meat product and you don't get the large lumps of fat like
Lancashire black pudding. Then again some more southern black puddings
use a larger quantity of smaller different texture fat, and scots black
pudding doesn't have fat lumps in at all.

All in all, not bad for a veggie sustitute product.
--
Carl Robson
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