Phil's advice on formulating a recipe?
Always do a tasting with an odd number of people; if you don't you end up with two favourite blends!
The basic mix I used was:
As percentage of meat weight:
Pearl Barley (cooked) 22%
Onions (2) 25%
Rusk 35%
Cooking liquor 21%
Pearl Barley (cooked) 1%
Salt 2%
Seasoning Mix 2.8%
Seasoning Mix (Johnfb's)
White pepper 5g
Ground Coriander 5g
Powdered ginger 5g
Mace 3g
Nutmeg 3g
Allspice 2g
Powdered sage 5g
The pearl barley was cooked for 2 hours in water with 1 stock cube added. The figures above are for the cooked weight of pearl barley (approx 5 times the dry weight). The first figure is the pearl barley to be minced - the second for the amount to add whole (you may want to cook this slightly less).
Mince the first pearl barley amount along with the meat and onion. Add the other ingredients and mix well - the mixture will be fairly dry.
The white pudding on the left is this basic mix (after steaming for 20 mins - I used cling film instead of casings for this trial).
The middle one has 2% of potato starch/flour (fecule/farina) added. The RH one has the 2% potato starch and the cooking liquid increased to 42%.
Of the 4 tasters 2 preferred the middle one and two the RH one which had a much softer, almost spreadable, texture.
Perhaps 30% liquid would be a good compromise. Whether they are anything like an Irish White Pudding - I don't know, as we have now found out that those are not the low meat content we presumed, but have a total of 70 - 75% pork.
That said, all the tasters liked them. I think they would be improved a lot with a load of fresh soft herbs added - parsley, chervil etc.
Traditional Leicestershire white pud' anyone?
Phil