World record proof may be in the 10kg black pudding

Some would argue that it’s much ado about pudding — but an artisan butcher hopes his super-sized delicacy will set a world record.

Behold the giant blood-and-guts-filled black pudding created by Tim McCarthy, of McCarthy’s traditional craft butchers in Kanturk, North Cork.

“It’s a big one all right. If a baby came out like that, it would be walking and talking, and driving home from the hospital,” Tim said.

McCarthy’s shot to international fame when their black pudding — made to the same generations-old family recipe they’ve always used — was served to Queen Elizabeth at the official banquet to make her historic state visit to Ireland in 2011.

The recipe has been lauded in Ireland and Europe — taking several food awards, and scooping the only Irish gold medal last year from La Confrérie des Chevaliers du Goûte Boudin, or the Brotherhood of the Knights of the Black Pudding. The Brotherhood visited Kanturk in 2010 when they first discovered the pudding.

Tim then took the recipe and pushed the pudding limits as far as he could go.

He took 8lb to 12lb of bacon trim from the family’s own herd of pigs, a few pounds of oatmeal provided by Macroom-based Donal Creedon, several scoops of pearl barley, pepper, and coriander, and coloured the mix with blood and guts.

“Not as much blood as people would think,” he said.

What sets this pudding apart is that the mixture was then stuffed in to a completely natural casing — the appendix of a cow. “It came out of a big animal which was slaughtered in our own abattoir,” he said.

“It is a completely natural casing. There is no exit at the end of it.

“The product is only as good as the integrity of your ingredients so we try to source the best ingredients as possible locally.

“But you’re always looking to go bigger, better, higher, or faster.”

The size of an elephant’s trunk and tipping the scales at a whopping 22lb (10kg), Tim reckons the beast could provide enough pudding for 100 starters.

He has submitted the required documents to the Guinness Book of Records and is anxiously awaiting news. It is understood the current record is held in Spain.

There are plans to auction the pudding off for charity if it sets the record.