The first taste of Fruit Pig can be just the start of a long-term relationship between us and our customers. New customers often have a question about our fresh blood black puddings or free-from products. To assist, we've answered the most commonly asked questions below.
We may do, we have more than 80 retailers nationally. Just go to our interactive map and browse and/or just type in your postcode.
Yes, we are mainly wholesale producers. We sell direct to restaurants, butchers, delis and farmshops. We currently have over 80 stockists nationally. Just get in touch stating your business name, where you are and supply a phone number. We'll get in touch and send you our wholesale sheet detailing: ordering, prices, minimum amounts, shelflife, allergens etc....it's that easy.
No, we are almost alone in making a black pudding with fresh blood. All the nationally recognised producers we know of use imported dried blood powder harvested from large factory units. To be fair, these larger producers are producing tonnes of black pudding each week so there's probably not enough fresh blood available. As working slaughtermen, as well as butchers, we have access to fresh blood. So, we use fresh blood because it is properly harvested and available to us, we make much smaller batches and, it's the way black pudding should be made!
Collecting fresh blood requires lots of permissions, even before you are allowed near the abattoir. Once there, it is a messy, dangerous business. We can think of better things to do at 5am every Monday morning! No matter what some say, it is NOT illegal to collect animal blood for black pudding if the blood is passed 'fit for human consumption' by the Meat Inspector in the abattoir.
Is there a difference between the two styles of black puddings? In our taste tests, dried blood black puddings can't hold a candle to the richness, texture and general 'unctuousness' of a fresh blood black pudding. If you doubt us, simply put ours to the test. That said, there are a few delicious dried blood varieties out there....but only a few!
Regional allegiances aside, if you've tried ours and you still prefer your local blend, brilliant. Black pudding is the new black.....it's all good.
Listen to BBC Radio 4, The Food Programme. Tim Hayward comes to visit Fruit Pig and talks about the use of blood in food.
APC Overnight are nationally recognised food couriers. With our insulated packaging, ice blocks and a pre-4pm courier charge, the average total delivery cost to us is between £10-£11. We have tried to be fair across the board, the more you buy from us, the cheaper the courier charge. Please read here for the complete list of charges.
No. We only have permission to collect and use the fresh blood ourselves in Fruit Pig products. We cannot give or sell this by-product to any customers. We do make bespoke products though, so if there is a specific recipe you are looking for please contact us.
Adding nitrates and nitrites in conjunction with salt are the most common ingredients in curing meat not least because nitrates and nitrites help inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria. Before domestic refrigeration, families would steep their slaughtered winter pig meat in tubs of salt and a little salt petre (potassium nitrate) so it would not go off and spoil over winter in our temperate, moist UK climate. These nitrates and nitrites also reduced blood oxidation which kept the meat pink and fresh looking. Our raw salt (sodium chloride) may well have a very few parts per million of natural nitrate/nitrite but we can't measure it....in effect it's zero.
When we first started out, our pigs were fed loads of local fresh fruit and veg, including windfall apples and pears, and the name came from there. To this day, many of the smallholders we work with supplement their pigs' diets with fallen/spare fruit, veg and cereals.
Whilst there is no legal definition for free range pork, it is generally accepted by the farming and food industry that free range means pigs spending their entire lives outdoors, with free access to straw filled arcs and tents for shelter. The meat cuts we buy are from our business friends at Taste Tradition, free range farmers and butchers in Yorkshire. Our main product, fresh blood black pudding, is made from free range pork fat and fresh local blood collected by us in our local abattoirs where we work as slaughtermen. We believe that we are the only commercial fresh blood black pudding producers in the UK harvesting in this way. Whilst most of the pigs in one of our abattoirs are free range, some of the smaller farmers and smallholders' pigs are fattened in stalls and barns. We are being honest here. You, the consumer, have the choice. ALL the famous national black pudding producers we know of make their black pudding from imported dried blood powder harvested in huge, indoor pork factory units in Spain, The Netherlands and Denmark. Their pork fat will rarely be British too as wholesale European pork fat is at least half the cost our homegrown stuff. Therefore, we are as free range as we can be considering the limited supply, traditional methods and authentic ingredients we use.
Many are confused about food labelling definitions: out-door reared, free-range, out-door sired! etc. Compassion in World Farming have the best guide to this minefield we have found. Their food guide is an excellent place to start to unravel.
We'd love to send out earlier but we have so many tasks to do in the early part of the week; it's all pretty hands-on stuff. On Mondays we work in our local abattoirs. Tuesday is mixing, making, cooking and cooling. Before we know it, it's Wednesday, the first day we can send out our courier orders.
It's all a matter of personal choice. Rare breeds were not rare years ago. As demand for meat increased after the Second World War, the faster growing, easier processing strains of animals became popular for farmers catering for the baby boomer generation. Most modern commercial breeds tended to put on less fat and grow to cull weight faster than what are now their rare breed counterpart cousins.
Yes you can. We don't have a shop, but if pre-arranged, we can accept visits so that you can pick up direct from us. All we ask is for you to email your order a good few days in advance and we'll sort out a pick-up plan. We're at 6 Anglia Way, Wisbech. PE13 2TY, next door to Laker's Gym.
