The man who built a black pudding empire after being told 'it'll never work'
manchestereveningnews.co.ukAndy Holt has made it in black pudding game - but for a long-time, he faced countless doubters. The 60-year-old jumped at the chance to take up Richard Sanderson Ireland's sale of his business in 1993 - which was then based in a tiny factory in Waterfoot between Rawtenstall and Bacup, Lancashire, and was still using a secret recipe which dated back to 1879. "A lot of people said 'you're daft, it's only old people who eat black pudding," Andy, now 60, told LancsLive. READ MORE: Girl left devastated after doctors diagnosis 'ice skating injury' "But fortunately for us it became really popular, thanks to food programmes and top chefs using it, and people were becoming more conscious about where their food comes from. "I started entering competitions and in the second year won first, second and third place; so we were named the best black pudding in Britain and we've held that title for the best part of 25 years." Business at the Real Lancashire Black Pudding Co as it's now called also picked up when celebrity chef Rick Stein featured Andy in his Food Heroes series which showed him using the traditional method of mixing pig's blood with pork fat to make the famous black slices.
Things have changed a lot in the more than 20 years since Rick Stein visited and the process is now mostly automated. Andy also no longer uses fresh pig's blood from nearby abbatoirs. "We used to have a deal with the local slaughterhouses but because we now supply to supermarkets we have to be a lot more stringent with food safety and hygiene rules," Andy said. "So we now use dried pig's blood, from Spain, which we rehydrate when it gets here.
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