The only single from the album, "Cold Molly", was released on April 20, 2013, as a Record Store Day exclusive.

[7][8] Garwood, a multi-instrumentalist who has worked with the Orb, Wire, Wooden Wand, Sir Richard Bishop, and Kurt Vile, among others, worked with Lanegan previously when he toured as part of The Gutter Twins, the singer's project with Greg Dulli.

In his 2017 book I Am the Wolf: Music and Writings, Lanegan writes that collaborator Isobel Campbell gave him a copy of Garwood's album Emerald Palace during the sessions for Sunday at Devil Dirt, and he was impressed with the "beautiful, dark, and off-kilter music."

After meeting, Lanegan realised they were "kindred spirits," recalling in I Am the Wolf, "Over the course of the next several years, we sent song ideas back and forth, and in late 2012 we convened at Josh Homme's Pink Duck studio in Burbank, California, with producer Justin Smith to record Black Pudding.

Thom Jurek of AllMusic: "Co-writing and recording a bleak yet emotionally honest collection of songs rooted in classic forms but not bound by them, is.