Pudding (question about UK usage)

[jackolantern]

I have been watching BBC-America, particularly Gordan Ramsey's shows, and it seems that what the British call "pudding" is very different than what Americans understand it as.

Here in the USA, a "pudding" is a creamy, dairy desert, traditionally made by slightly scalding milk in a pan with sugar and a couple of other ingredients. IT really means nothing else. But the British seem to call a lot of other things pudding. For example, "Yorkshire Pudding", which includes chicken, pork or beef cooked in a crispy outer-batter. What makes this a "pudding"? I also saw something they called "apple pudding", which looked to me just like apple pie.

So what makes something a "pudding" in the UK?

[Anglika]

Puddings are basically made from a combination of flour and other ingredients, and can be either sweet or meat-based. The sweet variety were often folded into a floured cloth and steamed over the cooking pot in which were the meat and vegetables being prepared at the same time. Our cleaner in the 1950s always remembered her mother's puddings made this way as being the best she ever tasted. Steamed sponge puddings are a staple dessert in England, particularly in pubs.

By extension the term has become attached to other forms of sweet foods as the course offered following the main course, and given the alternative name of "dessert".

Yorkshire pudding is a batter cooked at very high heat in fat, and originally served before the meat, with the gravy poured over it. The intention was to reduce the appetite so that the meat went further. It should never incorporate the meat [apart from Toad-in-the-Hole - sausages cooked in batter]. It can be served as a sweet with hot jam poured over, of [as in the French dish of Clafoutis] can be cooked with fruit included, in which case it is served tepid rather than hot.

Apple pudding would characteristically have a layer of apple covered with a cake topping or a suet pastry. Any other pastry would be a pie.

One of the best puddings is Summer pudding - a medley of soft fruit encased in thin slices of white bread, soused with the fruit juice and left under pressure for twentyfour hours.

Pudding - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[jackolantern]

Ohhh, that Wikipedia entry for Yorkshire Pudding said it is served with beef, poultry or pork. I skimmed it and thought it said it was filled with meat.

Thank you for all the good info! It still seems kind of odd that even sausages can be called pudding, and would probably seem strange from most Americans. I wonder why there is such a difference. Maybe the term did not come into heavy usage until the last couple hundred years. Thanks again!

[bhaisahab]

Online Etymology Dictionary

[BobK]

A couple of more or less relevant tangents.

A euphemism for pregnant is 'in the club'; this is short for 'in the pudding club'.
Another is to have 'a bun in the oven'.

Both these are lated to yet another euphemism 'up the duff' - which enshrines a fossilized version of one of the many '-ough' pronunciations - 'dough' [now pronounced /dǝʊ/ ]

All these euphenisms are pretty informal (to the point of being regarded by some as dysphemistic - such people would prefer something like 'expecting a happy event' or 'looking forward to the patter of tiny feet' ).

b

[Tdol]

Originally Posted by Anglika

One of the best puddings is Summer pudding - a medley of soft fruit encased in thin slices of white bread, soused with the fruit juice and left under pressure for twentyfour hours.[/URL]

I've never been able to work out why people like this so much.

[Searching for language]

I understand that blood pudding, a sausage in which blood is a major ingredient, is also a staple for a traditional "full English" breakfast.

[bhaisahab]

Originally Posted by Searching for language

I understand that blood pudding, a sausage in which blood is a major ingredient, is also a staple for a traditional "full English" breakfast.

I think black pudding is a part of the 'traditional English breakfast' in certain areas, notably the northern counties. It is certainly part of the 'traditional Irish breakfast.

[Searching for language]

I thought it was actually called blood pudding. You mention black pudding. I presume that you know better.

In Germany it is called Blutwurst, bloodsausage. I don't like it, but my father did.

[Ouisch]

Originally Posted by Searching for language

I understand that blood pudding, a sausage in which blood is a major ingredient, is also a staple for a traditional "full English" breakfast.

Mmmm, blood pudding. Whenever I've traveled in the UK, I was always the only one in our group who enjoyed blood pudding (which looks like a hockey puck and tastes vaguely like liver). I found that it was more common in the northern part of England and in Scotland, but that's stricly anecdotal.