Why is pudding called pudding

When I was at prep school in the BrE sense in the late 60s, the puddings were among the more popular foods served. There's also a distinction to be made between puddings and pies: steak and kidney pudding is entirely encased in the flour and suet mixture, while steak and kidney pie only has a pastry topping.

A pudding in this sense, whether savoury or sweet, is wrapped in cloth and cooked in a pudding basin. Norman Lindsay's illustrations for his classic "The Magic Pudding" show this particularly well.

No, a skeak and kidney pie can have a pastry case, too. The difference is that the pudding is made in a pudding basin and steamed whereas the pie is made in a piedish and baked. Peanut butter and tomato and cucumber??? Oh, Mrs. Redboots, that is shocking to my AmE mind. Then again, if you have ever tried marshmallow fluff, you might feel the same way.

I like peanut butter with Marmite on top. It is nice with salad items as well, particularly cress and tomato. I had a friend who added it to vegetarian stews. I would never try it with jam or jelly. Sounds nasty! I think marshmallow fluff sounds disgusting, but then, I don't like marshmallows very much.

And peanut butter ought to be savoury - look at those lovely African stews with it in them. But I shall always be grateful to the American friend who introduced me to the concept of eating it with an apple. I'm an American and I've never heard the word "pud", is it regional or something?

We're drifting off topic here, but it was an Englishman who introduced me to peanut butter and cheese sandwiches. Sounds revolting, I know, but I decided if I never tried it I wouldn't know, so I tried it, and ended up buying them nearly every day after that.

Until I left that job. Sounds good to me. Must try it. An aunt introduces me to peanut butter on granary bread with cress and sliced not-too-sweet apple. Bill - Pudding Skin?

We certainly have custard skin in the UK. This is a discrete layer that forms on the top of pouring custard as it cools: it may be quite thick and rubbery and rather yukky - I remember school lunches were enlivened by battles to obtain or to avoid the skin. Skin doesn't form if you pour the custard soon after making it from boiled milk and a cornflour mixture : sorry if this has already been spelled out, but does this mean that American pudding is make from a hot mixture that then cools?

Marshmallow fluff is lovely, but then my taste in sweet food is heavily influenced by my American mother who makes, among other things, marshmallow and peppermint icecream. That is exactly how it is made when it is made from scratch or when using a mix However most of the time nowadays I would say it is bought pre-made in small cups.

You can sometimes see characters eating from them in US Sitcoms. Scrubs and an episode or two of Friends I think And cameron I love Peanut Butter and Cheese sandwiches. I personally eat them with no bread, and just use the cheese slice to hold it My Grandmother made it for me once as a snack and I was hooked. I am generally seen as disgusting when it is discussed It isn't the best view, because he doesn't eat it, but here you can see the container it comes in at least. Wallace and his AmE pudding cup on Veronica Mars.

Avoiding custard skin? It's the best part! Depending on the type of custard, anyway. I do like proper rice pudding with a nice skin. Not so fond of custard skin. In New Zealand one can buy boxes of 'instant pudding' powder. Beat the powder with milk, put it inthe fridge to chill and voila! The main flavours are vanilla, chocolate, butterscotch and strawberry. They've been around for donkey's years, because my grandmother had a recipe in imperial measurements - we went metric in the early 70s for butterscotch biscuits which included a packet of butterscotch instant pudding mix.

Having just looked at the one I have in the cupboard, I see the name has now - on Gregg's brand at least - been changed to 'Instant Desserts: buterscotch flavoured dessert mix'. Bah humbug. Is that so? We always had it hot, cooked very similar to rice pudding. My grandmother also, by the way, had a recipe for the very un-PC chocolate custard-type pudding called 'Black Man's Throat'. How it came by that name I've no idea. Hasty pudding, known from the song "Yankee Doodle" is a steamed cornmeal pudding.

Nowadays, one usually takes the same mixture and bakes it to make Indian pudding. You also sometimes see grapenut pudding in New England. I don't think I've ever seen either of these much west of the Connecticut River. Which is a shame, because Indian pudding is a wonderful thing, especially if it is made with maple syrup instead of molasses.

As for savory puddings, I have seen Jewish delis in the U. Regarding the Jelly and Jam questions, my family's always been quite distinct about them. If it's smooth and clear though of course coloured it's jelly, if it has lumps of fruit flesh in it, it's jam, if citrus peel, it's marmalade. Regarding AmE pudding, I'm always a little uncomfortable with it in conversation simply because I don't have an ingrained name for it.

I've taken to calling in flan but rhyming with non-rhotic barn to distinguish it from the tart which I rhyme with pan. What you call the last course of a meal in the UK is very dependent on class. The Queen says "pudding".

Just for fun, my husband sometimes says, "You can't have your afters until you've finished your befores. It is very similar to custard, and I seem to remember seeing an American cookbook suggesting using slightly thinned vanilla pudding mixture as a substitute for what they called "custard sauce".

Obviously this will come too late for the general discussion, but you can get something in the UK that produces a jell-o result as of the mid 90s anyway, i. It comes in fruit flavored cellophane wrapped blocks which resemble VERY firm jello jigglers. You melt it in boiling water and the diluted result re-firms to the texture of jello. As for AME pudding, Bird's custard thickened up with extra cornstarch makes a better version of vanilla pudding. And I swear I've eaten something made by Nestle sold in the refrigerator case that was nearly identical to a US chocolate pudding cup although tastier.

Yes, that is how jelly is normally made in England and often has fruit added and can have added friut juice. What are Jello jigglers? Er - how else would you make jelly or jell-o style puddings, if you prefer?

Redboots: Jello whether from Jell-O or any number of other manufacturers is normally sold as a powder in the U. Hello, are you still there? The contestants had to make a selection of puddings desserts and the only one with a soft consistency was lemon souffle. All the others were baked, containing either suet, bread or pastry, plus fruit or chocolate Um, how can it be, when American pudding comes, as I understand it, in various flavours like chocolate or butterscotch, and is made with cornflour or a similar thickener, whereas true custard is flavoured with vanilla and made, ideally, with only eggs, milk and sugar.

You can buy custard powder, which makes a disgusting imitation of it, or you can buy it ready-made, which is much, much nicer, and the "Finest" options in the supermarket are very good indeed. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary. See also: Pudding. English Wikipedia has an article on: pudding. We have apple pie for pudding today. I find a few of your points concerning puddings very interesting.

The past two centuries have seen an amazing development in the production and cooking methods of puddings and cakes. I hope you will visit my blog when you have a moment. The articles on war-time rationing alone may interest you.

I shall be following your blog as time allows! I will definitely have a proper look soon…. Pingback: What is a Pudding? Pingback: Twisted Top in Flip Flops. Thanks for this clear and concise explanation.

I am intrigued with the diference between American and British words and how they are used. A possible post idea there!

So how did Americans come to mostly refer to milk puddings as pudding. Tapioca, chocolate etcetcetc. A milk pudding it seems. Maybe it was just a bottlenecking of terms, phrases and recipes. A yorkshire pudding is just flour, milk and eggs. Pingback: the old country : Tom Brakke. Pingback: Sponge Puddings — Here's the Dish. Pingback: What is a pudding? British Food: A History — Poster — 9. You are commenting using your WordPress.

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