British Puddings are dying out 😮

I do not bake puddings or cakes in the summer, apart from the occasional pavlovas, lemon tart or summer pudding. We tend to stick to fresh fruits and ice cream.

As soon as the weather turns then it’s crumbles, apple pies, banana bread, strudels. I would steam puddings but DH doesn’t like them and now the children have flown the nest it would mean me eating them and having to buy a new wardrobe to accommodate my expanding waistline 😹

Spotted dick and jam roll poly two of favourites done the old fashioned way suet and steamed in a saucepan of water. Thick Birds custard made with the powder and milk in a jug yummy.
😋

Given the runaway obesity crisis in the UK - which is something else that's crossed the Atlantic - it's probably a good thing that puddings are dying out.

Our increasingly sedentary lifestyles cannot take meat, veg, gravy and Yorkshire pudding followed by heavy puddings with gallons of custard or cream, on a regular basis.

I’ve never really liked puddings. Apple pie was the only thing my mother was any good at making and apart from Spotted Dick the ones at school were just too sweet for me. I also disliked custard which didn’t help.
They’re too carb heavy for modern diets so I guess that’s why they’re dying out.

I do love an old fashioned pudding, my maternal grandmother and mother used to make delicious steamed puddings and they will always have a special place in my heart. We hardly ever have a pudding, they would be a special treat. My sweet treats tend to be in the form of fruit, summer berries, with a dash of cream, sometimes, when we have people here, I'll make a meringue to go with those. Nectarines are a personal favourite so one of those will be my pudding. In the winter I'll make a crumble or two, I've even ventured into bread and butter pudding territory. In a bygone age before the population became so sedentary it was normal to have such calorific fare and somehow or other people didn't balloon in weight as they have today, but those 3 meals a day cooked from scratch, without the advent of fast food, constant snacking, sitting down less, moving about more lifestyles were considered, in spite of the calorie content of those old fashioned puddings, a whole lot healthier then.

There's a hotel up in the Cotswolds known as "The Pudding Club" where, as the name suggests, they are famed for celebrating the pudding. We've toyed with the idea of a night or two in that hotel, but I think I'd worry about the after effects, I believe the customer is encouraged to indulge in an array of wonderful puddings. Irresistible!

Always a crumble when the older GC visit, blackberry and apple is their favourite but any fruit will do - it’s the crumble and custard they’re really after.

My MiL had a boiler than sat in the garage. On fine days she would wheel it into the garden and it would steam away producing puddings galore. In the run up to December it would be working away making enough Christmas puds for all the family and the whole village too!

I tend to bake rather than steam, but puds are certainly on the menu here. We may not bother with a main course first - soup followed by pud on a cold day.

It’s about calories, we don’t need them these days, I well remember school meals, stodge - steamed pudding usually times a week. We all made the jokes but ate it with relish because we were much more active then, many biked to school, being taken in a car was almost unheard of.

At home few, if any had central heating so we used a lot of energy keeping warm. Times have changed, not always for the better.

windmill1

Given the runaway obesity crisis in the UK - which is something else that's crossed the Atlantic - it's probably a good thing that puddings are dying out.

Our increasingly sedentary lifestyles cannot take meat, veg, gravy and Yorkshire pudding followed by heavy puddings with gallons of custard or cream, on a regular basis.

The obesity problem her and in the us isn’t down to puddings, it’s down to quantity and junk food= additives.

I make puddings all year round- pavlova, crumble, various steamed puddings, iced cream, mousse etc., etc. Sunday is a feast day so we always have a pudding.

Well, this week I've just made apple crumbles, Eve's puddings and apple tarts after my OH brought home two carrier bags full of apples from a friend's garden. However, I have given most of them away to family and friends.

My parents loved sweet foods and ate every day .
They expected a dessert .
A meal wasn't a meal without them .
I love a dessert !
Gone are the days when I weighed eight and a half stone and would lose half a stone over a weekend.
At Christmas half a stone would pile on and then fall off without dieting.
I have to admit if I do make a pudding it's eaten despite protests about weight gain and seconds are demanded.
In fact in the past I've made three types of dessert if the family visit and none is left !

Apart from an apple crumble occasionally, I must admit that I never eat these lovely puddings any more. I grew up on jam roly-poly, suet pudding with jam, etc. It's just yoghurt, fruit or ice cream these days.
I suppose it's to do with trying to be healthier, or maybe for those of us who live alone, we just can't be bothered to make the effort.

windmill1

Given the runaway obesity crisis in the UK - which is something else that's crossed the Atlantic - it's probably a good thing that puddings are dying out.

Our increasingly sedentary lifestyles cannot take meat, veg, gravy and Yorkshire pudding followed by heavy puddings with gallons of custard or cream, on a regular basis.

I think that would only ever have been on a Sunday.
I’ve never made a steamed pudding, but do crumbles of various kinds and fruit tarts, rice pudding or egg custards.
Even do custard now and then.
M&S do a pack of two small ‘steamed’ puds that you can microwave.
As for Christmas pud and custard, sheer heaven.

Who doesn’t love a great British pud?

And I always say pudding or pud, never dessert.

Not in this house while I live and breathe…😱

perish the thought that Sussex Pond Pudding, Eton Mess, Apple Betty, Crumble, Steamed Jam Sponge (alright, I sometimes microwave it…😉) Jam Roly Poly and Spotted Dick wouldn’t be devoured by Mr PG! I suspect it’s the main reason he married me Dear Reader…

Coming back to this, the occasions where a pudding is served in our house, would be after a Sunday roast when we have guests or Christmas dinner, it occurs to me we rarely have room for the pudding, it might be eaten in the evening a good few hours later, for us anyway. Our children and grandchildren would polish it off sooner. Not Christmas pudding though, that it seems is universally hated by younger generations, there always has to be an alternative.

I often make crumbles, an Eve’s pudding, or the occasional pie inc. a lemon meringue, but apart from 🎄pud I’ve never made a steamed one.
I really fancy a Sussex Pond pudding, but have yet to make one.

I used to make an apple sponge pudding - stewed apple with bought trifle sponges on top (split in half) and homemade proper custard on top, baked within a bigger tin with water - a makeshift Bain Marie. Quicker and easier than it sounds!

TBH we only have a pudding once a week, if that. We’d both be like the side of a house if we had one every day.

It’s not like my childhood 1950s, no car, no central heating - we needed those calories!

windmill1

Given the runaway obesity crisis in the UK - which is something else that's crossed the Atlantic - it's probably a good thing that puddings are dying out.

Our increasingly sedentary lifestyles cannot take meat, veg, gravy and Yorkshire pudding followed by heavy puddings with gallons of custard or cream, on a regular basis.

Tbh, I think it’s more to do with fast foods, made with trans/veg oils, than a good, old fashioned pudding.
Back in the day we had a pudding of some description. None of us were fat.

Terribull, I’m sure the reason a lot of people don’t like 🎄pudding is that the shop bought ones are almost always so dark, dense and heavy.
My homemade ones, from an old GH recipe, are a lot less dense and heavy - people who say they don’t like 🎄pudding have often even had seconds of mine.,

Just a couple of weeks ago I made a steamed syrup sponge. I make fruit crumbles and milk puddings frequently, rice tapioca and semolina being favourites.
DH still works part time and often finishes at 8pm. He likes a sandwich and a pudding at that time of evening, instead of a full meal.

According to English Heritage (via a Guardian report published today), traditional British puddings are indeed facing serious decline – about two-thirds of households now make puddings only once a month or less, and a third never prepare them at all. They warn that classic desserts like steamed puddings and crumbles could disappear within 50 years unless efforts are made to revive them.

I lived with my grandmother and she was a pudding expert.

She used to make:- Queen of puddings, lemon meringue pie,
spotted dick, apple Charlotte, spicy rice pudding, silk stocking, Eve's pudding, bread and butter pudding, jam roly-poly and summer pudding to name but a few. She made custard using eggs, milk, vanilla pods and sugar.

She was very thin and never put on any weight.

M&S do a pack of two small ‘steamed’ puds that you can microwave.

Thanks for that info, Oreo. I'm going to look out for them!