Culinary UK

The word  "pudding" for me conjures up images of banana pudding, (Does anyone ever make banana pudding for any reason other than to use up over-ripe bananas?), Jello chocolate pudding and the more recent pudding cups.  Remember how Jello instant pudding would "weep" or separate after being stored?  It still tasted good to a kid though.  Then there is Yorkshire pudding, and steak and kidney "pud", as the character Rumpold called it.  We recently learned that the Three-ways House in Mickleton is proud to be the home of the Pudding Club.  This club meets every Friday night in the hotel dining room and celebrates the traditional English pudding.  Oddly, some puddings are meant to be served with a custard which is also provided.  In fact, their web page mentions 7 gallons of custard.  Our tour group was treated to a private simulation of a Pudding Club meeting, complete with 4 puddings and a tub of custard.  It was all far too tasty and even attempting to minimize servings meant eating far too much dessert after a large dinner.  The custard is used as a topping or accompaniment to certain puddings.  I have always considered pudding and custard to be more or less interchangeable terms.  However, the "New Food Lover's Companion" defines custard as "pudding's eggy cousin - a dessert made with a sweetened mixture of milk and eggs that can be either baked or stirred using gentle heat."  Got that?  Now search for the definition of "pudding" to learn the difference, or lack thereof in some instances.

Later along the tour, we were served Yorkshire pudding with a meat, gravy and potatoes meal.  It was in the shape of a large, crusty muffin with a very light, open texture, almost hollow.  It is basically a lump of very fluffy bread designed to absorb gravy and sometimes served with gravy ladled into a sunken top.  Oddly, you may also be served a roll or other bread with the meal.  A steak and kidney pudding, or pie is described as a savory pudding made by enclosing diced steak and beef, and lamb's or pig's kidney pieces in gravy in a suet pastry.  I never actually saw this on a menu, but I wasn't looking for it either.

Moving on we come to the Lake District and the Waterhead Hotel in Ambleside, Cumbria,  ( I do like the sound of "Ambleside".)  and their most comprehensive breakfasts.  There was a huge selection of both hot and cold items including yogurt, fruit, porridge, dry cereals, breads, etc.  As if that were not enough, one could order all or any part of a full English breakfast from the kitchen.  With a breakfast like that one would obtain a full day's calories in one sitting.  Such a breakfast includes a serving of black pudding which is a gentler way of saying blood pudding.  In Scotland there may also be haggis which appears to me to also meet one definition of pudding.  Displayed alongside the large serving vessel of steaming porridge (oatmeal to us) were two bottles, one with a syrup and one with Scotch whisky.  (There is no "e" in Scotch Whisky.) I could not resist asking a nearby member of the staff why it was there.  I was informed that some people like a little on their porridge.  I suspect some people might even like a bit more.  Mike Cross sang a song entitled "Whiskey fore Breakfast".  

Yorkshire Puddings

Steak and Kidney "Pud"

Ambleside View

I wanted to rent a rowboat, but no time.