The Taste of Britain. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

250MM DEEP AND WEIGHING ABOUT 150G. COLOUR: IRREGULAR GOLD-BEIGE; THICKLY SPRINKLED WITH CASTER SUGAR. FLAVOUR AND TEXTURE: DENSE, MOIST AND SWEET, WITH SPICES AND DRIED FRUIT.

      HISTORY:

      This pudding is one English response to the problem of what to do with leftovers. There are others, such as bread-and-butter pudding (layering thin slices of buttered bread with custard) or Poor Knights of Windsor (deep-frying the slices and serving them with sugar); but bread pudding is the only one which has much history of commercialization. How long it has been sold in the South-East, however, is unknown. The idea can be traced back several centuries. John Nott (1726) gives 3 recipes for puddings based on bread, including one, ‘Grateful Pudding’, which shares some elements of the modern form, including the additions of eggs and dried fruit, the resulting batter being baked in a dish and served dusted with sugar. Hannah Glasse (1747) gave several, ranging from extremely rich to quite plain. Maria Rundell (1807) included a good selection, with a plainer one requiring suet rather than butter and cream. Mrs Beeton’s (1861) are notably spare: the cream has vanished, the butter diminished, and suet more important.

      This appears to be a turning point in the history of the product. The essential details of soaked bread mixed with sugar, fat, spice and fruit, poured into a dish and baked are all there, but the more delicate recipes known in the eighteenth century vanish.