Spotted dick is a traditional British steamed pudding, historically made with suet and dried fruit (usually currants or raisins) and often served with custard.

Non-traditional variants include recipes that replace suet with other fats (such as butter), or that include eggs to make something similar to a sponge pudding or cake.

Etymology

Spotted is a reference to the dried fruit in the pudding (which resembles spots). In the variant name spotted dog, dog is a variant form of dough.

History

thumb|Spotted dick and custard

The dish is first attested in Alexis Soyer's The Modern Housewife or, Ménagère, published in 1849, in which he described a recipe for "Plum Bolster, or Spotted DickRoll out two pounds of paste[...] have some Smyrna raisins well washed".

The name "spotted dog" first appeared in 1855, in C.M. Smith's "Working-men's Way in the World" where it was described as a "very marly species of plum-pudding". This name, along with "railway cake", is most common in Ireland where it is made more similar to a soda bread loaf with the addition of currants.

The Pall Mall Gazette reported in 1892 that "the Kilburn Sisters[...] daily satisfied hundreds of dockers with soup and Spotted Dick".

See also

  • Clootie dumpling, a similar Scottish traditional pudding
  • Figgy duff, a bag pudding from Newfoundland
  • Poutchine au sac, Métis bag pudding from Western Canada
  • List of fruit dishes
  • List of steamed foods

References

Bibliography

  • Alexis Soyer's original 1849 recipe for Spotted Dick