What is pudding? Bread, rice , & tapioca: healthy puddings & invalid fare The Haggis: immortalized by poet Burns Batter puddings: Yorkshire & popovers Black puddings: aka blood puddings Custard & how it relates to pudding Flan: the Spanish & Mexican connections French cremes: Chiboust, Bavarian, brulee & caramel Hasty pudding Pease pudding: What was Mother Goose writing about? Plum & Christmas puddings: traditional English fare Pudding mixes including instant pudding Roly-Poly pudding: 19th century literature favorite Spotted Dick & Spotted Dog: suet puddings Summer puddings: featuring fresh fruit

Have questions? Ask!

What is pudding?
The history of pudding is a complicated topic. Why? Though time, many different kinds of foods have been known by this name. The creamy, rich pudding dessert we (Americans) think of today is more closely related to custard. The history of custard is likewise ancient. This food followed a separate, though parallel, path that managed to converge with pudding in 19th century America.

Food historians generally agree the first puddings made by ancient cooks produced foods similar to sausages. Medieval puddings (black and white) were still mostly meat-based. 17th century English puddings were either savory (meat-based) or sweet (flour, nuts & sugar) and were typically boiled in special pudding bags. The "pease porridge" most of us know from the old nursery rhyme was most likely a simple boiled pudding of pease meal. By the latter half 18th century traditional English puddings no longer included meat. 19th century puddings were still boiled but the finished product was more like cake. These puddings are still traditionally served at Christmas time.

About custard? Ancient Roman cooks recognized the binding properties of eggs. They were experts at creating several egg-based dishes, most notably patinae, crustades and omlettes. These foods were either savory (made with cheese, meat, pepper etc.) or sweet (flavored with honey, nuts, cinnamon etc.). Food historians generally agree that custard, the sweet almost pudding-like substance we Americans know today, dates to the Middle ages. At that time custard was eaten alone or used as fillings for pies, tarts, pastry, etc. Flan is probably the the most famous and widely adapted custard dessert in the world. It is important to note that custard was not unique to Europe. Similar recipes flourished in Asia.

The distinction between European custard and American pudding became muddled sometime in the 1840s. At that time in America, traditional boiled puddings were no longer necessary to feed the average family. There was plenty of food. This also happened to be the same time when Alfred Bird, an English chemist, introduced custard powder as an alternative to egg thickeners. It wasn't long before Americans began using custard powder and other cornstarch derivatives as thickeners for custard-type desserts. This proved quite useful for overlander (conestoga wagon) cooks who did not have ready access to a reliable supply of fresh eggs.

In the last decades of the 19th century some American social reformers and food companies endeavored to promote these products as health food. American custards and puddings converged and were thusly marketed for their nutritional benevolence with special emphasis on invalids and children. Yes, this means chocolate pudding was perceived by some as a health food. Late 19th century cookbooks and company brochures (Jell-0, Royal) were replete with "quick" custard and pudding recipes, often touting arrowroot and tapicoca as the healthy ingredients. By the 1930s instant custard & pudding mixes were readily available to the American public. We gobbled them up.

Some pudding-type foods have been considered healthy since ancient times. Case in point: rice pudding. This ancient recipe was traditionally prescribed for the young and infirm. The formulas was inscribed in medical texts before it showed up in cookbooks. Tapioca, arrowroot, and cornstarch puddings (made from new world thickeners) were later recommended as restoratives.

This is what the food historians have to say on the subject:

"It seems that the ancestor of the term was the Latin word botellus, meaning sausage, from which came boudin and also pudding. Puddings in all their variety and glory may thus be seen as the multiple descendants of a Roman sausage. The Haggis, by its nature and the way it is prepared, illuminates the connection. In the Middle Ages the black pudding (blood sausages) was joined by the white pudding, which was also made in a sausage skin, or sometimes a stomach lining so that it was a larger, round item like the...haggis. White pudding was almost completely cereal in composition, usually containing a suet and breadcrumb mixture. It was variously enriched and flavoured, and there were sweet versions."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 637-80)
[NOTE: this source has much more information than can be paraphrased here. Ask your librarian to help you find a copy]

"Pudding. A term describing several different desserts, usually cooked, including cakelike confections such as plum pudding; or a dish of suet crust containing fruits and sugar; or a spongy steamed dish; or a pastry crust filled with chopped meats, like kidney; or Yorkshire pudding, a crisp, breadlike side dish made from a flour-and-egg batter cooked in pan drippings; or, as is most usually in contemporary usage, milk-based dessert made with flavorings like chocolate or vanilla cooked with a starch until thickened and then cooled until well set. Eighteenth and nineteeth-century cookbooks refers to any and all of these as puddings. The word seems to derive from the Old French boudin, (sausage), and, ultimately, form the Latin botelinus, for many puddings were a form of encased meat or innards. The earliset examples of this word in English refer to such dishes. Dr. Johnson's Dictionary (1755) defines the word as a "kind of food very variously compounded, but generally made of meal, milk, and eggs." One of the earliest American desserts was a quickly thrown-together mixture of cornmeal, milk and molasses called "cornmeal mush" or "hasty pudding," known at least since 1691...In the present century a pudding almost always means a soft-textured, milk-based dessert, the most popular being those packaged commercially and a large number of which, called "instant puddings," require no cooking at all..."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 258)

If you need more details ask your librarian for Food and Drink in Britain: From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C. Anne Wilson [Academy Chicago:Chicago] 1991 (p. 308-322).

The Haggis
Culinary historians generally agree that the recipe/method for making haggis can be traced to the ancient Greeks and Romans. These recipes were likely brought to the British Isles by the Romans and adapted to local ingredients. The earliest Scottish recipes for haggis were printed in the early 15th century. There are also many conflicting theories regarding the naming of haggis (see notes below).

"Haggis
often regarded as the national dish and exclusive property of Scotland, is the archtype of a group of dishes which have an ancient history and a wide distribution. All of them are relatively large parcels of offal mixed with cereal and enclosed in some suitable wrapping from an animal's entrails, usually the stomach. The concept of haggis is based on preservation. When the animal was slaughtered, the perishable offal had to be eaten at once or preserved in some way. Salted, packed into a stomach, and boiled, its keeping time was extended to a couple of weeks...The first people known to have made products of the haggis type were the Romans, who were notably interested in foods of the sausage family...The Scottish haggis may be an entirely indignenous invention, but in the absense of written records there is now way of knowing; it could be an adaptation of a Roman recipe to the local mutton and oats. The classic recipe, which has remained almost unaltered since a very early date, uses the large stomach of a sheep filled with the minced lungs, liver, and heart, plus fat, oatmeal, stock, salt, and pepper."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 365)

"...mesolithic Britons had neither pottery nor metal vessels in which to cook their meat...The flesh would have to be cooked warm from the kill, as was the practice among German tribes of the first century AD. When this was not possible, long hanging would have been necessary to break down the connective tissue and tenderize the meat, and it would have been eaten high, as is still the case with game. Animal heads, offal and blood would not have been wasted. The gut, used as a container for liver, [lungs] and brains, cut up and mixed with fat, could be roasted slowly in the embers. Homer described this type of cookery in the Odyssey, and it is found almost universally among primitive peoples. In Britain the haggis was still a regular food in the Middle Ages; and in remote highland areas it survived until modern times."
---Food and Drink in Britain: From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C. Anne Wilson [Academy Chicago:Chicago] 1991 (p. 61)

"Made of suet, spices, onions, oatmeal and a sheep's pluck - heart, liver and lights -boiled in a sheep's stomach, haggis is a form of sausage that seems to generate violent passions and arouses both reverence and mirth among the Scots, who have been eating it for at least 400 years. ...The origin of haggis, as with many other national dishes, is obscure. A similar dish was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans and is mentioned in some 14th-century Scottish chronicles. Dr. Michael Krause, a physician from Hamburg who recently tasted it for the first time, reported that it was much like a Silesian dish he called ''derma.'' And although haggis includes pork fat or suet, its taste and texture also resemble the Jewish dish made of chicken fat, flour, spices and onions baked in a steer's intestines that is also called derma....The French honor its Scottish connections by calling it ''Pudding de St. Andre'' although, in fact, the word haggis is probably French in origin and comes from the verb hacher - to chop up or mangle. Though unproven, the French origin seems likely as French influence was strong in Scotland until 1603 and other traces of that tongue remain in the Scottish lexicon. A leg of lamb is called gigot and a serving dish is an ashet - assiette in French."
---Fare of the Country: Haggis History and Humor, New York Times, January 5, 1986 (section 10, p. 12)

THE NAMING OF HAGGIS

"Haggis...The analogy of most terms of cookery suggests a French source; but not corresponding French word or form has been found. The conjecture that is represents French hachis 'hash'. with assimilation to hag, hack, to chop, has apparmently no basis of fact; French hachis is not known so early, and the earlier forms of the English word are more remote from it. Whether the word is connected with have vb., evidence does not show."
---Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Volume IV (p. 1013-4)
[NOTE: the OED traces the first use of this word in print to 1420]

"Haggis...The name probably comes from the verb haggen (to hack), although some authorities suggest that it is derived from the words au gui l'an neuf (mistletoe for the New Year), the cry of the mistletoe sellers in the Middle Ages, possibly by a vague memory of ancient Druidic ceremonies."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Completely Revivised and Updated [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001(p. 592)

"Haggis...It is considered peculiarly a Scottish dish, but was common in England till the 18th century. The derivation of the word is obscure. The French hachis, English "hash," is of later appearance than "haggis." It may be connected with a verb "to hag," meaning to cut in small pieces, and would then be cognate ultimately with "hash."
---Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition, volume 12 [1911] (p. 816)

"Haggess [from hog or hack]"
---Dictionary of the English Language, Samuel Johnson, volume 1 [1753]

"Haggis. This is perhaps the most traditional of all foods eaten in Scotland at Hogmanay (New Year's Eve)....The name Hogmanay is thought by some to have come from the Old French "aguil' anneuf" through Norman-French hoguigane--to the New Year. Haggis probably derives from the French hachis, to chop.
---A Taste of Scotland, Theodora Fitzgibbon [Houghton-Mifflin:Boston] 1971 (p. 59)

Robert Burns Day--January 25--Ode to Haggis

Traditional Scottish Haggis recipe

[1856]
"Recipe from Lady Login

1 cleaned sheep or lamb's paunch
2 lb (900g.) dry oatmeal
1 lb (450 g.) Lamb's liver, boiled and minced
1 lamb's heart, boiled and minced
1 lamb's lights boiled and minced
1 large finely chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon each: cayenne pepper, ground allspice, salt and pepper
1 pint (600 ml.) Stock
See that the paunch is well cleaned, then soak it in salt and water for about 2 hours, take out and let it dry. Put the oatmeal on a baking tray in a low oven and let it dry out and crisp up a little. Then cook the liver, heart (trimmed) and lights in salted water to cover and cook for about 1/2 hour. Strain, but reserve the stock, and chop the meats up finely, or mince. Mix all ingredients (except the paunch) together and season well. Then add the stock. Put into the cleaned paunch (fill to about half) and sew up loosely, but securely. Have ready a large pot of boiling water mixed with the rest of the liver stock, prick the haggis all oaver wirh a small knitting needle to prevent bursting, then cook in the water and stock, at a slow simmer uncovered, but keep up water level, for about 3 hours. Serves about 16."
---Traditional Scottish Cookery, Theodora Fitzgibbon [Fontana Paperbacks:Bungay] 1980 (p. 140-1)

Black pudding (also known as blood pudding) traces its roots to ancient sausages composed of pig's blood mixed with thickeners.

"Black pudding is a sausage...made from pig's blood with some thickening agent, such as cereal, and spices. Its name--a reference to the darkened colour of the cooked blood--is of long standing...The synonymous blood pudding is equally ancient, but nowadays much less usual. In England, the Midlands and the North are the great areas of black pudding appreciation; Bury in Lancashire is often claimed as the black pudding capital. But black puddings form an essential part of the basic peasant cuisine of many other European countries...Elsewhere in Europe a black pudding is a blutwurst (Germany) or a kashanka (Poland)."
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 31)

"Blood sausages, sausages filled with blood, with cereal or other vegetable matter to absorb this, and fat. The most familiar type is the black pudding or boudin noir, English and French terms for much the same thing. It is pudding in the old sense of something enclosed in a sausage skin. The black pudding is probably the most ancient of sausages or puddings. Some would claim this distinction for haggis, but the earliest mention in literature is of something tending more towards black pudding, at least in its filling. Book 18 of Homer's Odyssey, around 1000 BC, refers to a stomach filled with blood and fat and roasted over a fire. The reason of such dishes is clear enough. Whe a pig is killed it is bled, and a large amount of blood becomes available. This has a very short keeping time if not preserved. Putting it into one of the vessels which the entrails of animals conveniently furnish, along with other offal with a limited keeping time, is an obvious solution. The oldest detailed recipe for black pudding, in the compilation attributed to Apicus (material of the first few centuries AD), calls for lengths of intestine, rather than a stomach, as the container. It is a rich recipe with no cereal, but chopped hard-boiled egg yolks, pine kernels, onions, and leeks. Common black puddings of the time were probably made with cereal. In medieval Europe it was not unusual for even relatively poor families to own a pig, which was slaughtered in the autumn. Black puddings were therefore made everywhere."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxfod] 1999 (p. 82)
[NOTE: This book generally describes several methods for making blood sausage/pudding.]

"Sausages were also a great favourite; indeed from Greek times they appeared to have been a staple of the kitchen in all coutnries. Perhaps the reason lies in their economical way of using all the odd bits of the carcass and once well seasoned, moistend with tasty fat, the smoking and drying intensifying the flavour; they become an addiction in a country's food, reflecting the tastes of a region in their use of particular flavourings. Some aspects of the Roman Lucanian sausage had remained with the Anglo-Saxons...This is a highly seasoned sausage with pepper, cumin, savory, rue and mixed herbs packed into the cleaned intestine and then smoked...Late autumn was the time to make black puddings, which became a delicacy to be eaten on feast days. There could be puddings of porpoise, mixed with oatmeal, seasoning and blood, or of capon's neck where the stuffing was forced into the neck then roasted with the bird...How much spice was used in recipes must have been a personal choice partly dictated by economics."
---British Food: An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History, Colin Spencer [Columbia University Press:New York] 2002 (p. 90)

"When the pig was killed black puddings were...a great mainstay of the [Medieval] peasant kitchen and would remain so for the next 600 years. Out of the annual pig killing came such dishes as brawn, souse--the ears, cheeks, snout and trotters a pickled in brine or ale--as well as the puddings, enjoyed as festive food around Christmastide."
---ibid (p. 94)

"Much of Roman cookery was highly spiced; and nowhere were the spices more prominent than in the sausages and black puddings of the period. Made usually in the cleaned intestine or caul (omentum) of pig, sheept or goat, they were a sophisticated development of the more primitive haggis. Some were produced for immediate eating, but others were smoked a long while above the hearth before they came to table...The tradition of sausage making lingered on in northern Europe after the end of the western Roman empire. The Anglo-Saxons developed their own versions. Although their recipes have not survived Lucanian sausages appear in a Latin and Anglo-Saxon vocabulary as part of a list of pig products...The Norman Conquest brought the sausage varieties of Norman-French cookery into English cuisine...Sausages were made from the lean pork; and black puddings from the animal's blood. The town cookshops often sold sausages and black puddings, and at least sometimes tainted meat was used in their manufacture. The best and also the safest were those made at home...Black puddings were also made at pig-killing time and the favourite season for this was late autumn. The animal's blood was blended with minced onions and diced fat, spiced with ginger, cloves and a little pepper, and stuffed into lengths of intestine. The puddings could be kept for up to three days, and were boiled in water before being eaten. In Britain puddings, rich with blood, fat and spcies, became quite a delicacy, to be eaten on high days and holidays. The word pudding, morever, soon took on a wider meaning than that of blood-sausage, and came to be associated with the idea of stuffing of any kind...The puccing of porpoise was a dish for the nobility. The pig was the source of puddings for common folk. Take the blood of the swine, and swing it, then put thereto minced onions largely with salt, and the suet of the god minced', begins an Elizabethan recipe...[Early modern period] Both black blood-puddings and sausages continued to be made from the traditional ingredients...Both black and white puddings were well liked in Tudor and Stuart times..."
---Food and Drink in Britain From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C. Anne Wilson [Academy Chicago:Chicago] 1991 (p. 308-315)

Brid Mahon's Land of Milk and Honey: The Story of Traditional Irish Food and Drink offers these notes on Celtic traditions:

"Most households killed a pig at certain times of the year, and in the more substantial farms seeral pigs were usually killed on the same day. Certain superstitions were once observed regarding the time of killing. A pig should never be killed unless there was a letter R in the month, which meant in effect that pigs were seldom slaughtered during the summer months. In the counties of Mayo and Galway it was believed that killing should take place under a full moon. If the animal was killed when the moon was waning the meat would reduce in size, while if the killing was doen when the moon was waxing or full the meat would increase. Killing the pig was an important social occasion, for it meant full and plenty for all. Each neighbour who came to help with the pig killing brought a handful of salt for the curing, and when the work eas done each would get a share of the puddings and the fresh pork. The slaughtering was done by the men, but it was the women who were responsible for curing and smoking the hams and bacons...Whe the pig was killed the blood was collevted in a vessel and used to make black puddings. In Ring, Co Waterford, they described the old method used:

Long ago when they killed pigs they kept the intestines to make puddings. They washed them clear in a running stream and they were left to soak in spring water overnight. The casings were cut into fifteen inch lengths, tied at one end. Salt, lard, oatmel., finely chopped onions, spices, peppers and cloves, together with a cup of flour were mixedwith the pig's blood which had been collected in a bucket. Each pudding was three-quarters filled and tied at the end. It was dropped into a pot half-filled with water which had been brought to simmering point, cooked for about an hour, then taken up, allowed to cool, and divided amongst the neighbours. This was always done. When needed for use puddings were fried in a pan."
---Land of Milk and Honey: The Story of Traditional Irish Food and Drink, Brid Mahon [Mercier Press:Cork] 1998 (p. 58-9)

Much is written about the symbolism of the pig. Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat's History of Food sums it up quite nicely. Your local public librarian will be happy to help you obtain a copy.

There are dozens of recipes for blood/black puddings. Instructions and finished products vary according to region and period. Jane Grigson's Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery (p. 326-336) describes several classic French recipes. If you are looking for a recipe connected with a specific cuisine/period let us know. We can help you track it down. If you seek modern instructions you will find plenty on the Internet. Google: "blood pudding" recipe

ABOUT YORKSHIRE PUDDING

"Yorkshire pudding is made from an egg, flour, and milk batter cooked in a very large shallow tin containing a layer of very hot beef dripping. It is a popular accompaniment to roast beef in Britain, and the two together compose the 'traditional' Sunday lunch. Sometimes the batter is poured into smaller, round tins to make individual pudings but this is not the authentic Yorkshire method. Strictly speaking, the pudding, cut in squares, should be served with gravy before the meat, to take the edge off the appetite. Batter puddings have a long history and exist in many forms, mostly sweet....Jennifer Stead...discusses the origin and development of the dish. Commenting on the localized attribtution of 'Yorkshire' attached to it, she notes that batter puddings were also known in the south of England; Yorkshire batter puddings appear to have been distinguished by their lightness and crispness. ..Such details had not escaped Hannah Glasse, she herself came from the North of England and who said that the dripping must boil before the batter is added....Yorkshire pudding was never eaten exlcusively with beef. The early recipe for batter pudding mentions mutton; indeed, it could be served with any roast meat..."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 859-860)

"When wheat flour had come into common use for cakes and puddings, some economically minded cooks in the north of England devised a means of utilizing the fat that dropped into the dripping pan to cook a batter pudding while the meat roasted. In 1737 the recipe for 'A dripping pudding' was published in The Whole Duty of a Woman. 'Make a good batter as for pancakes; put in a hot toss-pan over the fire with a bit of butter to fry the bottom a little then put the pan and butter under a shoulder of mutton, instead of a dripping pan, keeping frequently shaking it by the handle and it will be light and savoury, and fit to take up when your mutton is enough; then turn it in a dish and serve it hot.' Similar instructions were reproduced by Hannah Glasse eight years later under the title of 'Yorkshire pudding'."
---Food and Drink in Britain: From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C. Anne Wilson [Academy Chicago:Chicago] 1991 (p. 99-100)

"Yorkshire pudding. A puffy, breadlike side dish made by cooking an egg-and-milk batter in the hot fat and pan drippings from a roast beef. It is a traditional English dish named after a northern county in England. The first recipe for Yorkshire pudding appears in Mrs. Hannah Glasse's Art of Cookery, printed in England... and widely circulated in America. The dish is now a traditional accompaniment to roast beef in this country as well."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Freidman:New York] 1999 (p. 356)

Hannah Glasse's recipe [1747]

"A Yorkshire Pudding.
Take a quart of milk, four eggs, and a little salt, make it up into a thick batter with flour, like pancake batter. You must have a good piece of meat at the fire; take a stew-pan and put some dripping in, set it on the fire; when it boils, pour in your pudding; let it bake on the fire till you think it is nigh enough, then turn a plate upside down in the dripping-pan, that the dripping may not be blacked; set your stew-pan on it under your meat, and let the dripping drop on the pudding, and the heat of the fire come to it, to make it of a fine brown. When your meat is done and sent to table, drain all the fat from your pudding, and set it on the fire again to dry a little; then slide it as dry as you can into a dish; melt some butter, and pour it into a cup, and set it in the middle of the pudding. It is an excellent good pudding; the gravy of athe meat eats well with it."
---The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy, Mrs. Glasse, facsimile 1805 edition, introduced by Karen Hess [Applewood Books:Massachusetts] 1997 (p. 101-2)

[1851]
Collins, Anna Maria. The Great Western Cook Book, Or Table Receipts, Adapted to Western Housewifery. New York, A.S. Barnes & Company, 1857, c1851. Table of contents (no mention of roast beef or Yorkshire pudding, good for cooking methods)

[1877]
Wilcox, Estelle Woods. Buckeye Cookery, and Practical Housekeeping: Compiled from Original Recipes. Minneapolis, Minn.: Buckeye Pub. Co., 1877.
Index
Meat cookery (general)
Roast meat with pudding (beef & Yorkshire combination)

[1896]
Farmer, Fannie Merrit. Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Boston:Little, Brown, and Company, 1896. Yorkshire pudding

ABOUT POPOVERS
Food historians generally agree popovers are an American recipe. They descended from 17th century batter puddings made in England. Yorkshire pudding is the most famous example of these.

"Popover. A light, hollow muffin made from an egg batter similar to that used in making Yorkshire pudding. The name comes from the fact that the batter rises and swells of the muffin tin while baking...In American Food (1974), Evan Jones writes: Settlers from Maine who founded Portland, Oregon, Americanized the pudding from Yorkshire by cooking the batter in custard cups lubricated with drippings from the roasting beef (or sometimes pork); another modification was the use of garlic, and, frequently, herbs. The result is called Portland popover pudding, individual balloons of crusty meat-flavored pastry." Most popovers, however, are not flavored but merely set in buttered muffin tins. They are served a breakfast or with meats at lunch and dinner."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 249)

"Popover. An American favourite for breakfast and to accompany meat dishes, closely resembles a small Yorkshire pudding and is made with a similar batter (similar also to that used for pancakes). Popovers are baked in patty tins or custard cups in a hot oven. They earn their name (which first appeared in print in 1876) by a tendency to swell over the sides of the tins or cups while they are being baked."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 622)
[NOTE: The 1876 source referenced above is from the Oxford English Dictionary: Practical Cooking, M. N. Henderson (p. 71) "Breakfast Puffs, or Pop-overs."

Henderson's Popover recipe [1876]
Popover recipe from 1877:

Related food? Pancakes.

Food historians generally agree that custard, the sweet almost pudding-like substance we Americans know today, dates to the Middle ages. At that time custard was eaten alone or used as fillings for pies, tarts, pastry, etc. Flan is probably the the most famous and widely adapted custard dessert in the world. It is important to note that custard was not unique to Europe. Similar recipes flourished in Asia.

Classic recipes for sweet custards were introduced to America by European cooks. Culinary evidence confirms American cooks readily embraced these recipes. Europeans also brought with them pudding recipes, which were a very different kind of food at that time. 18th century European puddings were typically boiled compositions of legumes, sometimes infused with meat products.

The distinction between European custard and American pudding got muddled sometime in the 1840s. At that time in America, traditional boiled puddings were no longer necessary to feed the average family. There was plenty of food. This also happened to be the same time when Alfred Bird, an English chemist, introduced custard powder as an alternative to egg thickeners. It wasn't long before Americans began using custard powder and other cornstarch derivatives as thickeners for custard-type desserts. This proved quite useful for overlander (conestoga wagon) cooks who did not have ready access to a reliable supply of fresh eggs.

In the last decades of the 19th century some American social reformers and food companies endeavored to tranform custard/pudding from dessert to health food. American custards and puddings were thusly marketed for their nutritional benevolence with special respect to invalids and children. Yes, this means chocolate pudding was perceived by some as a health food. Late 19th century cookbooks and company brochures (Jell-0, Royal) were replete with "quick" custard and pudding recipes, often touting arrowroot and tapicoca as the healthy ingredients. By the 1930s instant custard & pudding mixes were readily available to the American public.

This is what the food historians tell us about custard

"Custard. A mixture of milk and eggs thickened by gentle heating, is a basic item of western cooking and occurs in many dishes in either dominant or subsidiary role. In the vocabulary of the French kitchen, there is no world for custard, and thus it is easy to forget the role that custard mixtures play in things as diverse as quiche Lorraine and eclairs. The word used is creme, which...[has] other meanings; but see Creme caramel and creme brulee for connected subjects. Custard was much used in the Middle Ages as a filling and a binder for other fillings in the flans and tarts which were highly popular at the time and for long afterwards. That is how it got its name; custard is derived from crustade, a tart wtih a crust...Two other medieval preparations, caudle and posset, have a history linked with that of custard, and in some instances have virtually been custards. Although in their plainest for they were drinks, they were often thickened to a fair degree of solidity...In the 16th century fruit creams' became popular. These were sweet made with cream, and pureed fruit. Early types of fool were similar. During this time it became usualy to make custards in dishes or individual cups rather than in a pastry case...What is abundantly clear is the importance of...custard powder. This product is not a dried form of real custard. It consists mainly of cornflour and sugar, coloured and flavoured, to which hot milk is added to make a sauce. It was invented by Alfred Bird, who opened a shop in Birmingham in 1837...Demand for Bird's product increased steadily during the second half of the 19th century...A principal factor in the success of custard powder was that, as it did not contain eggs, there was no longer any risk of the sauce curdling..."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 237-8)
[NOTE: This book contains much more information on this topic, including notes on Asian custards and separate entries for several custard/custard-related dishes, including custard pie throwing as practiced in Hollywood. Ask your librarian to help you find a copy.]

Related food? English trifle (includes notes on related foods).

A sampling of custard recipes through time:

"Dariole, or Custard Tart
Form the dough into the shape of a deep pie and fill it completely with flour so it will keep its shape; cook it in a pan until it is somewhat dry. And when this is done, remove the flour and take some egg yolk, milk, sugar, and cinnamon. When these things are made into a mixture, put it into the pastry, cooking it like a tart, moving it frim time to time and stirring with a spoon. And when you can see it starting to set, pour some rose water and stir well with a spoon. And when it has set completely it is cooked. Note that is should not cook too much, and that is should quiver like a junket."
(Translated from Libro de arte coquinaria, Maestro Martino [15th century])
---The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy, Odile Redon et al (p. 159--recipe adapted for modern kitchens follows on p. 160)

Two more medieval recipes (with modern instructions):

I & II

"Baked custards
One Pint of Cream, boil with Mace and Cinnamon, when cold take four Eggs, two Whites left out, a little Rose and Orange-flower Water and Sack, Nutmeg and Sugar to your Pallate, mix them well together, and bake them in China Cups."
---The Art of Cookery Made Plain & Easy, Hannah Glasse [1747] (p. 142)

"An orange pudding.
Boil the rind of a Seville orange very soft, beat it in a marble mortar with the juice. Put ot it two Naples biscuits grated very fine, half a pound of butter, a quarter of a pound of sugar, and the yolks of six eggs. Mix them well together, lay a good puff paste round the edge of your china dish, bake in a gentle oven half an hour. You may make a lemon pudding the same way but putting in a lemon instead of the orange."
---The Experienced English Housekeeper, Elizabeth Raffald, facsimile 1769 edition with an introduction by Roy Shipperbottom [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1997 (p. 82)
[NOTE: this recipe would have produced a tart; not uncommon in 18th century English and American cookbooks.]

A Custard Pudding, The Frugal Housewife, Susannah Carter [New York:1803]
[NOTE: page through for more recipes]

"Lemon custard
Take four large ripe lemons, and roll them under your hand on the table to increase the juice. Then squeeze them into a bowl, and mix with the juice a very small tea-cup full of cold water. Use none of the peel. Add gradually sufficient sugar to make it very sweet. Beat twelve eggs til quite light, and then stir the lemon juice gradually into them, beating very hard at the last. Put the mixture into cups, and bake it ten minutes. When done, grate nutmeg over the top of each, and set them among ice, or in a very cold place. These custards being made without milk, can be prepared at a short notice; they will be found very fine. Orange custards may be made in the same manner."
---Directions for Cookery in its Various Branches, Eliza Leslie [1849] (p. 315-6)

"Cup custard
(5 Servings)
Scald:
2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
Pour these ingredients slowly over:
3 beaten egg yolks or 2 whole eggs
Add:
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
Beat the custard until it is well blended. Pour it into a baking dish or into individual molds. Place the molds in a pan of hot water in a moderate oven 325 degrees for about 3/4 hour or until the custard is set. To test, insert a silver knife of spoon. If the custard does not adhere to the spoon it is ready to be removed from the oven. Chill and serve it with Caramel sirup or fruit juice."
---The Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer [1946] (p. 62)

About French cremes: Bavarian, Chiboust, brulee &

"Creme...In the French kitchen, there is no word to match the English kitchen, there is no word to match the English term custard', and creme has to fill the gap. The thin pouring-sauce type of custard is creme Anglaise. Creme patissiere is the equivalent of confectioner's custard, though the English term trends to denote a less rich kind than the French mixture. Creme patissiere is made from egg yolks, milk, sugar, and a little flour, with vanilla or some other flavouring; the light version used in eclair fillings and Saint Honore also contains beaten egg whites."
----Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 225)

Bavarian cream (Bavarois)

Food historians tell us Bavarian cream (aka bavarois) is a cold molded gelatin-based dessert originating in France in the early 19th century. Careme is generally credited for the invention. The connection with Bavaria is obscure. A survey of historic cookbooks reveals American recipes titled "Bavarian cream" first appeared in the the 1880s. Some of these recipes employed eggs; others did not. Original recipes were fancy, cold, molded desserts similar to ice cream bombes. Today, most Americans think of Bavarian cream in the context of doughnut fillings.

"Bavarian cream. Bavarois. A cold dessert made from an egg custard with a gelatine, mixed with whipped cream and sometimes fruit puree or other flavours, then set in a mould. It is not known whether there is a connection between this dessert and Bavaria, where many French chefs sued their talents at the court of the Wittlesbach princes. Careme gives various recipes under the name fromage bavarois (Bavarian cheese). Many cookery books confuse Bavaian cream with a similar dish, the moscovite, which was perhaps invented by a French chef in the service of a great Russian family."
---Larousse Gastronomique, completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New Yok] 2001 (p. 86)

"Bavarois is a creamy cold dessert made with an egg-custard base into which are mixed cream, beaten egg whites, a flavouring (such as chocolate or orange), and gelatine. It is then set in a mould. The Bavarois, or bavaroise (the gender seems to be interchangeable: the masculine form derives from French fromage bavarois, the feminine from creme bavaroise), has been popular in Britain since the mid-nineteenth century, frequently under the anglicized name Bavarian cream. The 1868 edition of Modern Cookery for Private families, for instance, includes directions for making it, although it did not appear in Eliza Acton's original 1845 version. It is not known what the original connection with Bavaria is."
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 22)

"The dessert called bavarois...usually consists in an egg custard...mixed with whipped cream and set with gelatin in a mould. It first appeared in print in the early 19th century, when Careme gave a recipe. Although the English name is sometimes Bavarian cream' and some French authorities believe that it was brought to France by a French chef who had been working in Bavaria, the connection is not clearly established. However, the great chef Escoffier, when he declared the title Bavarois' to be illogical and suggested that Moscovite' would be more appropriate, may be taken to endorse by implication the topographical derivation."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 63)

A BRIEF HISTORIC SURVEY OF BAVARIAN CREAM RECIPES

[1828]
"Cream a la Vanille.
Take one or two sticks of vanilla, which infuse in some boiling cream; next put in the eggs as you do for other creams. If you are making a fromage a la glace [sometimes erroneously called fromage bavarois] you must put a smaller quantity of eggs, as isinglass is to be put to stiffen it; and keep constantly stirring the cream on the fire, while the eggs are doing. Mind that the eggs are not overdone. When you perceive the cream is getting thick, put the melted isinglass in, and rub it through a tammy, then put it into a mould, and into ice. When you wish to make the cream more delicate, let it get cold; then put it into a vessel over ice, before you put any isinglass into it, and whip it; when quite frozen, put it cold melted isinglass; this method requires less isinglass, and the jelly is much lighter."
---The French Cook, Louis Eustache Ude, Englished facimile reprint of 1828 edition [Arco Publishing:New York] 1978 (p. 360-1)

"Fromage au Cafe.
See Creams, for the mode of infusing coffee; only use one half of the cream for the infusion, which, when cold, mix with the other half. Beat the whole on ice, add isinglass, and then fill the mould, &c. &c. Observations.--The fromages Bavarois, made of fruit, deserve the preference over those made with infusions. But in the winter season, for a grand dinner or supper, when a great variety is required, infusions may be recurred to; but in that case, use preserved fruit and sweetmeats of all kinds."
---ibid (p. 382-383)

[1869]
"Cocoa Bavaroise a la Moderne
Melt 3/4 oz. of gelatine, in a stewpan, over the fire; with:
10 oz. of lump sugar;
1 pint of water;
1 stick of vanilla;
Strain the jelly, through a silk sieve, into a basin, to cool; Take 1/2 lb. Of cocoa-nibs; roast them in a copper sugar-boiler, over a slow fire; and put them, hot, in 1 1/2 pint of boiling milk, and let them steep for an hour; Put 8 yolks of egg in a stewpan, with 10 oz. Of sugar and the mlk and cocoa-nibs; stir over the fire, without boiling; add 1 1/2 oz. Of gelatine, previously steeped in water; and press the whole thorugh a tammy cloth; Stir the above custard on the ice, till it begins to set; and add 1 1/2 pint of whipped cream; Put a cylinder-mould in the ice; and take it out, and coat it with the vanilla jelly; put it back in the ice; and, when the jelly is set, fill the mould with the cocoa cream; let it remain in the ice for two hours; turn the Bavarois out of the mould; and serve."
---The Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, tranlsated from the French and adapted for English use by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson Low, Son, and Marston:London] 1869 (p. 525-6)

Compare with:

"Apricot Cream a la Muscovite
Observation.--This cream can only be prepared in a hermetically closing ice-mould. Rub sufficient apricots through a hair sieve to make 1 quart of puree; put it in a basin, and add 10 oz. Of pounded sugar; and 3/4 oz. Of gelatine, dissolved in 1/2 pint of water; put the basin on the ice, and work the contents as directed for Vanilla Cream...adding 1 pint of whipped double cream; When the apricot cream begins to thicken, put it in an ice mould; close the mould, and spread some butter over the opneing, so that no water may penetrate inside; embed it in some pounded ice and saltpetre, or bay salt, so that it be surrounded by, at least, a 3-inch thickness of ice; At the end of two hours and a half, turn the cream out of the mould; and serve. All creams a la Muscovie should be thoroughly iced."
---ibid (p. 526-7)
[NOTE: Gouffe also offers recipes for Coffee Bavaroais a la Moderne, Orange Bavarois a la Modern, and strawberry, peach, pineapple and raspberrry cream a al Muscovite.]

[1884]
Boston Cooking School Cook Book/Mrs. D. A. Lincoln
Plain Bavarian Cream & Bavarian Cream (with eggs)

[1896]
Boston Cooking School Cook Book/Fannie Merritt Farmer Bavarian Cream (Quick)

[1903]
"Bavarois.
The chilled cream referred to under the name Bavarois in various books on cookery used to be described as Fromage Bavarois on menus. It was subsequently shortened by elimating the word Fromage since this was considered slightly coarse and unnecessary, but it still remains understood though not included. The title Bavarois, although sanctioned by usage seems illogical; the title Moscovite appears more logical and suitable. As a result of this, instead of writing Bavarois au Cafe etc. on the menu, but could be Muscovite a la Vanille, Moscovite au Cafe etc., Bavarois are made in two ways: 1) by using a cream mixture; 2) by using a fruit mixture....[items 4572 and 4573 are for these mixtures]...4574. The Moulding and Presentation of Bavarois. Bavarois are usually moulded in funnel moulds which have been lightly coated inside with almond oil. When full they should be covered with a round piece of paper and allow to set either in crushed ice or in a refrigerator. Whe required for serving the mould is plunged quickly into lukeward water, dried, then turned out on to the serving dish. Instead of oiling the mould a thick coating of light-coloured caramel can be used to line it; this give an excellent appearance and taste to the Bavarois. There is another way of presenting a Bavarois which can be recommended, this is to mould it in a timbale or deep silver dish which is then surrounded with crushed ice. In this case the Bavarois is not demoulded for serving thus the mixture can be made with less gelatine and therefore it becomes more delicate. When made by this last method it is sometimes served accompanied with a dish of stewed fruit or fresh fruit salad. However, these accompaniments are more suitable for servivng with certain cold puddings which have much the same appearance as a Bavarois. Finally, whether the Bavarois is made in a mould or not it can be finished by decorating it with white or pink Creme Chantilly using a piping bag and cup or a paper cornet."
---Escoffier: The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery [1903], the first translation into English by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann of Le Guide Culinaire in its entirety [John Wiley:New York] 1999 (p. 544)

About Gateau St. Honore

RECIPES

[1903]
"4345. Creme a Saint-Honore.
Prepare the Pastry Cream as in the preceding recipe and whilst still boiling fold in 15 stiffly beaten egg whites. NOTE: If this cream is not going to be used immediately it is advisable to add 4 leaves of gelatine (12 g or 1/2 oz) per 1 litre ( 1 3/4pt or 4 « U.S. cups) milk; this also applies in warm weather."
---The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, Escoffier, c. 1903, The first translation into English by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann [John Wiley:New York] 1979 (p. 518)

[1946]
"Creme St. Honore.
This pastry cream is often called "Choux a la Creme" because it is the special cream that is used as a filling for Cream Puffs, as well as in making the famous Gateau St. Honore. Combine Creme Patissiere...and stiffly beaten egg whites, using twice as many whites as there are egg yolks in the Creme Patissiere and folding them in when the creme is cold."
---Louis Diat's Home Cookbook: French Cooking for Americans, Louis Diat [J.B. Lippincott:Philadelphia] 1946 (p. 232-3)

[2005]
Recipe for Lemon Chiboust

Creme brulee

The name is French, but the origins are not perfectly clear. Escoffier and the other major French culinary experts do not include recipes for this item in their classic cookbooks. Culinary experts generally agree that Creme Brulee originated in England. They also agree recipes for this dessert vary accoring to time and place.

"One of the greatest desserts in the realm of cooking is Creme Brulee and despite its name it is not French but a very old English one. No one seems quite to know when or how it became Gallicized, for over a long period of time it was known simply as burnt cream. The earliest recipe I have been able to find was printed in a 17th-century cookbook from Dorsetshire. After that it had a rather interesting history and gained considerable renown. Originally, this was a rich custard, a mixture of sugar, egg yolks and cream cooked over heat, then poured into a dish and cooled. The top was then sprinkled with sugar and the sugar caramelized to a brown glaze with a red-hot salamander, and old type of heavy metal tool which was lowered to the surface of the sugar and moved over it until the intense heat melted and browned the sugar, hence the name burnt cream. Creme Brulee became a standard dessert at Cambridge University, especially Christ College where it was made in a special dish designed by the Copeland-Spode Co. It's amusing to read old cookbooks and to discover the many versions of Creme Brulee--sometimes it was made with gooseberry or raspberry fool instead of custard...You still are more apt to find it served in England, although in America we went through a great Creme Brulee period a number of years ago and I wish we would again, for to my mind it is without peer--few desserts are more delicious to eat and to look at...In the years during which the recipe has been used in America, the original recipe has been considerably changed, and I'm not sure it was for the better. Many U.S. recipes call for a topping of brown sugared, and although I have used this from time to time, I've never felt the result was all it should be..."
---"Creme Brulee: Dessert One of the Greatest," James A. Beard, Los Angeles Times, November 5, 1970 (p. K3)
[NOTE: This article contains a typical 1970s American recipe.]

"Creme brulee is a French term for a rich baked custard made with cream, rather than with milk. The Custard is topped with a layer of sugar (usually brown) which is then caramelized by use of a salamander or under a grill. Creme, meaning cream, is derived from the Latin "Chrisma" through the old French creme. The term brulee is applied to dishes such as cream custards with are finished off with a caramelized sugar glaze. In English, the dish is Burnt cream. This term was in use as long ago as the beginning of the 18th century, but the French term had already been used by Massailot in 1691 and has priority, although it fell into disuse in France for a while in the 19th century...Creme brulee is also sometimes known as Trinity cream because of its association with Trinity College, Cambridge, where the college crest was impressed on top of the cream with a branding iron."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 226)

"Although many people think of [Creme Brulee] as a French dessert, creme brulee is actually Creole. Make the basic cream exactly like the preceding creme anglaise, but use half the amount of sugar, and whipping cream instead of milk."
---Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle & Julia Child [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1963 (p. 589)

"Creme brulee...The Random House Dictionary of the English Language traces the first appearance in print of creme brulee to 1885, from the French, meaning 'burnt cream,' which it is often called in England. But the dish is probably not of French oridings. Escoffier does not mention such a dish; Larousse Gastronomique refers to a similar dish under the name Creme Anglaise au Miroir...as 'burnt cream' the dish originated in England, where, according to English food authority Jane Grigson recipes for the dish appeared in seventeenth- century cookbooks. By the turn of the twentieth century it had become a favorite dessert at Trinity College, Cambridge, and, according to Jane Garmen in Great British Cooking (1981), it is often referred to as 'Trinity Cream.'Recipes for 'burnt cream' have been included in Creole cookbooks since the nineteenth century, though the Picayune Creole Cook Book (1901) indicates that the confection is made merely by adding caramel to a custard base that is then reduced, strained, garished with fruits, and served cool...The classic American cookbook Joy of Cooking calls it 'A rich French custard--famous for its hard, caramelized sugar glaze.'...the popularity of the dish in the United States soared after it was made fashionable when chef Alain Sailhac brought the idea back from a trip to Spain (where the dish is known as an old Catalan dessert called crema quemada a la catalana) in 1982 and began making it at the restaurant Le Cirque in New York City. After that it became a standard dish in American fine-dining restaurants, as well, ironically, as in France."
---Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 106-7)

Creme caramel

This flan derivative is France's answer to baked custard. "Creme caramel. A light egg custard that is baked in a caramel-lined mould in a water bath. After the custard is baked, it is chilled and then turned out of the mold....In Spain, it is called flan and in Italy, crema caramella."
---The International Dictionary of Desserts, Pastries, and Confections, Carole Bloom [Hearst Books:New York] 1995 (p. 84)

"Creme caramel. A sweet dish which is essentially a custard but, because it is seen as something originally French, is known as a creme. The entry for that term explains that a boiled custard is often served in France in little individual containers. If some caramel syrup is poured into the container before the custard is put in, and the custard is subsequently turned out when served, it will have a more interesting appeareance and flavour; and will qualify as a creme caramel. In the later part of the 20th century creme caramel occupied an excessively large amount of territory in European restaurant dessert menus. This was probably due to the convenience, for restauranteurs, of being able to prepare a lot in advance and keep them until needed. Latterly, however, it seemss to have been losing ground. A kindred dish...is creme brulee."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 236)

"Creme caramel is one of a species of French custard desserts known as cremes renversees, literally creams turned upside down'...Creme caramel should not be confused with creme au caramel, which is a caramel-flavoured cream dessert."
---An A to Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2003 (p. 96)

About flan.

[1803]
Of Syllabubs, Creams and Flummery, The Frugal Houswife, Susannah Carter [New York]

The history of flan (and custard, a closely related recipe) begins with the Ancient Romans. Eggs figured prominently in many Roman recipes. The flan prepared by the Ancient Romans was quite different from the food we eat today. Their flan was often served as a savory dish, as in "eel flan," although sweet flans, made with honey and pepper, were also enjoyed. When the Romans conquered Europe, they brought their culinary traditions with them. One of these was flan. Both sweet and savory flans (almonds, cinnamon & sugar; cheese, curd, spinach, fish) were very popular in Europe during the Middle Ages, especially during Lent, when meat was forbidden. According to Platina's De Honesta Voluptate[On Right Pleasure and Good Health], an Italian cookery text published approximately 1475, custard-type dishes were considered health food. In addition to being nourishing they were thought to soothe the chest, aid the kidneys and liver, increase fertility and eliminate certain urinary tract problems. Creme caramel evolved in France.

"[English] Roman period...eggs took on a much greater importance in Roman times, when domestic fowl first became common. With eggs for the first time available on such a scale, it was now possible to consider them seriously in cookery..[the Romans] exploited eggs as a thickening or binding agent for other foods. They borrowed from the Greeks the idea of combining eggs with milk to form a custard mixture, which was either cooked very slowly in an earthenware pot, or fried in oil...Another kind of egg confection was made of fruit or vegetables, or fish or shredded meat, bound with eggs and lightly cooked in the open dish called a "patina." ...The "flathons" (flans), "crustards" and other open tarts of medieval cookery again recall the old "patinae," with the shallow open dish of the Romans replaced by an open pastry crust, and the filling once more mixed and bound with eggs."
---Food and Drink in Britain: From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C. Anne Wilson [Academy Chicago Publishers:Chicago] 1991 (p. 138, p.142)
NOTE: This book has an excellent chapter on the histoy of eggs in English cookery (pages 137-148)

"Flan is an open tart filled with fruit, a cream, or a savoury mixture. A flan may be served as a hot entree or as a dessert. The word comes from the Old French "flaon," from the Latin "flado," [meaning] a flat cake. Flans have been in existence for centuries. They are mentioned in the works of the Latin poet Fortunatus (530-609AD), and featured in medieval cookery--Taillevent gave numerous recipes for flans. The word flan in France and Spain is also used for an egg custard, often carmel-flavoured, that is made in a mould and then turned out and served cold."
---Larousse Gastronomique, edited by Jenifer Harvey Lang [Crown:New York] 1989 (page 445):

"Flan is a term with two meanings. The one most familiar in Britain...is An open pastry or sponge case containing a (sweet or savoury) filling. A typical flan of this sort is round, with shortcrust pastry. It is either baked blind before the hot or cold filling is added, or baked with the filling. The filling, especially if it is a sweet one, may incorporate custard. In France, the term "flan" carries the first meaning as described above, but often has the second meaning: a sweet custard which is baked in a mould in the oven until set, when it may be served in the mould or turned out. The second meaning is the one which is used in Spain and Portugal, where flan is a standard dessert, and in many countries, e.g. Mexico, where either language is used. The second and very widespread meaning is the one which corresponds to the etymology of the term. The Old French "flaon" derived from the Latin "flado" had as its principal meaning a "custard." From the same Latin root came the Middle English word "flaton" and "flawn" from which much later came flan."
---The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 305)

About flan in Spain
"Both Spain and Portugal also have a Moorish inheritance of very sweet egg-rich desserts, some ingeniously using up the egg whites left over from a pudding using only egg yolks--Pudim Molotoff (Molotoff Pudding), for example. Flan, caramel custard, the Creme Renversee au Caramel of the French, is universally popular. It may be flavoured with orange, if liked, but it is the traditional caramel custard that enjoys such popularity and is an equal favorite throughout Latin America...Quite literally everyone loves flan."
---The Food of Spain and Portugal: The Complete Iberian Cuisine, Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz [Atheneum:New York] 1989 (p. 264)

"...the Spanish sweet tooth is gratified by a range of dessert wines and liqueurs and special-occasion candies, some of almost Oriental sugariness. Almonds and honey are included in many of them Turron, or nougat, white or dark, soft or brittle, is exceedingly more-ish and is now a big industry in Jijona. The Arabic influences in candy-making are pronounced and candies such as amarguillos date from Moorish times...In the Spanish kitchen, milk and cream are commandeered for desserts, particularly in the north...The national dessert...is caramel custard, called flan."
---Recipes from a Spanish Village, Pepita Aris [Simon & Schuster:New York] 1990 (p. 124)

"...in looking for the roots of Spanish food traditions one must go back to the Phoenicians, who founded the city now called Cadiz in 1100BC; the ancient Greeks, and the Carthaginians...and more important, the Romans who used Spain as a major source of food, especially wheat and olive oil...Introductions by the Arabs were also of fundamental importance for Spain's future. They are particularly associated with the use of almonds (the essential ingredient for so many Spanish desserts, baked goods, and confectionery items); with the introduction of citrus fruits (including the lemon and the bitter (Seville) orange, without which British marmalade would never have been born); sugar cane and the process of refining sugar from its juice..."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 741)
[NOTE: this book has plenty of information on the history of almonds, citrus, sugar cane etc. Ask your librarian to help you find a copy.]

How to pronounce the word flan? That depends upon which language you speak. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the English pronunciation is expressed as "flaen," which would rhyme with "man." According to the Food Lover's Companion, Sharon Tyler Herbst, 3rd edition (p. 237) the correct pronuncation is "flahn," which would rhyme with "balm." More pronuncations here.

Historic recipes for flan (adapted for modern kitchens):

• Ancient Rome: Tiropatinam
• 15th century, England: A Flaune of Almayne
• 16th century, France: Flaon Cochus

If you are conducting an extensive project on the origins of flan, ask your librarian to help you find books on Ancient Roman and Medieval European food history and reprints of period cookbooks. Check the indices for flan, custard and darioles. This will give you a better understanding of the types of flans and typical ingredient combinations that were prepared during these periods. You might also compare/contrast them with today's recipes. Think about this: if you were a French noble from 1475 dining in a restaurant today would you recognize the flan served at the end of your meal?

Want to examine more historic American recipes?
You will find several online, courtesy of the Digital Cookbook collection uploaded by Michigan State University: Search recipe name: hasty pudding

John Barlow's Hasty Pudding.

Hasty Pudding & pudding sticks, Alice Ross, Journal of Antiques.

New Peas for Fish Day (14th century)

The history behind pudding mix is fascinating stuff. In the middle of the 19th century [corresponding neatly with the dawn of the modern industrial age] technological advances enabled the refinement of cornstarch extraction. Alfred Bird's custard powder [1847] made from flavored cornstarch set the stage. By the turn of the 20th century recipes for all sorts of corn-starch puddings [most noticeably chocolate and tapioca] were featured in mainstream cookbooks, both under the categories of dessert and convalescent foods.

"Chocolate corn starch pudding
Melt one-third square unsweetened chocolate and add to Corn Starch Pudding [the recipe for this is given on the same page, it is not a mix] before adding egg."
---Food and Cookery for the Sick and Convalescent, Fannie M. Farmer [1911] (p. 174) [NOTE: this book also has recipes for corn starch pudding, tapioca custard pudding, cottage pudding, chocolate bread pudding and baked cream of rice.]

According to The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America/Andrew F. Smith Vol. 1, p. 642), My*T*Fine was the first packaged pudding introduced to the United States. The year? 1918. This pudding required cooking. U.S. Patent and Trademark records list the date for this tradename as 1916 (but does not comment on the pudding):

Word Mark MY-T-FINE Goods and Services IC 029. US 046. G & S: PREPARED DESSERT POWDERS MADE IN VARIOUS FLAVORS. FIRST USE: 19160700. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19160700 Mark Drawing Code (5) WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS IN STYLIZED FORM Design Search Code Serial Number 71402693 Filing Date February 4, 1938 Current Filing Basis 1A Original Filing Basis 1A Registration Number 0359369 Registration Date August 16, 1938 Owner (REGISTRANT) PENICK & FORD, LTD. INCORPORATED CORPORATION DELAWARE 420 LEXINGTON AVENUE NEW YORK NEW YORK (LAST LISTED OWNER) NABISCO BRANDS COMPANY CORPORATION ASSIGNEE OF DELAWARE 1105 NORTH MARKET STREET SUITE 803 WILMINGTON DELAWARE 19801

Fueled by the men's nutrition [Battle Creek, MI--Mr. Kellogg & Mr. Post] and women's domestic science [Boston, MA--Miss Farmer & Miss Parloa] movements, the invention of packaged pudding mix was inevitable. One might suppose that when General Foods [aka Jell-O] introduced its chocolate pudding mix in 1926 it was simply cashing in on the fact that people loved [chocolate] pudding and believed that "store bought it better." That reasoning might also account for General Foods' timely acquisition of the Minute Tapioca Company.

Jell-O wasn't the only brand of gelatin desserts & puddings manufactured in the US in the late 19th/early 20th century. Other popular brands were Knox and Royal. All three brands published recipe booklets to promote their products. It is interesting to note that booklets published in the 1900s-1910s contain recipes for custard made with gelatin.

This passage from Royal Desserts, Standard Brands [1932] confirms two things: pudding mixes had recently been introduced to the American public and Americans regarded pudding as a healthy food.

"These new Royal Puddings suit every taste two new popular flavors both made with healthful Arrowroot Starch. You'll be enthusastic about the delicious, real "homemade" taste of these puddings. Royal Chocolate Pudding has that rich, creamy chocolate flavor everybody loves. Royal Vanilla Pudding is flavored with real vanilla extract--and not imitation vanilla flavoring...and what a difference that makes in both taste and aroma!

Royal puddings look good too. They have none of that cheap, watery, thin appearance. They hold their shape perfectly without being pasty and "starchy." Arrowroot makes them different! Royal Puddings are made with arrowroot starch for thickening. That's what makes them taste different...look different. That's why, too, they're ideal for children's desserts. For arrowroot starch has long been recognized as unusually nutritious and easily digested. The finest cooks prefer arrowroot as a thickener because it is easy to keep smooth and because it cooks quickly, yet is entirely free from any "starch" taste, making desserts of unusual tenderness and delicacy. And Royal Chocolate and Vanilla Puddings are made up with milk...another important reason why they make such particularly wholesome desserts for children. Food experts, dietitians and doctors, you know, emphasize the necessity of milk in the diet. [we can confirm this, we have a US Dept. of Agriculture brochure from this time period touting the healthfulness of milk] Prepared in 6 minutes!

Royal Puddings are wonderfully easy to make. Think of it--they can be perpared and cooked in only 6 minutes! Yet the arrowroot cooks completely in this time. There's no fuss, no bother, no extra dishes, when making Royal Puddings. All you have to do is add cold milk to the pudding in a sauce pan and stir while bringing to a boil. If preferred, it may also be cooked in a double boiler until completely thickened. This method is recommended for large quantities of Royal Pudding." (pages 16-17)

Pudding recipes from this booklet (using the packaged product):
Floating Island
Custard sauce (3 cups of milk instead of the standard 2 for regular pudding)
Boston and Washington Cream Pie
Chocolate or vanilla Cream Pie
Chocolate cake filling
French chocolate souffle
Quick rice pudding (add two cups of cooked rice to the Vanilla pudding)
Chocolate pecan cockles
Chocolate bread pudding
Strawberry meringue puffs
Butterscotch sauce
Peach cream dessert
Chocolate fudge sauce
Zweiback cream pudding
Coffee or mocha blanc mange
Coupe allegretti
Chocolate or vanilla ice cream

About instant (cold-milk-mix, uncooked) pudding
Our survey of historic newspapers suggests this product was introduced to American consumers in the early 1950s. Evidence here:

[1949]
"Puddings that may be prepared in thirty seconds, frostings ready for spreading, popcorn of every hue in the rainbow, chocolates so tine it takes 135 to make a pound, and "pink" peaches provide the news today. When a delegate from this department went shopping recently, these were the novel products she purchased for testing in the kitchen of The New York Times. Amazo is neatly named. It amazed even our own tasters, whose palates--after sampling the variety of foods considered for this colunm in the course of a year--are not too easily impressed. Put a pint of cold milk in a bowl, add the powdery contents of one package of Amazo, whip with a roaty beater thirty seconds--and dessert is served. It is a creamy pudding, smooth in texture, delicate if flavor, a puding that can double as a pie or cake filling. The American Maize-Products Company, the manufaturer, has furnished the market with another cornstarch pudding, but this one, contrary to its predecessors, needs no cooking. The label does not exaggerate; the pudding may be made ready in half a minute. Three flavors are offered: vanilla, chocoalte and--rather less to our liking--butterscotch. Cream, plain or whipped, will suggest itself as a garnish. Sliced fruit is another possibility for the vanilla dessert. Gimbels invites its customers to taste Amazo, which is being demonstrated there for the first time. It may also be found at Gristede's, Bohack's and Hearnes. Fourteen cents a package is the approximate price."
---"News of Food," Jane Nickerson, New York Times, March 17, 1949 (p. 31)

[1950]
"For today's column, a kind of honor roll, we review products reported here in 1949 that were outstanding because of their novelty, fine quality or both. First, from American manufacturers, some preparations that fit in with the popular trend of cutting time in the kitchens: Amazo, a highlight of last spring, is the pudding that requires only thirty seconds to produce. The powdery contents of a package are added to a pint of cold milk and whipped with a rotary beater. This gives a smooth, creamy dessert in a half minute, during which no cooking is necessary. Made by the American Maize Products Company in vanilla, chocolate and butterscotch, Amazo costs 27 cents for two packages at Bohack, Gristede and other stores."
---"News of Food: Outstanding Products of 1949 Are Listed, From a Quick Pudding to Nut Butters," New York Times, January 4, 1950 (p. 45)

[1951]
"New Uncooked Puddings. The Joseph Burnett Company, a division of American Foods, Inc., and know for more than a century for its flavoring extracts and food colorings, is now introducing instant puddings of chocolate, butterscotch, and, of course, vanilla. Like the Amazo puddings taht fist became available in March, 1949, these require no cooking. The contents of the 4 1/2-ounce pacakge (14 cents at Gristede stores) are mixed with milk, whipped briefly, then poured into serving dishes."New York Times, July 31, 1951 (p. 18)

[1952]
"1 Pkgs of New Royal Instant Pudding Free...It's Homogenized...For richer flavor! Creamiers Texture! Easy Digestion! At Your Gorcers' now. New homogenized Royal Instant Pudding makes your favorite desserts turn out better than ever before. New Royal Instant Pudding is completely different! It makes quicker, more-delicious-than-ever fruit and nut puddings, pies, ice creams, parfaits, refrigerator cakes, beverages, sauces, cake frostings adn fillings! Try wonderful new Royal Instant Pudding today--before your grocer's sale ends...3 wonderful flavors! Chocolate. Vanilla. Butterscotch." ---display ad, Los Angeles Times, , May 15, 1952 (p. B5)

"A new instant pudding dessert, recently announced by the maker of a line of excellent packaged desserts is real hand. Arriving in our market just in time for summer weather, this food product is one to lighten your cooking routine. Perhaps you've tried it. If not, listen to the easy directions: Open the box, empty into 2 cups of cold milk and beat 1 minute. It's that easy! The flavor list reads vanilla, chocolate and butterscotch. Texture is light and creamy; taste is rich and fresh. It's good when prepared by the directions and has unlimited variety dressed up in other ways."
---"Instant Pudding Makes Instant Hit," Marian Manners, Los Angeles Times, June 25, 1952 (p. B4)

Bread pudding
The history of bread dates back to prehistoric times; pudding (both sweet and savory) was first enjoyed by ancient peoples. Food historians generally attribute the origin of basic bread pudding to frugal cooks who did not want to waste stale bread. Since very early times it was common practice to use stale/hard bread in many different ways...including edible serving containers (Medieval sops, foccacia), stuffings (forcemeat), special dishes (French toast) and thickeners (puddings). In the 19th century recipes for bread pudding were often included in cookbooks under the heading "Invalid cookery." Recipes vary greatly and are often influenced by the type of bread employed.

"Bread puddings. An importrant category. Many desserts include bread whether in the form of breadcrumbs or slices of bread...It is safe to assume that from the very distant past cooks have sometimes turned stale bread intoa sweet pudding, if only by soaking it in milk, sweetening it by one means or another, and baking the result. The addition of some fat, preferably in the form of butter, and something like currantsis all that is needed to move this frugal dish into the category of treats, and this is what has ensured its survival in the repertoire, even on cooks who never have stale bread on their hands. This enhanced product is known as bread and butter pudding and this same dish can also be made with something more exotic than plain bread, for example, brioche, pannetone, slices of plain cake, etc. and can be enlivened by judicious spicing or by reinforcing the currants with plumper sultanas and mixed peel. But such elaborations must be kept under strict control, so that what is essentially a simple pudding does not lose its character under the weight of sophisticated additions. The likely history of the pudding can be illuminated by looking back at medieval sops and at the medieval practice of using a hollowed-out loaf as the container for a sweet dish...variants of bread pudding could be eaten hot as pudding or cold as a cake...an Egyptian dessert which bears a marked similarity to bread and butter pudding, and which was originally a simple dish or rural areas...is called Om Ali and is made with bread...milk or cream, raisins, and almonds...Another Middle Eastern bread sweet, Eish es serny (palace bread), is mad by drying large round slices cut horizontally through a big loaf to make enormous rusks, which are then simmered in sugar and honey syrup flavoured with rosewater and coloured with caramel. Traveling further east, an Indian dessert in the Moghul style, Shahi tukra, is made with bread fried in ghee, dipped in a syrup flavoured with saffron and rosewater, and covered with a creamy sauce in which decorative slices of almond are embedded.""
---The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 103)

Bread pudding & the Civil War
Our survey of Civil War food history books and primary sources indicates bread pudding was popular on both sides of the Mason Dixon Line. Civil war soldiers sometimes subsitituted crackers for bread. Sweeteners were hard to come by, especially for Confederate soldiers. Still? They made do. Notes here:

"Desserts existed almost solely in the imagination, especially with the scarcity of sugar. "If we wanted something extra, we pounded our crackers into fine pieces, mixed it up with sugar, raisons and water, and boiled it in our tin cups,"..."This we called pudding." Some Yankees bought meal at a local meal and made flapjacks and puddings in what Fisk said was "a style of simplicity such as only soldiers would think of adopting." For Confederates, a final "course" could be even less appetizing. Fruit and berries were ocften baked into pies that for want of sugar and proper flour, could be fearsome to the taste and digestion. Some Kentucky Confederates made a sugarless fried pie, "this having all the tough elasticity of a rubber suspender." Once in a while, when there was a little sugar, soldiers with Lee made blackberry pies. Often the only sweetener available was watermelon juice, not easy to obtain when by 1863 a single watermelon sold for $40.00 in the camps."
---A Taste for War: The Culinary History of the Blue and the Gray, William C. Davis [Stackpole Books:Mechanisburg PA] 2003 (p. 26)

A SAMPLER OF BREAD PUDDING RECIPES THROUGH TIME

[1747]
"A bread pudding
Cut off all the crust of a Penny white loaf and slice it thin into a quart of new milk, set it over a chafingdish of coals, till the bread has soaked up all the milk, then put in a piece of sweet butter, stir it round, let it stand till cold, or you may boil your milk, and pour over your bread, and cover it up close, does full as well; then take the Yolks of six eggs, the whites of three, and beat them up, with a little rosewater, and nutmeg, a little salt, and sugar, and if you choose it, mix all well together, and boil it half an hour."
---The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy, Hannah Glasse [1747] p. 109

[1824]
"Bread pudding
Grate the crumb of a stale loaf, and pour it in a pint of boiling milk, let it stand an hour, then beat it to a pulp; add six eggs, well beaten, half a pound of butter, the same of powdered sugar, half a nutmeg, a glass of brandy, and some grated lemon-peel; put a paste in the dish and bake it."
---The Virginia Houswife, Mary Randolph, facsimile 1824 edition with historical notes and commentaries by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1984 (p. 150)

[1845]
"Rich Bread and Butter Pudding
Give a good flavour of lemon-rind and bitter almonds, or of cinnamon, ir preferred to a pinto of new milk, and when it has simmered a sufficient time for this, strain and mix it with a quarter of a pint of rich cream; sweeten it with four ounces of sugar in lumps, and stir it while still hot to five well-beaten eggs; throw in a few grains of salt, and move the mixture briskly with a spoon as a glass of brandy is added to it. Have ready a thickly-buttered dish three layers of think bread and butter cut from a half-quartern loaf, with four ounces of currants, and one and a half of finely shred candied peel, strewed between and over them; pour the eggs and milk on them by degrees, letting the bread absorb one portion before another is added; it should soak for a couple of hours before the pudding is taken to the oven, which should be a moderate one. Half an hour will bake it. It is very good when made with new milk only; and some persons use no more than a pint of liquid in all, but part of the whites of the eggs my then be omitted. Cream my be substituted for the entire quantity of milk at pleasure.
New milk, 1 pint; rind of small lemon, and 6 bitter almonds bruised (or 1/2 drachm of cinnamon); simmered 10 to 20 minutes. Cream, 1/4 pint; sugar, 4 oz.; eggs, 6; brandy, 1 wineglassful. Bread and butter, 3 layers; currants, 4 oz.; candied orange or lemon-rind, 1 « oz.; to stand 2 hours, and to be baked 30 minutes in a moderate oven."
---Modern Cookery for Private Families, Eliza Acton, 1845 facsimile reprint with an introduction by Elizabeth Ray [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1993 (p. 359)

[1847]
"Poor Man's Bread Pudding
Pour boiling water over half a loaf of stale bread, and covering it up closely, let it remain until thoroughly soaked; tehn squeeze it in a towel until half the water is out; put it in a bowl, and wweeten with brown sugar to the taste; add, while hot, a large tablespoonful of butter; flavor with grated nutmeg, a spoonful of brandy, ditto of rose-water; add some stoned raisins. It should be put in a well buttered baking dish about an inch deep, and should bake four hours in a slow oven."
---The Carolina Housewife, Sarah Rutledge, facsimile reprint of 1847 edition [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1979(p. 126)

[1849]
"A Baked Bread Pudding
Take a stale five cent loaf of bread; cut off all the curst, and grate or rub the crumb as fine as possible. Boil a quart of rich milk, and pour it hot over the bread; then stir in a quarter of a pound of butter, and the same quantity of sugar, a glass of wine and brandy mixed, or a glass of rose water. Or you may omit the liquor and substitute the grated peel of a large lemon. Add a tablespoonful of mixed cinnamon and nutmeg powdered. Stir the whole very well, cover it, and set it away for half an hour. Then let it cool. Beat seven or eight eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the mixture after it is cold. Then butter a deep dish, and bake the pudding an hour. Send it to the table cool."
---Directions for Cookery in its Various Branches, Miss Leslie [1849] (p.299)

[1884]
"Bread pudding (includes French bread pudding) from Mrs. D.A. Lincoln

[1918]
Bread pudding from Fannie Merritt Farmer

[1936]
"Bread pudding
No. 1. 1 qt. stale bread or cake in cubes
1 pt. Milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup seeded raisins
Beat the whole eggs, add milk, sugar, and gratings of nutmeg or cinnamon if desired; pour over the bread in a pudding dish, let stand until thoroughly soaked and bake 20 minutes in a moderate oven. Add seeded raisins and almonds if desired. Serve with milk, jelly or any pudding sauce..."
---The Settlement Cook Book, Mrs. Simon Kander [Settlement Cook Book Co.:Milwaukee] Twenty-first Edition Enlarged and Revised 1936 (p. 341)

Need more? Ask your librarian to help you find this article: "It's puddying time!" Country Living, April 1991, p. 132
---this piece traces the history of bread pudding and its symbolism in colonial America.

Related foods? French toast& batter puddings.

Rice pudding is an ancient dish enjoyed by people of many cultures and cuisines. This food traces its roots to the grain pottages of made by middle eastern cooks. It has long been associated with good nutrition and easy digestion, and were first mentioned in medical texts rather than cookery books. Throughout history rice pudding has been recommended for the young, the old, and people of all ages with stomache ailments. In 19th century America, arrowroot and tapioca puddings were prescribed for much the same reason.

The history of rice is a long and complicated story. Food historians generally agree that rice came to Europe by way of India. At first, rice was not used as an ingredient in cooking. It was prized for its medicinal value and known as a thickening agent. The history of spices also figures prominently in the history of this dish.

• Blawmanger, regular version (chicken)
• Blancmanger, Lenten version (fish)

Rice pudding was a popular dish during Shakespeare's time. The Bard himself alludes to it's making at a celebratory feast in A Winter's Tale, Act IV, Scene iii, lines 37-49. The book Dining With William Shakespeare by Madge Lorwin reprints an original recipe from Thomas Dawson's The Good Huswifes Jewell (1596): "To Make a Tart of Ryse...boyle your rice, and put in the yolkes of two or three Egges into the Rice, and when it is boyled put it into a dish and season it with sugar, synamon and ginger, and butter, and the juice of two or three Orenges, and set it on the fire againe."

Rice pudding recipes

• [1615] Gervase Markham's The English Huswife, Gervase Markham
• [1803] Frugal Housewife, Susannah Carter
• [1884] Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D.A. Lincoln

If you would like to try creating a rice pudding that approximates what automat patrons might have eaten during a specific time period, consider the following recipes:

"Cream rice pudding
2 tablespoonfuls cold boiled rice,
3 tablespoonfuls sugar,
Yolk 1 egg,
3 tablespoonfuls cornstarch,
2 cupfuls milk,
1/2 teaspoonful McIlhenny's Mexican vanilla

Put the milk with the cold rice in a double boiler, add the sugar and salt. When it boils, add the cornstarch wet in a few tablespoonfuls cold milk. Just before it is ready to take from the fire, add the egg and flavoring. Eat cold with whipped cream."
---Mrs. Curtis's Cook Book, Isabel Gordon Curtis [1903] (page 57)

"Creamy rice pudding
1 tablespoon uncooked rice.
1 quart milk.
1/2 cup sugar.
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg or cinnamon.
1/2 teaspoon salt.

Wash the rice. Add the other ingredients. Pour the mixture into a baking dish. Cook in a very slow oven (250-275 degrees F.) For 2 or 3 hours, and stir occasionally. Double the quantity of rice may be used and then the pudding does not require such long cooking, but is not so creamy. If desired, one-half cup of raisins my be added and the sugar reduced to one-third cup."
---Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes Revised, Bureau of Home Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture [1931] (page 101)

"Rice pudding
Cook: 2/3 cup Rice
Drain it and rinse it with cold water.
Combine, beat well and add:
1 1/3 cups milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon soft butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
Add:
1/3 cup raisins (optional)
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine these ingredients lightly with a fork. Grease a baking dish and cover the bottom and sides with: bread crumbs (optional). Put the rice in it and cover the top with bread crumbs. Bake the pudding in a moderate oven 325 degrees until it is set. Serve it hot or cold with: Cream, Strawberry or Raspberry Hard Sauce, fruit juice or Hot Sherry Sauce."
---The Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer [1946] (p. 633).

• [1884] Tapioca notes from the Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln and her recipe for Tapioca Cream
• [1918] Tapioca puddings, Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Fannie Merritt Farmer
• [1923] Minute Tapioca, recipes circa 1923

SEE ALSO: rice pudding.

Simple bread puddings have long been associated with healthy living and invalid cookery. Summer pudding appears to be a variation on this theme. According to the food historians, summer pudding--as we know it today-- was a British recipe of the 19th century. A quick survey of 19th century British and American cookbooks confirms recipes for fresh berry (& apple) puddings of various types were popular at that time. Some of these were steamed, others were baked, still others quickly cooked with tapioca (another popular ingredient for healthy/invalid cookery). The degree of "healthiness"...not unlike many dishes today...depended upon the method of preparation and the selection of ingredients.

This is what the food historians have to say:

"Summer pudding. A favourite English dessert which combines a mixture of summer fruits with bread. Redcurrants...and raspberries are the best fruits to use, but some varieties of gooseberry are suitable, and a small quantity of blackcurrants and very few strawberries may be included. In autumn, blackberries can be substituted. In other countries, corresponding kinds of berry will do very well...In the 19th century this pudding seems to have been known as hydropathic pudding' because it was served at health resorts where pastry was forbidden. This name must have begun to seem unattractive or inappropriate early in the 20th century, when the new name summer pudding, which is now universally used, began to appear in print. Until recently it was thought that the earliest recorded use was by Florence Perry (1917) who, on the title page of her attractive book, styled herself The Pudding Lady'...However, it has now been established that a missionary in India, Miss E.S. Poynter (1904), had used the term much earlier, in her book; and that soon afterwards Miss L. Sykes (c. 1912) used it as the title of a recipe which was even closer than Miss Poynter's to those now in use."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 770)

"Summer pudding. A British pudding or dessert of mixed summer fruit moulded in a pudding basin lined with overlapping slices of bread. The dish is said to have originated in spas and nursing homes, where it was served to patients as an alternative to heavy puddings made with pastry, and it was known as hydropathic' pudding. Before bread was dosed with additives to prevent it from drying, summer pudding was a popular dish for using up day-old or slightly stale bread and a glut of summer fruit. It is still a popular, fabulous dessert, and it has the advantage of being light but full of flavour."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Completely Revised and Updated [Clarkson Potter:2001] (p. 1163)

Selected historic recipes of interest:

[1855]
The Lady