The proof is in the pudding
Country Life UK|February 15, 2023
From humble origins as a medieval sausage, the pudding went on to become the pinnacle of British cuisine, burgeoning into a delectable panoply of syllabubs, flummeries and tipsy cakes. Tom Parker Bowles tucks in with gusto
Tom Parker Bowles
The proof is in the pudding

IT has to be one of the most terrifying moments in children's literature, a scene more suited to the extremes of Grand - Guignol than the cosy warmth of a bed-time story. When naughty Tom Kitten, in Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, gets lost up the chimney, he falls into a small, 'stuffy, fusty' room, where he's bound up with string, to be turned into a 'kitten dumpling roly-poly pudding' by Mr and Mrs Samuel Whiskers, two vast rats. The greedy rodents argue as to the best recipe (Mr W insists breadcrumbs are essential), before stealing the ingredients from the kitchen, together with a rolling pin, smearing the terrified kitten in butter, then encasing him in dough.

The accompanying illustration, of a terrified Tom-just his head and tail peeping out as the rats get to work-haunted my childhood. His bacon is saved by John Joiner the terrier and the pudding doesn't go to waste either it's boiled in a cloth, 'with currants in it to hide the smuts-but never has a much-loved dish seemed quite as sinister. And it put me off roly-poly for life. Which is a shame, because roly-poly is one of the stars of the British pudding constellation, itself a rare culinary art for which we are renowned the world over. 'Blessed be he that invented pudding, cried M. Misson, a jovial Frenchman, towards the end of the 17th century, 'for it is a manna that hits the palates of all sorts of people; a manna, better than that of the wilderness, because the people are never weary of it!' The food writer and polemicist P. Morton Shand was equally enamoured. 'As a nation we are rightly proud of our puddings,' he thundered, and are inclined to sneer at the French for the dearth of their achievements and the poverty of their invention in this sphere. For once, perhaps, our exultation and self-satisfaction are justified.'

Esta historia es de la edición February 15, 2023 de Country Life UK.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición February 15, 2023 de Country Life UK.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE COUNTRY LIFE UKVer todo
A little mite with a mighty heart
Country Life UK

A little mite with a mighty heart

Shy yet bold, furtive yet fearless and fond of nesting in your trousers, the tiny Jenny wren' has a lusty voice that matches its sense of adventure, observes Mark Cocker

time-read
5 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
The master builder
Country Life UK

The master builder

Harald Altmaier's photographs of floral tableaux, as colossal in effort as in scale, recall 17th-century Dutch still lifes, but the inspiration behind them is far wider, as Carla Passino finds.

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
The legacy
Country Life UK

The legacy

THE 'Carols for Choirs' series 'changed the whole sound of Christmas for everybody who sings,' according to the composer and choral conductor Sir John Rutter.

time-read
1 min  |
November 27, 2024
Tales as old as time
Country Life UK

Tales as old as time

By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth

time-read
2 minutos  |
November 13, 2024
Do the active farmer test
Country Life UK

Do the active farmer test

Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 13, 2024
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Country Life UK

Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin

Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts

time-read
2 minutos  |
November 13, 2024
SOS: save our wild salmon
Country Life UK

SOS: save our wild salmon

Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 13, 2024
Into the deep
Country Life UK

Into the deep

Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel

time-read
4 minutos  |
November 13, 2024
It's alive!
Country Life UK

It's alive!

Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters

time-read
4 minutos  |
November 13, 2024
There's orange gold in them thar fields
Country Life UK

There's orange gold in them thar fields

A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 13, 2024