Pudding | Definition, Types, & Ingredients (2024)

FAQs

What are the different types of puddings? ›

Unless qualified, however, pudding usually means dessert and in the United Kingdom, pudding is used as a synonym for dessert. Puddings made for dessert can be boiled and steamed puddings, baked puddings, bread puddings, batter puddings, milk puddings or even jellies.

pudding, any of several foods whose common characteristic is a relatively soft, spongy, and thick texture. In the United States, puddings are nearly always sweet desserts of milk or fruit juice variously flavoured and thickened with cornstarch, arrowroot, flour, tapioca, rice, bread, or eggs.

American puddings are closer to what the Brits would call "custard." A British pudding is a dish, savory or sweet, that's cooked by being boiled or steamed in something: a dish, a piece of cloth, or even animal intestine.

Pudding Types - What is Pudding and Different Types. There are four major types and ways to prepare puddings: boiled, baked, steamed and chilled in the refrigerator until it gels.

In the US, what us Brits call a biscuit, Americans would call a cookie - whilst an American biscuit is something resembling a British scone… making a name like Biscuiteers seem rather confusing!

While most custard and pudding recipes both typically call for eggs, the main difference is that pudding uses a starch for thickening, whereas custard's thickening agent is the egg itself (or egg yolk, in most instances). Custard's texture also tends to be firmer than pudding.

Generally, when an American refers to pudding, he means what is called “blancmange” elsewhere. It's thickened with cornstarch. A generic recipe: 2 cups milk. ½ cup white sugar.

“Figgy pudding,” immortalized in the “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” carol, appeared in the written record by the 14th century. A mixture of sweet and savory ingredients, and not necessarily containing figs, it was bagged with flour and suet and cooked by steaming.

Traditional black pudding, which has been part of the Irish diet for generations, is a blend of meat, oatmeal or barley, herbs and spices and the quintessential fresh blood. In the past, pudding was often made at home immediately after an animal had been slaughtered and sold through the local butcher.

Is pudding healthy? ›

Although many other dairy products are significantly better sources of calcium than puddings, the human body obtains this biological element crucial for the organism from these desserts as well. Milk-based puddings are also essential sources of vitamins D and B₂.

A cookie (American English) or biscuit (British English) is a baked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat, and sweet.

Zucchini. If you want some summer squash during a U.K. visit, keep an eye out for “courgette” instead of zucchini. The name also lends itself well to British “courgetti”—courgette spaghettie—or as Americans say, “zoodles.” Here's why Americans and Brits don't have the same accent.

In British English, crackers are sometimes called water biscuits, or savoury biscuits.

Clafoutis

A clafoutis is a French dessert made with a thick, custard-like batter that's poured over fruit and baked. The clafoutis turns into an airy, pudding-like texture and is then dusted with powdered sugar and often served with cream.

A pudding usually is a dish of more homely or rustic. A dessert is lighter and more sophisticated, such as chocolate mousse. However, the word Dessert is rarely used by the British upper class. Some fine restaurants and private clubs would use Pudding to refer to the sweet course.