Suet pudding
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A Suet pudding is a traditional food containing suet. Many variations are strongly associated with British cuisine. Recipes vary greatly and can be desserts or savoury courses. They are typically boiled or steamed though some baked variations and recipes adapted for microwave ovens exist.
Examples include Spotted dick, Christmas pudding, Treacle pudding, Clootie, Jam Roly-Poly and many other flavour variations. Savoury versions include Steak and kidney pudding.
The Paignton pudding was also a variation of suet pudding.
[edit] History
See main article Christmas pudding.
The suet pudding is of great antiquity. The origins of the Christmas pudding, for example, can be traced back to the 1420s, to two sources. It emerged not as dessert, but as a way of preserving meat at the end of the season. The ancestor of the suet pudding, however, was the pottage, a meat and vegetable concoction originating in Roman times. This was prepared in a large cauldron, the ingredients being slow cooked, with dried fruits, sugar and spices added. In the 15th century, Plum pottage was a sloppy mix of meat, vegetables and fruit served at the beginning of a meal.
