Spotted dick
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Spotted dick is a traditional British steamed pudding, historically made with suet and dried fruit (usually currants or raisins) and often served with custard.
Non-traditional variants include recipes that replace suet with other fats (such as butter), or that include eggs to make something similar to a sponge pudding or cake.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
EtymologyEdit
Spotted is a reference to the dried fruit in the pudding (which resembles spots).<ref name=straightdope/> The word dick refers to pudding. In late 19th century Huddersfield, for instance, a glossary of local terms stated: "Dick, plain pudding. If with treacle sauce, treacle dick."<ref name="Ayto" /> This sense of dick may be related to the word dough.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In the variant name spotted dog, dog is a variant form of dough.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
HistoryEdit
The dish is first attested in Alexis Soyer's The Modern Housewife or, Ménagère, published in 1849,<ref name="Partridge2003">Template:Cite book</ref> in which he described a recipe for "Plum Bolster, or Spotted DickTemplate:SndRoll out two pounds of pasteTemplate:Nbsp[...] have some Smyrna raisins well washed".<ref name="Ayto1994">Template:Cite book</ref>
The name "spotted dog" first appeared in 1855, in C.M. Smith's "Working-men's Way in the World" where it was described as a "very marly species of plum-pudding". This name, along with "railway cake", is most common in Ireland where it is made more similar to a soda bread loaf with the addition of currants.<ref name=straightdope>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The Pall Mall Gazette reported in 1892 that "the Kilburn SistersTemplate:Nbsp[...] daily satisfied hundreds of dockers with soup and Spotted Dick".<ref name="Ayto">Template:Cite book</ref>
The name has long been a source of amusement and double entendres; reportedly restaurant staff in the Houses of Parliament decided to rename it "Spotted Richard" so it was "less likely to cause a stir".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Clootie dumpling, a similar Scottish Traditional Pudding
- Figgy duff, a bag pudding from Newfoundland
- Poutchine au sac, Métis bag pudding from Western Canada
- List of fruit dishes
- List of steamed foods