To be angry at this arrogant pudding prat!

[BigHouseLittleHouse]

Article on Guardian today by a snide journalist wondering if we should abandon traditional puddings.

AIBU to find this article very aggravating? A bad cook blaming his incompetency on the recipes. He lost me at jam roly-poly which if made well (using a high-fruit content home made jam) is a clever dessert - the sweetness compensated well by a creamy vanilla custard (similar to the perfect ratio of fat and sugar represented by eating a jam donut).

By the time I got to rice pudding I felt positively violent. Rice pudding can be absolutely luxurious (as cooked by my neighbour) or it can be comforting and delicate (as cooked by my nutmeg-loving mother). How dare this pudding prat award only 3.5 to the taste of rice pudding? All he has done is evidence his pathetic inability to use his cook’s instinct to make a good version of a timeless classic.

If I asked my 7 year old to make these puddings they’d taste awful. That doesn’t mean the pudding itself is bad - just that the cook lacks skill.

Link:
www.theguardian.com/food/2025/sep/23/steam-stodge-suet-endangered-british-puddings-are-any-worth-saving

Yep definitely gross. I don't mind squashes and have made the cake that uses courgettes. However, pumpkin pie is do claggy, I'm not a fan.

Oooh I love courgettes, forgot that's a squash 😅

But yes, pumpkin pie is the devil's diarrhoea.

They are all heavy & rather unpleasant - no matter how well they are cooked.

If Yorkshire pudding didn't fill you up before a meagre portion of meat, these puddings will dispel any lingering hunger pangs, but not in a good way.

This was such a delightful.thread to read as a foreigner in the UK. I need to attempt some of these puddings.
Pudding prat!😀

My mum used to make syllabub and ice cream pudding. The latter - probably a WI recipe - did not contain or taste like ice cream, it was some sort of set custard that was much nicer than blancmange.

Incidentally, stoggy puds are not just a Brit thing. They certainly have them in the US and continental Europe. Set custards with carbs and/or fruit in are quite French. Clafoutis - just fruit and batter based - is yum

I made an absolutely spectacular very posh rice pudding in the summer. It took ages, generated a ton of washing up, had a million calories a spoonful, and had everyone (including an American) swooning with pleasure. I’ve deliberately lost the recipe but if anyone wants it I might be able to find it again.

I'm quite fond of Tim Dowling. But this time he's gone too far 😱

I can confirm that tonight’s roly poly was indeed delicious.

My mum used to make an amazing pineapple upside down cake with a sugary pineapple glaze and glacé cherries exquisite!

@MyLimeGuide we had that last week. I always feel so sophisticated when I put the glacé cherries in.

True, but a friend had some in a cafe recently and I have seen it on sale in some bakeries.

Many many years ago I was backpacking round Morocco with my friend after uni and we ended up staying with a Moroccan family for a while . The mum of the family used to make the most heavenly rice pudding which we gorged ourselves on. It was honestly the best thing I’ve ever tasted ( and I don’t normally like rice pudding).
Never had anything like it since .

I mean bearing in mind it’s only a newspaper article and there’s no prospect of them actually being banned, seems a bit unnecessary to care about it.

Pudding Prat 😂

My dm used to make minced beef roll. It was lovely. Sort of doughy but crispy. Yum.

With boiled potatoes with loads of butter, peas and gravy.

My mum used to make something similar with sausage meat and herbs rolled up in the suet pastry. As you say - doughy and crispy!

I love Tim! He seems to be quite a good cook going by his columns, but surely this was a bit tongue in cheek and supposed to show how they'd turn out if an average cook made them. He did once poison his whole family with dodgy courgettes though.

Inspired by this thread I made rice pudding yesterday, just basic rice, sugar, vanilla essence and evaporated milk diluted 50/50(we have a surplus of tins of evaporated milk which I'm using up in baking and cooking)

Mine too. I think she pit tomato ketchup in it. Was one of my favourites as a kid, but I've no recipe.

He’s obviously never had a tin of Ambrosis! Food of the gods (hot or cold!)

Queen of puddings is perfectly named ! 😁 Yum.

Maybe Tim Dowling was just being ironic.Sorry that particular Cultural pose went out of fashion decades ago.

Just looked him up.
And this is the same "Get a life" Wimp Tim Darling,who used to write complete bollocks and trivia about his Darling sons non entity daily events and het paid for it

When the were growing up yonks ago.

This was when the Guardian was a well informed, readable newspaper

He sounds as though, he still really fancies himself and is now rapidly heading towards his sixties.

And hanging to his Guardian work for grim death and final salary pension Perhaps he will write about his grand kids.

Or his he coming to the end of the male menopause?

And hankering after something sweet to eat?

As for typical so called English. Puddings. I thought these working class comfort yummy foods. Had been hijacked, remodelled and been given credence and respect by M&S, Waitrose et al years ago at big prices.

All l can say Tim. Is that you couldn't knock the skin off a rice pudding as we say in the North.

Perhaps you could make us some of those world famous USA delicacies like Donuts? You know the ones that are filled chic a block with arrival, sweeteners and additives and god knows what else.

I rest my case.
🥯🥯🥯🥯

It’s fun to think he’ll probably read this whole thread. Whoever he is (I don’t read the Guardian).
Hello pudding twat 👋

I’ve seen it lots in traditional bakeries here, (Herts, Essex, Cambs) which makes perfect sense because it uses up leftover bread.
Made properly, it’s delicious but it’s definitely not as cheap as you night think, the best tecipes use eggs, butter, loads of dried fruit and ground spices plus brown sugar in addition to the stale bread soaked in full cream milk. Sprinkled with granulated sugar on top for a lovely crunch.

No, I’m with @Sliceofbattenberg, it’s an American looking at our native dishes and not getting them.

That said, I’d swerve most of the puddings he made too. Give me a gooseberry fool or a treacle tart and I’d be happy. But bread pudding, summer pudding, jam roll poly and the rest on his list, thank you but no.

To those of you who do enjoy them, crack on.