Whatever your opinion of English food, there’s no denying that it does have a delicious repertoire of proper puddings. Even the French had to admit that, with one French writer, François Maximilien Mission, even going so far as to say: “Blessed be he that invented pudding, for it is a manna that hits the palates of all sorts of people. . . Ah, what an excellent thing is an English pudding!”
In English homes, traditional puddings have always held sway – apple crumble, syrup sponge, Spotted Dick, jam roly-poly and many more – all with generous helpings of custard. But on restaurant menus, that was not always the case.
In the 1970s and 1980s it was all Black Forest gateau, strawberry cheesecake and crème caramel. Or tiddly little portions of nouvelle cuisine, with three raspberries, a squiggle of something and some artistically arranged bits of something else, and not a sponge pudding or jam roly-poly in sight. And that is why, in 1985, The Pudding Club came to be born.
The club was founded by the then owners of The Three Ways House Hotel in Gloucestershire in an attempt to revive the traditional English pudding on restaurant menus. It meets on one evening every week at the hotel where, after a light dinner, seven puddings are served.
Each one is announced by the Master of Ceremonies and carried ceremoniously into the dining room, to the accompaniment of loud cheers and applause from the appreciative diners.
The rules of the club are simple: you are only allowed to eat one helping of pudding at a time and you cannot have your next helping until you have finished your first.
At the end of the evening, a vote is taken to find the most popular pudding and who has, or has not, managed to eat a portion from each one.
The current record for the most helpings of pudding eaten by one diner at one sitting stands at 24.
Only the Brits could dream up something so silly, but silly or not, it manages to attract 60 diners each week from not only the surrounding areas, but from all over the country. The club has even had visitors from as far away as Japan and New Zealand.
Puddings that appear regularly on the menu include ginger syrup pudding, jam roly-poly, chocolate pudding, bread and butter pudding, Spotted Dick, Lord Randall’s Pudding (whoever he was) made with dried apricots and marmalade, and sticky date and toffee pudding.
I don’t think I could manage even two helpings of any of these, but it’s nice to have a proper pudding every once in a while, and these are four of my old-fashioned favourites.
The sticky date and toffee pudding has its own sauce, but the other three should only be served with a big jug of custard.