FOOD & DRINK
The Pudding Club
It was while I was visiting my aunt and uncle in Gloucestershire that I first heard of the Pudding Club. As we drove through Mickleton, a small, picturesque Cotswold village, my uncle pointed out the Three Ways House Hotel and told me that he’d recently been there to take part in the ‘Pudding Club’. Intrigued, I wanted to find out more.
It turns out the Pudding Club was thought up in 1985 by the then-owners Keith and Jean Turner, who felt that British puddings were disappearing and all that was offered after a meal was cheesecake and black for- est gateau. They wanted to bring back tra- ditional British puddings that were starting to fade in to history, puddings such as: spotted dick, treacle tart, summer pudding, college pudding and many more.
It
proved to be a huge success and now, 34 years later, the Three Ways Hotel hosts a club every Friday where guests can enjoy a main course before being offered a
choice of seven puddings (hot and cold). At the end of the evening, they then vote for the best pudding of the night.
Puddings date back to medieval times in Britain. Steamed puddings, bread puddings and rice puddings are all listed in one of
the earliest recipe books:The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Womanby Gervase Markham, which was first published in 1615. Back then, puddings often meant a dish in which meat and or sweet ingredients, often in liquid form, were encased and then steamed or boiled to set the con- tents, these were often savoury dishes such as: black pudding, haggis, steamed beef pudding or Yorkshire puddings; and it has only been in the past century (around 1950) that it came to mean any sweet dish at the end of the meal. I imagine it must be somewhat confusing for first time visitors to the United Kingdom to look at a menu where they could be served a black pudding at breakfast, a Yorkshire pudding for lunch and a sponge pudding for supper, and not have any idea what they may get on their plate.
Sweet puddings may be at peril once
“Puddings date back to medieval times in Britain, steamed puddings, bread puddings and rice puddings are all listed in one of the earliest recipe books: The English Huswife, first published in 1615.”
www.focus-info.org FOCUS The Magazine 13
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40
