A friend just said she had "spotted dick" for dessert tonight! What is it?

Spotted Dick is a traditional English pudding. It is a heavy suet sponge (usually cylindrical in shape) with raisins and other dried fruit (these are the spots).

Richard English

[This message was edited by Richard English on Tue Dec 24th, 2002 at 5:20.]

Is it "spotted" or "sotted"?

And is it really made from suet?

Apologies for the typo! Now corrected.

And yes, it is a suet-based pudding.

There is a recipe on http://www.compulink.co.uk/~ossystems/rfmbs/spotted_dick.html

Richard English

Another excerpt from "The Mother Tongue"

quote:

---

When you learn that muscatel in Italian means "wine with flies in it," you may conclude that the Italians are gastronomically out to lunch, so to speak, but really their names for foodstuffs are no more disgusting than our hot dogs or those old English favorites, toad-in-the-hole, spotted dick, and faggots in gravy.

---

YUMMMMMMMMMM!

Faggot, as an offensive term for a homosexual, does not have that meaning in the UK.

A faggot is rather like a large meatball made from offal. It was very popular in the North of England; less so in the South. Faggots in gravy is an excellent meal.

The abbreviation, "fag" again has different meaning in UK English.

Firstly it is a rather old-fashioned slang word for a cigarette.

It is also the term given to a younger pupil who is under the charge of an older one for whom he has to perfom various housekeeping type duties. Fagging is something that happens only in the most expensive boarding schools (our so-called "public" schools - the most exclusive and expensive private schools in the UK)

Richard English

Richard, you made this one sound delicious!

How about "toad-in-the-hole"? That one sounds interesting, as well.

Toad-in-the-hole is also a favourite.

It is simply batter-pudding (aka Yorkshire pudding) into which sausages have been inserted prior to its baking.

The reference is to the supposed visual similarity of the hidden, or part-hidden sausages to a "toad in a hole".

Richard English

Oh, Richard!

I'm just dying to know. Did you enjoy any of these artery hardening recipes over the holidays?

Actually yes. I had Toad in the Hole the day before yesterday.

Richard English