Spotted What?

While visiting the nearby town of Stony Stratford, I stopped in at the Cock Hotel (Now stop your giggling. Of course they mean rooster!) for a coffee. At least that's the animal on the picture outside.

                               The Cock Hotel in Stony Stratford                        Photo by Lynette Hill

Then I looked at their menu. It included a dish called Spotted Dick.  

 ???

Naturally I had to try it.

The staff helpfully explained that the dish is a steamed sponge cake, flavored with raisins and cinnamon and covered with a light vanilla sauce. I enjoyed every bite of the still warm pudding they produced.

Spotted Dick from Stony Stratford's Cock Hotel                                Photo by Lynette Hill

Traditional recipes include suet and currants. One variation, known as Spotted Dog, includes plums.

I recommend having one (the pudding, that is) with coffee for afternoon tea.

(For my American readers, pudding in British means dessert. As the Encyclopaedia Britannica explains, a British pudding can as easily be a cake as a custard. And by tea I mean the light meal generally served around 4 p.m., not the drink. Of course you knew that already.)

Food Fight:

The name has become embarrassing enough that in the early years of the 21^st century a branch of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service attempted to rename the treat 'Spotted Richard.'  The supermarket chain Tesco's considered following suit. This raised the ire of the Pudding Club, determined defenders of traditional British desserts. Eventually the purists prevailed and the tasty, raisin-filled pudding kept its name.

But Why Call it Dick?

The short answer is that no one really knows. That is, of course, a completely unsatisfying answer.  Wikipedia offers the theory that the name evolved over time from pudding to puddink to dick. Given the variety and creativity of British accents I suppose that's possible.  I find their second theory, which blames the Germans, less likely.



How Old is It?

While similar recipes have been around since at least the 1600s, the Oxford English Dictionary says the earliest documented reference is a recipe for "Plum Bolster, or Spotted Dick", in Alexis Soyer's The modern Housewife or ménagère (1849). You’ll be pleased to know that the book is still in print and it’s even available on Kindle.

Make Your Own

The Food Network offers this modern recipe for making Spotted Dick. Just remember to prick four times before baking to let the fairies out. At least, I think it's a modern recipe.

Come back tomorrow and I'll tell you another 'Cock and Bull story.'