Pudding most often refers to a dessert, but it can also be a savory dish.
In the United States and Canada, pudding characteristically denotes a sweet milk-based dessert similar in consistency to egg-based custards, instant custards, or a mousse, though it may also refer to other types such as bread and rice pudding.
In the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries, pudding refers to rich, fairly homogeneous starch- or dairy-based desserts such as rice pudding and Christmas pudding. It is also used as a synonym for the dessert course. The word is also used for savory dishes such as Yorkshire pudding, black pudding, suet pudding and steak and kidney pudding.
The word pudding is believed to come from the French boudin, originally from the Latin botellus, meaning "small sausage," referring to encased meats used in Medieval European puddings.
Read more about Pudding: Baked, Steamed and Boiled Puddings, Creamy Puddings, Cultural References
Famous quotes containing the word pudding:
“... when the Spaniards persecuted heretics they may have been crude, but they were not being unreasonable or unpractical. They were at least wiser than the people of to-day who pretend that it does not matter what a man believes, as who should say that the flavour and digestibility of a pudding will have nothing to do with its ingredients.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“Hail, hail, plump paunch, O the founder of taste
For fresh meats, or powdered, or pickle, or paste;
Devourer of broiled, baked, roasted or sod,
And emptier of cups, be they even or odd;
All which have now made thee so wide i’ the waist
As scarce with no pudding thou art to be laced;
But eating and drinking until thou dost nod,
Thou break’st all thy girdles, and break’st forth a god.”
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637)
“That trunk of humors, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that
swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that
stuffed cloak-bag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with
the pudding in his belly.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)