In Britain, Pudding Can Mean the Whole Dessert Course
A pudding is a sweet dish, a savoury steamed dish, or in British usage dessert in general. Black pudding is a sausage.
Pudding is one of the most confusing words in British English. It can mean a specific steamed or baked dish, the dessert course as a whole, or something entirely savoury: black pudding is a blood sausage, and Yorkshire pudding is a batter served with roast beef. American English keeps it for a soft sweet custard-like dessert.
- A sweet dish. *Sticky toffee pudding.*
- The dessert course (British). *What is for pudding?*
- A savoury steamed dish. *Steak and kidney pudding.*
- A sausage. *Black pudding.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | pudding | A rich pudding. |
| Plural | puddings | Christmas puddings. |
| Related | dessert | After dessert. |
| Related | afters | What is for afters? |
| Related | sweet | A sweet trolley. |
How it is used in a sentence
- There is apple crumble for pudding.British: the dessert course.
- Yorkshire pudding is made from batter.Savoury, served with meat.
- The proof of the pudding is in the eating.The full proverb; the short version misleads.
British puddings worth knowing
- Christmas pudding — steamed, dark, made months ahead
- Yorkshire pudding — batter baked in hot fat
- Black pudding — blood sausage, usually fried
- Steak and kidney pudding — suet crust, steamed
- Bread and butter pudding — a way of using stale bread
From Old French *boudin*, a sausage, probably from Latin *botellus*, a small intestine. The savoury sausage sense is the older one, which is why black pudding is not an anomaly.
What does *the proof of the pudding is in the eating* mean?
That something is judged by results, not appearance. The abbreviated version, *the proof is in the pudding*, loses the sense.
Why is black pudding called a pudding?
Because the word originally meant a sausage. The sweet senses developed later and eventually took over.