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Puddings (pood'ings) are a thick, soft dessert, ranging from sweet to savory, with textures from soft to moderately hard. They typically containing flour or some other thickener (such as tapioca), milk, eggs, a flavoring, and sweetener.
There are four major types:
- boiled;
- baked;
- steamed; and,
- chilled.
The earliest puddings were of cereal, breadcrumbs and suet were stuffed in sausage skins, enclosed in a pastry and baked. Today, puddings serve as a main dish, such as corn pudding or as a dessert as in chocolate pudding, snacks or treats for special occasions. In Britain, it means the dessert course of a meal. Some puddings, such as bread and rice, are universally popular, but incorporate regional or cultural variations.
SARAH SAYS: Puddings are similar to custards. Flan is a widely adapted custard dessert. Pudding cakes and cheesecakes are basically baked egg custards.
