Try reading what I said later. Had it been “it’s not pudding” I wouldn’t have said anything. But given the add on “it’s cake” I felt obliged to educate that it isn’t.
Apparently I am coming across as way more serious than intended on this. I love me some Christmas pudding. I hate the fact I miss out on the home made stuff when I am over here, and love my Mum for sending me over a gift box including a couple of Marks & Sparks luxury one person puddings and some small Christmas cakes too. It’s not home made, but it takes the edge of. Kind of like methadone for a heroin addict, or baseball for a cricket lover.
It’s not cake. One has Christmas cake at Christmas, and one has Christmas pudding at Christmas, and the two are different. If you heat up brandy and burn my Christmas cake, I’ll be miffed. But I apologize for making too big a deal out of this. My intent was not to disparage people. As I noted, I am cranky as hell right now, and I think that bled through.
I deal with the pudding-pudding distinction all the time - when I bring my (American) son to his (English) grandmothers, and she after every meal asks him if he wants pudding, I have to explain that she doesn’t mean Jello pots of chocolate flavored gunk, but instead means a general term for dessert.
I would, however, very much enjoy Christmas Pudding flavored pudding.
Sheesh. My London-based classmate, in a seperate discussion, said, “My American friend was confused because she didn’t realize Christmas pudding is actually a type of cake.” She said it, not me. You want to go argue with an English person living in the capital of England, go ahead, but I’m only repeating what I heard.
Yay, I can finally ask this without having to start a thread!
Okay, what we Yanks call pantyhose, Brits call tights. For us, tights are the legwear with the same construction as pantyhose, but thicker, heavier (although as thick as, say, long underwear or leggings), and usually with an eye-catching color or pattern. So what do the British call those? Or do both items get classified as “tights” the same way some Americans call pantyhose “stockings”? (Even though stockings are strictly the thigh-highs that usually require a garter belt, some people don’t know or care.)
Well, that’s the whole point, isn’t it? This is like saying haggis is pudding and nothing at all like sausage because there’s more than one way to define pudding: Technically correct, perhaps, but so unutterably unhelpful most people could successfully refrain from saying it.
Spain uses the Roman alphabet, but I didn’t hear anybody in Spain refer to a bra by number and cup size until last spring. I’ve always given two numbers: measurement under the boobs and over the nipples, in cm. And of the three stores where I went in search of new bras during the last spring, only one attendant in one of them talked in terms of band+cup, the rest talked in over/under. The bras have a whole slew of sizes, and they are actually in either band+cup or over+cup format, but people don’t use the cup.
My mom has bought me bras in Brazil on several occasions, and wierdly there’s only one measurement. (I’m a 44 - I don’t know what that means but I know I am one). Apparently women in Brazil only come in one proportion. Which is sort of the idea of Brazil you might get from the tourism ads, so maybe it’s all a marketing scheme.
Silenus, have you tasted one? Do I need to mail you one?
Yes, they are an American version of a steamed British pudding and food historians project that early settlers adapted their British recipes with what fruit they had access to in the states, a soft, mushy persimmon making a good substitute. It is dark and heady when steamed and makes for a very moist, rich pudding.
Persimmons? Blech. Other than choice of fruit, I like steamed puddings. Although I do admit I usually just make a Yorkshire pudding as opposed to more savory concoctions.
Okay, so you are one of those picky people who won’t even try something new based on a pre-supposed flavor component (even though it might very well taste remarkably different after it has been cooked).
You don’t know what you are missing if you aren’t at least willing to give it a try!!!
From my understanding, it is a combination that has to do with the sugar content in the fruit once it has been puréed and the texture.
Apples are too mealy. Peaches, pears, and apricots have too much water. Persimmons just seem to work.
Historically, I am also projecting that as a fall dessert, there are less available fruits with which to make desserts. It was a mid-west based dessert and going back to the early settlers, they worked with what they had which would have been persimmons.
I am also going to guess, based on the texture, that the persimmon purée binds better with the flour in the steaming process, although I am now considering an experiment to try it with different fruit and see if something else might work.
