# The full range of things called 'pudding' in the USA **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2024, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445 "2024-06-28T14:00:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2024, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/81 "2024-06-29T19:46:01Z")
If I ordered something on a restaurant menu called chocolate pudding, absent any further description, I would be expecting something like an individual hot chocolate cake with a gooey centre, or maybe some fancy sort of chocolate parfait, not just cold chocolate custard - that would be chocolate custard, or chocolate blancmange. Edit: It may be that the USA definition of ‘pudding’ is beginning to filter into our retail space - I note that a few chilled read-made custard pots are starting to use the term ‘pudding’ (this must literally have happened in the last year, as I have been watching) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2024, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/82 "2024-06-29T19:50:51Z")
I guess i saw the name, “blancmange” (which isn’t a food name I’m familiar with) and assumed it was white or pale in color. I understand that when you say “pudding” in the UK you are describing something that is probably a dessert and almost certainly isn’t what i would call pudding. 😉 But I’m surprised that when you describe things that you expect are like the US pudding they all sound vanilla. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2024, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/83 "2024-06-29T19:53:36Z")
That’s just the context I have most often encountered - if I make vanilla custard in a video, I get confused Americans trying to tell me it’s not custard, it’s pudding. This is what ‘chocolate pudding’ would be most likely to mean here: [https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/314843081](https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/314843081) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2024, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/84 "2024-06-29T23:07:26Z")
I was an adult before I learned that pudding could refer to anything other than the gelatinous chocolate flavored dessert hawked by swell guy Bill Cosby and best eaten after a delectable skin had formed on top. Then I was offered black pudding by my English girlfriend (and future wife). I’ve been traumatized ever since. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2024, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/85 "2024-06-29T23:55:03Z")
The first time I ever heard the word “blancmange” was in the Monty Python scifi skit, when I was in college. I was not familiar with either the word or the food it refers to, so the whole last part of the skit was pretty baffling to me. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/86 "2024-06-30T00:34:14Z")
I’d probably call that a chocolate cake, or something with the word cake in it. I notice the text says “sponge”, which I’d probably translate into “cake”. And of course there is nothing pudding-like about that dish at all, in American parlance. I just googled blancmange, and i think it’s a dish i don’t have a name for. It sounds like it’s often thickened with gelatin or carrageenan, so that make it not a proper pudding. I’d probably describe it by its primary flavors and say it was a molded dessert. But it’s basically an unfamiliar thing to me. (Unlike your chocolate pudding, which is familiar if not a standard dessert, and clearly a kind of cake.) ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/87 "2024-06-30T01:03:46Z")
I think blancmange seems similar to panna cotta , but I don’t really have a name for that sort of dessert. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/88 "2024-06-30T01:15:23Z")
Well I checked and none of y’all have mentioned pudding stone > **[Puddingstones](https://www.visitdrummondisland.com/puddingstones.html)** > > Home  \>  Points of Interest  \>  Puddingstones ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/89 "2024-06-30T01:41:58Z")
See? That rock looks like the inside of a sausage. How did blood sausage and lard sausage end up getting called “puddings”? Even in England, those can’t possibly be considered desserts. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/90 "2024-06-30T04:30:08Z")
I think blancmange is thickened with cornstarch. We’re quite partial to tapioca pudding, commonly called just “tapioca.” I don’t recall ever seeing chocolate tapioca. You could probably add cocoa powder to tapioca, but why bother when typical tapioca is so good? ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/91 "2024-06-30T04:35:04Z")
My husband makes chocolate tapioca pudding sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/92 "2024-06-30T05:11:05Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Most Americans will also know rice pudding, bread pudding, and plum pudding, though plum pudding is considered very British, Bob and I made plum pudding (or was it figgy?) one year. It’s basically fruitcake, only steamed in a cloth bag rather than baked. Which is probably about as close as you’ll get to the [original meaning](https://www.etymonline.com/word/pudding#:~:text=1300%2C%20%22a%20kind%20of%20sausage,lump%2C%20pudding%2C%22%20Low%20German) Although I still want to think that Brits call anything a pudding if you throw it against a wall and it goes “pud” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/93 "2024-06-30T05:46:04Z")
Sausage was the original ‘pudding’ - the word is a corruption of _boudin_ - the Anglo-Norman word for a sausage in natural casing, stuffed with blood and/or offal and boiled. The real question is how did jellified flavoured milk end up getting called ‘puddings’. > **[Why 'pudding' refers to sausages and desserts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgxclUnQI8A%5C)** > > Thanks to 80,000 Hours for sponsoring this episode! Start planning a career that is meaningful, fulfilling, and helps solve the world’s most pressing problem... ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/94 "2024-06-30T05:59:06Z")
It’s interesting that blancmange now refers to a pudding when it started out as a chicken and rice dish. I mean, I know how it happened, but it is interesting nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/95 "2024-06-30T07:08:48Z")
Seems like it all originates from a notion that convalescent food should be pale and bland ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/96 "2024-06-30T07:11:12Z")
Indian pudding is mostly a northeast thing, I think. It is scalded milk with a surprisingly small amount of cornmeal thrown in it, flavored with molasses and some vanilla, and baked in a slow oven for, like, forever. It’s brown and dense and grainy - I make a batch every Fall; very much a seasonal thing. Best eaten warm with vanilla ice cream on top. Frozen pudding is an ice cream flavor, now getting hard to find, and only in ice cream parlors. It has chunks of candied fruit in it. I also recall it as having an alcoholic tinge to it, like bourbon, but last time I found it that was missing. Of course it has no pudding content by anyone’s definition. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/97 "2024-06-30T07:48:23Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Seems like it all originates from a notion that convalescent food should be pale and bland Blancmange, in its Persian origins, was that way before it became convalescent food in the West. Although it isn’t what i’d call ‘bland’ - it was quite sweet. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/98 "2024-06-30T08:25:15Z")
Sure, although that was before it was blancmange ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/99 "2024-06-30T11:05:30Z")
No, medieval blancmange was also sweet. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/100 "2024-06-30T11:10:57Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > The first time I ever heard the word “blancmange” was in the Monty Python scifi skit, when I was in college. Me, too. And I never would have guessed that spelling, so I was never able to look it up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445.md?page=6)