# 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:** 6
**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, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/101 "2024-06-30T11:59:01Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > 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. Huh. I thought it was an alternate form of “frozen custard”, which is just a name for soft serve ice cream. But i didn’t know if I’d ever heard of “frozen pudding” prior to this thread. ---
**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, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/102 "2024-06-30T12:00:19Z")
The rice and chicken dish was sweet? What was the sweetener? ---
**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, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/103 "2024-06-30T12:44:00Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I thought it was an alternate form of “frozen custard”, which is just a name for soft serve ice cream. They’re _supposed_ to be a little different - frozen custard has egg yolks and soft serve ice cream has more air whipped into in. But whether it’s a noticeable difference is another story. ---
**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, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/104 "2024-06-30T12:55:32Z")
I thought that technically, frozen custard was a soft serve ice cream with egg yolk. But i also think a lot of people use the words interchangeably. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/105 "2024-06-30T13:45:59Z")
There’s also rennet pudding. Might more appropriately be called cheese. I heard of blancmange from Monty Python too. Someone told me what it was at the time. Probably this thread is the first I’ve heard of it again. ---
**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, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/106 "2024-06-30T14:58:16Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > rennet pudding. We always called that junket when I was a kid. I’ve never heard the term “rennet pudding”. > [@Mangetout](#): > > 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’. Well, you are certainly right that the original meaning was sausage, and by extension, bits of stuff all mashed together. So blood pudding, and puddingstone, and plum pudding are all pretty close to that. But it’s just as odd that it became a name for cakes and desserts in general as that it became a name specifically for a smooth, starch-thickened, sweetened milk dish. etymology is weird. 😉 ---
**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, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/107 "2024-06-30T15:27:09Z")
Sugar. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/108 "2024-06-30T15:40:36Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > 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. Ah, _boudin_. It never occurred to me to make a connection. There’s a couple famous sausages (for some values of famous – us foodies and Cajun cooking connosieurs know it) called boudin, after the French. There’s a few different varieties, with or without blood. ---
**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, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/109 "2024-06-30T15:45:04Z")
Oh wow, what was the source of the sugar? I think of sugar these days as coming from corn (modern), sugarcane, sugar beets, and maybe maple sap. But i hadn’t thought those crops were common in medieval Europe. ---
**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, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/110 "2024-06-30T15:57:18Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > what was the source of the sugar Sugarcane. By the 9th-10th centuries, it was being grown in Cyprus, Sicily and Al’andalus (Spain/Portugal). “Common” is relative. Sugar was not exactly rare, but it was expensive, being imported into Western Europe. So it was used in fairly small amounts by all but the wealthiest. ---
**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, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/111 "2024-06-30T16:01:48Z")
Thanks. For some reason i thought it was a new world plant. Ignorance fought. ---
**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, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/112 "2024-06-30T16:01:55Z")
Blancmange; French meaning “white eat”. Have some today. Junket with a capital J was a brand of rennet pudding, once sold as a mix in many flavors. You can still buy Junket brand rennet tablets. They also sell something called Danish Dessert, which looks like cheesecake on the package. But the Junket dessert was a powder that you cooked in milk and it made a custard-like glop, thanks to the digestive enzyme obtained from cow stomachs. ---
**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, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/113 "2024-06-30T16:08:22Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > For some reason i thought it was a new world plant. Probably because its cultivation _really_ boomed with the sugar-centric slave economy of [the Triangle Trade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_molasses_trade). But that was just the end-point of a slave-centric agriculture model that started with Cyprus and really picked up with Hispanic colonization in the Atlantic islands. All of that predates the discovery of the New World. ---
**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, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/114 "2024-06-30T16:11:01Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > Junket with a capital J was a brand of rennet pudding Whereas junket with a lower-case j was a generic medieval curd dish. ---
**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, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/115 "2024-06-30T16:17:25Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Probably because its cultivation _really_ boomed with the sugar-centric slave economy of [the Triangle Trade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_molasses_trade). No doubt. That’s certainly something that gets a lot of play in US history classes, at least up in New England, where i went to school. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/116 "2024-06-30T16:18:24Z")
There’s even a show tune: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/fgdRCtTaE5o/maxresdefault.jpg "1776: Molasses to Rum") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgdRCtTaE5o) ---
**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, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/117 "2024-06-30T16:26:30Z")
It still means that. [Wikipedia entry for junket](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junket_(dessert)) I’m amused that the article both calls it “jellied” and also that it’s a kind of pudding. Also, see the history section. It’s been a generic name for that dish for ages. The oldest reference given is 1460, and I’m pretty sure that predates the modern brand of rennet. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/118 "2024-06-30T16:27:31Z")
> [@eschrodinger](#): > > As for Yorkshire pudding, we just don’t have an American name for it. So it falls within the British English (BE) usage. Popovers are pretty much the same as Yorkshire pudding. ---
**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, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/119 "2024-06-30T16:30:34Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > “Yorkshire pudding” is a British dish like popovers or a Dutch baby, but made with beef tallow instead of butter. I distinguish Yorkshire pudding from popovers based on the fat. I thought Yorkshire pudding was made with beef tallow. Is it more general? ---
**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, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445/120 "2024-06-30T16:50:36Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > Junket with a capital J was a brand of rennet pudding, I should correct that to say that the packaged rennet custard marketed in the US was spelled with a stylish small j. [![](https://nuts.com/images/rackcdn/ed910ae2d60f0d25bcb8-80550f96b5feb12604f4f720bfefb46d.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/c63dc90e1fe89aa8-d22iAA7V-zoom.jpg) ](https://nuts.com/images/rackcdn/ed910ae2d60f0d25bcb8-80550f96b5feb12604f4f720bfefb46d.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/c63dc90e1fe89aa8-d22iAA7V-zoom.jpg) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-full-range-of-things-called-pudding-in-the-usa/1003445.md?page=7)