Mary Norwak - English Puddings: Sweet & Savoury

Domestic food is wholesome, though tis homely,

And foreign dainties poisonous, though tasteful.

Sir Walter Scott

When the subject of this book was suggested to me, I felt that the term English might be restrictive. How could there be enough to fill a book on one type of dish from just one small country? Little did I guess that I would embark on research that could fill many books and would prove to be a kind of culinary detective story.

English cooking has never been carefully structured like that of France, where dishes are carefully recorded and each permissible variation noted. There simply seems to be no right way to cook in England, and any suggestion of the one-and-only recipe for a favourite or regional dish will always be countered by dozens of equally correct versions. The English have always been sturdy individualists with a loathing for rigid rules, and their cooks have never worried about adding a bit of this and that to any recipe. In both printed and handwritten recipe books there has been a long tradition of footnotes indicating that the reader may do as she pleases when judging texture or colour, or adding flavouring or garnishing. The important thing in the English kitchen has been to make the best of whatever is available, and adaptation has been the secret of survival. When new ingredients were imported, they were simply added to favourite old dishes; when times were hard, substitutions were made for expensive ingredients, so that bread replaced cake, or milk replaced cream, and new dishes evolved.

English recipes have therefore never been static, but have changed subtly in the past eight hundred years, popular dishes often merging together or being influenced by foreign fashions introduced by continental cooks employed in great houses, or by the mixture of French, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and German kings and queens who ruled the land. Dishes have also moved up and down the social scale, with medieval court favourites being adapted to everyday use, rustic country dishes being improved for the gentry, and grand recipes imitated by the aspiring lower classes. Further richness has been added by the regional variations, which originally depended on local agriculture, but were often shared with neighbouring counties or given to relatives on marriage, and then became adapted to new local conditions.

All these threads have woven together into a fascinating story, for almost every dish has a small part in English history. For those who wonder why anyone has bothered to tell the story of puddings, I can do no better than quote Thackeray: All people who have natural, healthy appetites, love sweets; all children, all women, all Eastern people, whose tastes are not corrupted by gluttony and strong drink.

My particular thanks are due to Jane Grigson for suggesting the original idea, and to Paula Shea for being an enthusiastic editor. Carolyn Newman has been a tolerant and efficient typist, and kept control of my ever-growing collection of cookery books and bulging files. In preparing this manuscript I have consulted such authorities as Hannah Glasse, Eliza Acton and numerous other cookery writers of bygone years for guidelines on the dating and development of recipes, and, of course, the magnificent work of C. Anne Wilson Food and Drink in Britain (1973). In particular, I must record my most grateful thanks to those ordinary housewives who carefully wrote down their favourite family recipes over the centuries in the many beautiful books that I am now happy to own, and which have given me the key to what the English people really enjoyed eating.