The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
pudding
Early writers on cookery class puddings and dumplings together. The earliest puddings were boiled in a bag or cloth. Later they were placed in a buttered bowl, covered with a cloth, and steamed. The baked or chilled puddings evolved even later. Puddings are classed as those served with meat, such as Yorkshire pudding (batter baked under the meat or in the drippings), or which form the meat course, such as Sussex pudding (a large dumpling filled with meat instead of fruit), and those served as a sweet or dessert, such as almond, cabinet, and suet puddings, plum or Christmas pudding, and Indian pudding, as well as puddings made with milk, eggs, rice, sago, tapioca, arrowroot, cornstarch, bread crumbs, and fruit. Custards are included by some writers, and jellied fruits by others. An early use of the word, as in black pudding or white pudding, referred to forms of sausage.
