I don’t remember pudding ever being a regular part of meals when I was a child. In fact I can still recall the excitement I felt when I was offered a pot of Ski yoghurt (black cherry, I believe) at a friend’s house, which suggests that, apart from the occasional apple crumble after Sunday lunch and lumpy custard at school, pudding was something of a treat. And as such, it was never more delicious than when it came in the form of leftovers, which my sisters and I would eat for breakfast, the morning after my parents had given a dinner party: brown bread ice cream and pears poached in red wine were particular favourites. All very 70s. My parents had friends over quite regularly, so we were not exactly deprived on the pudding-front, but it meant that, for me, pudding has never established itself as an essential part of weekday meals – unless we have friends over.
But for some reason the girls regard pudding as the natural full stop at the end of both lunch and supper. I don’t know how this has come about. Halfway through every meal, and sometimes at the start if they are particularly unhappy with what I have made, they will enquire about pudding. It is a means of assessing whether or not it’s worth their while struggling on.
Matilda is thirteen in June, and you would have thought that in all that time one of us might have accepted defeat on the pudding issue. But my children are eternal optimists, ever hopeful that a week’s supply of ice cream or moussey-spongy-custardy things will work their way onto the regular shopping list. I, for my part, am clearly a slow learner: I fail to factor pudding into any of my meal plans for the week ahead – that’s if I manage to plan at all. Pudding proper does happen from time to time, but more by accident than design – a slice of cake, say, that I’ve made as a tea time treat.
Fortunately, all three girls have an elastic understanding of pudding. Last week’s pudding selection included Shreddies and Rich Tea biscuits with a glass of milk. But they are all clear about one thing: fruit is not pudding. I find this strange, and frustrating, as all three love fruit. But apparently fruit is a snack not a pudding, and for one of them to eat a clementine at the end of a meal is a display of real, and rare, hunger.
Anyway, a couple of nights ago I was totally stuck. We were all out of cereal, we had no yoghurt, the freezer was almost empty, and the fruit bowl contained only blackened bananas and dried up clementines. I wasn’t too troubled – they’d just had a delicious roast chicken and had mopped up gravy with slabs of bread.
I was about to remind them of this, when I spotted a couple of pomegranates lurking, half-hidden, on the kitchen worktop. Now pomegranates are only occasional visitors to the kitchen, and certainly not part of the gently rotting still life that constitutes our fruit bowl, so, although undeniably fruit, pomegranates have novelty on their side, added to which they look beautiful and taste delicious. They passed the test.
My children also regard pudding as a fitting end to a meal, fortunately they are perfectly happy with an apple for pud. I make proper puddings at the weekend. Tom adores pomegranates and always requests one in his stocking.
Very sensible of Tom, so much nicer than a clementine or a satsuma. I think we’ll adopt pomegranates in stockings for next year too. The girls will be thrilled.
This post made me laugh – when they were small the children used to ask ‘What’s for pudding don’tsayfruit?’. Six times out of seven the answer was ‘Fruit’! That pomegranate looks delicious x
My oldest (4 1/2) has recently gotten into the habit of asking, “what’s for dessert?” about two bites into dinner. Fortunately, like your girls, mine are very flexible in their definition of dessert (as we Americans call it). Slices of red pepper make up one of their favorites. But I’m afraid that as they get older, their definition will become more fixed. So far, they still accept fruit. We’ll see how long it lasts. (Shreddies are also a huge favorite in our house!)
Yum! Another bunch of pudding devotees here, but in this house pudding can be, and often is, fruit
Glad it is not just my children who don’t regard fruit as pudding!
“part of the gently rotting still life that constitutes our fruit bowl”
Not just me then! I composted three clementines last week. I can’t recall pudding in my childhood very often other than on Sunday I think. We used to eat Pomegranates, seed by seed, with a darning needle…
Me too but a pin was what we used to pick out the glowing juicy jewels. Rather strange to think my mum bought pomegranates all those years ago especially since pudding was only on Sundays and was always a tin of sliced peaches and ideal milk.
Fruit is often part one of pudding in our house, followed by a yoghurt or if I’ve had one of ‘those’ days a sweet from the sweetie jar they filled with Halloween bounty. My nine year old adores to eat pomegranates in the bath! I think it came about as it took so long for her to eat each seed individually that it was the only way to get her in bed before midnight.
I like the fact Shreddies are a pudding but fruit isn’t! And, yes, I have that fruit bowl, too – gently rotting bananas aren’t appealing to anyone, sadly!
I enjoy fruit for our ‘pudding’ or dessert. While we didn’t have ‘dessert’ when I was a child, my mother was always baking so there were beautiful Hungarian yeast cakes to enjoy.
Pomegranates -best added to Prosecco for the grown- ups while the children eat custard creams.
Blimey that brought back memories of orange flannel curtains, navy formica units and condensation on the kitchen windows – right back to 1979! Ski yougurt was about exotic as weekday pudding got in our house too. Rice pud with jam on a Sunday and swiss roll in front ogf the Antiques Roadshow. Brilliant, thanks.
Same in our house as yours I think, usually pud is a biscuit or left over ice cream I might have run to at the weekend. We try to do what we call fruit chopping a couple of times a week. The boys get to choose two pieces of fruit each and are in charge of chopping it up (with kid’s knives) and making a fruit salad at the table and we all dip in. They get to bung in raisins and sultanas if they fancy too. They love it and is always a nice way to round off tea – especially if they’ve been hard work!
Thanks again for a fab post
Stephx
Absolutely right – fruit is not pudding! ( I think that should be a T-shirt logo, or a Berger & Wse cartoon…).
I’m afraid yoghurt is not pudding either.
Home made crumble and custard, pies, biscuits, cakes, tarts, rice pudding, trifle… these are all puddings. We always had pudding when I was little and so I have passed this on to my kids.
I love making puddings, it’s the main course I struggle with. Pudding is often all sorted and I’m scrabbling around thinking of something to cook for main course.
My daughter’s best friend loves coming to our house because she’s discovered that we have pudding every day (she only has it on Friday).
Pudding pudding pudding.
I’ve really enjoyed reading all your comments on what pudding is or isn’t in your house. And I’m very glad to see that it’s not just my children who reject fruit – though all three will eat it at the drop of a hat at any other time.
I love the idea of Karen’s children asking “what’sforpuddingdon’tsayfruit”, my two eldest daughters, Matilda and Bea say something similar most nights, only it’s “what’sforsupperdon’tsaypasta”. Do I have the only children who don’t like pasta?
D – hats off to you! pudding every night! How fantastic! Can I come round?
Thanks! I really liked your post. I remember my mum giving us Ski yoghurt. She thought it was the bees knees, but I was always secretly disappointed. It wasn’t really pudding.
I’m with your girls. I only cook pasta because everyone seems to love it so. I could happily manage without it for the rest of my life.
I don’t know exactly what is meant by pudding with Shreddies, yoghurt and fruit (is pudding just another word for dessert?), but my husband makes a beautiful bread pudding with day-old baguette, rum soaked raisins, eggs and milk and cream.
Hi there – yes pudding is the same as dessert, Shreddies are a breakfast cereal. Your husband’s pudding sounds delicious – what we would call a bread and butter pudding, but with an alcoholic twist.