Spotted dick is a traditional British baked pudding made with flour, currants, brown sugar, rum, and suet. It is often served with a hard sauce or vanilla custard and is cooked in a tin surrounded by a water bath. The name has caused some controversy and has been changed in some places to “Richard Spotted” or “Dog Spotted.”
The spotted dick is a baked pudding with primary ingredients of flour, currants, brown sugar, rum and suet. Suet is traditionally made from raw beef fat, although vegetarians can take heart as suet can also be made from a combination of vegetable fats. Most often, however, the suet in this dish is of the non-vegetarian variety. Sweet spices, such as cinnamon and nutmeg, have been added to most recipes for this dessert.
Spotted cock tends to be rounded or oblong resembling a plum pudding or small loaf of bread. The outer layer is often described as translucent or gel-like. The pudding is almost always served in slices and may be accompanied by a hard sauce, consisting of butter, powdered sugar and rum or brandy, or a vanilla custard poured all over the pudding before serving.
Like most baked puddings, spotted cock is normally cooked in a tin, which is surrounded by a water bath. The result is very moist and has a texture similar to bread or cakey. In most cases, the pudding is not presented the way plum pudding is, being briefly set on fire to eliminate its alcohol content and add a stunning finish to its presentation.
Spotted cock may have been a popular dessert item on ships; in fact, it may have been one of the few dessert items offered on ships with tiny galleys before the invention of steam and gasoline engines. It is mentioned in the historical fiction of Patrick O’Brien’s novels concerning Captain Jack Aubrey, a ship’s master in the early 19th century.
Some concern about the name stained dick has been expressed due to the term’s use as a dirty word. In some places it can be seen that he is offered as Richard Spotted or Dog Spotted.
In fact, in the 1990s, several hospitals in Britain decided to change the name of the spotted prick to single out Richard so patients wouldn’t be embarrassed about ordering pudding. However, the name was changed in 2002, as few seemed embarrassed using the original name and often did not recognize what Richard might have been.
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