{{short description|Traditional British dessert}} {{Infobox food | name = Spotted dick | image = SpottedDick.jpg | image_size = 300px | caption = | place_of_origin = United Kingdom | region = | type = Pudding | served = | main_ingredient = Suet, dried fruit, flour, sugar, milk, baking powder | variations = | calories = | other = | no_recipes = true | no_commons = true }}
'''Spotted dick''' is a traditional British steamed pudding, historically made with suet and dried fruit (usually currants or raisins) and often served with custard.
Non-traditional variants include recipes that replace suet with other fats (such as butter), or that include eggs to make something similar to a sponge pudding or cake.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-01-23 |title=Spotted Dick |url=https://britishfoodhistory.com/2014/01/23/spotted-dick/ |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=British Food: A History |language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415110613/https://britishfoodhistory.com/2014/01/23/spotted-dick/|archive-date=15 April 2021}}</ref>
==Etymology== ''Spotted'' is a reference to the dried fruit in the pudding (which resembles spots).<ref name=straightdope/> The word ''dick'' refers to pudding. In late 19th century Huddersfield, for instance, a glossary of local terms stated: "''Dick'', plain pudding. If with treacle sauce, treacle dick."<ref name="Ayto" /> This sense of ''dick'' may be related to the word ''dough''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Newman |first1=Kevin |title=Pond Puddings and Sussex Smokies: Sussex's Food and Drink |date=15 July 2021 |publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited |isbn=978-1-4456-9707-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Ic4EAAAQBAJ&q=spotted+dick&pg=PT5 |language=en}}</ref> In the variant name ''spotted dog'', ''dog'' is a variant form of ''dough''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ashley |first1=Leonard R. N. |title=Scoff Lore: An Introduction to British Words for Food and Drink |journal=Names |date=1968 |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=238–272 |doi=10.1179/nam.1968.16.3.238|doi-access=free }}</ref>
==History== thumb|Spotted dick and custard
The dish is first attested in Alexis Soyer's ''The Modern Housewife or, Ménagère'', published in 1849,<ref name="Partridge2003">{{cite book|author=Eric Partridge|title=The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JRuNMHNcu5cC&pg=PA5085|date=2003|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-79542-9|pages=5085–}}</ref> in which he described a recipe for "Plum Bolster, or Spotted Dick{{snd}}Roll out two pounds of paste{{nbsp}}[...] have some Smyrna raisins well washed".<ref name="Ayto1994">{{cite book|author=John Ayto|title=A Gourmet's Guide: Food and Drink from A to Z|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mxqbMkntnLMC|year=1994|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-280025-1}}</ref>
The name "spotted dog" first appeared in 1855, in C.M. Smith's "Working-men's Way in the World" where it was described as a "very marly species of plum-pudding". This name, along with "railway cake", is most common in Ireland where it is made more similar to a soda bread loaf with the addition of currants.<ref name="straightdope">{{Cite web |date=2002-08-27 |title=What's the origin of "spotted dick"? |url=https://www.straightdope.com/21343169/what-s-the-origin-of-spotted-dick |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=The Straight Dope |language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240420074426/https://www.straightdope.com/21343169/what-s-the-origin-of-spotted-dick|archive-date=20 April 2024}}</ref>
The ''Pall Mall Gazette'' reported in 1892 that "the Kilburn Sisters{{nbsp}}[...] daily satisfied hundreds of dockers with soup and Spotted Dick".<ref name="Ayto">{{cite book|last=Ayto|first=John|title=The Diner's Dictionary: Word Origins of Food and Drink|page=349|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0199640249|year=2012}}</ref>
==See also== * Clootie dumpling, a similar Scottish traditional pudding * Figgy duff, a bag pudding from Newfoundland * Poutchine au sac, Métis bag pudding from Western Canada * List of fruit dishes * List of steamed foods
==References== {{reflist|1}}
==Bibliography== {{commons category|Spotted dick}}
==External links== * [https://books.google.com/books?id=ljddAAAAcAAJ&dq=%22spotted+dick%22+%22soyer%22&pg=PA356 Alexis Soyer's original 1849 recipe for Spotted Dick]
{{Puddings}} {{English cuisine}}
{{portal bar|Food}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spotted Dick}} Category:British puddings Category:English cuisine Category:Custard desserts Category:Steamed foods Category:Raisin dishes