Foods of England - Rag Pudding

Rag Pudding

Pies and Pastries
Lancashire

Minced meat, often including offal, folded into a very thin suet pastry pasty, usually of rectangular form. Steamed wrapped inside a cloth rag. The pastry is very much thinner than usual in steamed puddings, hence the need for the rag. Modern commercial versions use a plastic film. The dish has come to be particularly associated with the town of Oldham.

A form of Steak Pudding. Compare with Blanket Pudding

Rag Pudding with gravy, chips and mushy peas
Image: http://reluctanthousedad.com

'Hudibras' by Samuel Butler is a long mock-epic poem, published in 1662 after the English Civil War, in which he makes fun of the silly Puritans. We're not quite sure if he's praising Rag Pudding or not with these lines:

The high-shoe lords of Cromwell's making
Were not for dainties, wasting, baking;
The chiefest food they found most good in
Was rusty bacon and rag pudding

A recent innovation - fruit Rag Puddings from ragpuddings.co.uk
Image: Alex Bray and Rahul Khubchandani

See: Oldham Brewis

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