SPOTTED DOG!!!!!!!!!

Jess and I have finally made Spotted Dog pudding!!!! It turned out quite nicely, "brown and appetising," as the authors of Lobscouse and Spotted Dog say.

We adapted the recipe a bit...added raisins instead of currants, boiled it in a cloth instead of a pudding basin, etc. In spite of our messing around with it and our uncertainty regarding the results of said "messing around", it turned out just fine!! Smelled wonderful and tasted pretty good too, especially with the custard sauce we made to go with it. Yummy!

Note: I have had small slices of it several times this week for brekkie, and, well, I must admit that though I like it very much, if I have one more slice of it at this point I will probably chunder. Very violently.

Back on track...Spotted Dog is quite solid indeed; I think it should be one of those foods that hikers carry and eat for energy. Though I am loath to use the phrase, Spotted Dog is one of those foods that really sticks to your ribs. A small-fist-sized chunk of it could sustain one for a week, I harbour no doubt whatsoever.

Making it and then eating it helped me better understand the world of Jack Aubrey, that's for sure. I remember reading in one of the O'Brian novels that a little midshipman was running about the ship carrying a "slice of cold plum-duff"; at the time I wondered how anyone could possibly carry a "slice" of pudding, but now I know that classic British pudding is not, per se, actual pudding as we know it. Modern pudding quakes and slides around and is generally very soft and creamy. But Spotted Dog? Not so much. ;)

I feel very...what's the word? Sophisticated? No, upon consideration, I shall be forced to admit that suet-grating does not lend sophistication to one's life. Suave? No. Worldly-wise? Never in life. Hmmm, I can't think of the word I want...oh well, it don't signify.

Wait, I have it! Cosmopolitan! That is just the thing.

Now that I have that cleared up, what I really wonder is...what would Jack think of our Spotted Dog? Would he have pronounced it delicious or atrocious?

Hmmm, that rhymes. Sort of.

OK, I'll stop, I'll stop!! :)