How come Christmas pudding doesn't normally have figs or plums in it despite also being known as figgy or plum pudding?

What is the etymology of the word "pudding"? Don't Americans have something called dessert?

I'm hopeless at cooking puddings, and generally fall back on stewed dried fruit. Well, I like it. So a New Year's resolution for me might be to learn to cook one new pudding per week. OK, a fortnight then.

Dessert is anything sweet eaten after dinner(supper). That isn't the correct definition for "pudding", is it? Pudding here is a variety of dessert, similar to custard but not set with eggs, rather with flour or agar-agar or something like that.

A figgy pudding was the precursor to what we know know as 'Christmas pudding' and did indeed have lots of figs in it as well as dried dates, apples and the usual suet and dried sultantas, currants etc. I've made a few and they are even more delicious. It also contains prunes, which are of course dried plums, so maybe that's the origin of the name.

Puddings in the UK tend to be firm sometimes almost stodgy articles, but there are delights like Sticky Toffee Pudding, a cake like confection made with dates, Bakewell Pudding (sometimes known as Bakewell Tart) which consists of an almond flavoured sponge in a pastry case with a layer of jam under the sponge. Bread and butter pudding, a delight made from bread, dried fruit, and all set in a light egg and milk custard. This list excludes the savory puddings, like pease pudding (disgusting - don't even go there), black or blood pudding, and Yorkshire pudding which is eaten hot with meat and gravy as a savory, or cold with jam as a pudding.

Does anyone actually eat cold Yorkshire pudding with jam?

Does the making of figgy pudding date back to mediaeval times when the Crusaders might have brought back exotic new products from the Holy Lands, such as dates and figs? Just speculating.

I hope the US contingent are going to regale us with tales of sweet Southern confections.

My grandma always made pineapple upside-down cake. Pecan pie is probably the best-known southern dessert. I guess figgy-pudding is called 'fruit-cake' here. Supposedly some of them can be eaten after an untold number of years.

No. Figgy pudding and fruitcake are not at all the same thing. Pudding in America is what the English call blancmange.

In answer to your question deeds1; no, most Americans do not eat puddings in the English (or British) sense of the word. With the exception of people who are in touch with their family's eating traditions (like myself) and of course providing that they are of English descent; most Americans do not know what puddings are. I eat them a lot, and any other people who are Anglo-American might too; but since we are such a melting pot here; you will find that they eat the sweets and puddings (in the English definition of the word) of the nation of their family origin. But my family is English, so no surprise that I enjoy them regularly.

"Pudding in America is what the English call blancmange."says Hopflower.

A bit like flan in Latin America being what the English call creme caramel. (Or should that be French?)

Creme caramel is what used to be called Egg Custard, with a bit of caramel sauce added.

You two are too right! Lol!