Like shifts in the dessert

THE OLD-SCHOOL TREAT JAM ROLY-POLY IS MAKING A COMEBACK BUT ITS ORIGINS WERE ANYTHING BUT SWEET

What is a pudding really? According to us Aussies, it’s simple: a pudding is a dessert. But ask the Brits, and you may receive an entirely different response.

Puddings in Britain ranged in type. The purist pudding was boiled or steamed in a basin or cloth (or a piece of intestine if you have it handy!), while the more contemporary iterations were baked in an oven, and were often much sweeter in flavour than their savoury ancestors. Jam roly-poly was born from the former, continuing the very English tradition of boiling and steaming. It arrived on the scene in the mid-19th century thanks to Eliza Acton, who documented the making of a marmalade and mincemeat rolypoly in her book, Modern Cookery.

If you google “Victorian-era puddings”, you’ll find a bevy of desserts filled with strange ingredients unlike the common jelly and custard we have come to love. One such ingredient was suet – the hard fat found in mutton or beef, located in the loins and kidneys. It was the ingredient du jour, commonly used in desserts during the 1900s.

Suet is probably one of the reasons roly poly was known by the moniker ‘dead man’s arm’. (The other reason being that the suety sponge and red coils of jam were steamed in a shirt sleeve and resembled a cut and bloody limb. Totally understandable rationale.)

From then, jam roly-poly underwent an evolution. By the midcentury, it became all the rage on school dinner menus. It was even bestowed with the coveted “that’s a proper old-school dessert” title. By the end of the 50s, it was drenched in custard and rocketed up the nostalgia stakes for anyone who can still remember it.

Today, jam roly-poly is anything but a dead man’s limb. Instead, it’s a delicious pudding served when one needs something comforting, or a retro dessert served at soirees when you want to relive the memories.