Why grown men love nursery puddings

You don’t have to be a male boarding school survivor to enjoy this recipe… but it helps

The longer I work in restaurants, the more certain truisms reveal themselves. One of them is that men don’t order pudding as often as women, but are more likely to have some cheese. There is one exception to this rule: men of a certain age are drawn to the “nursery” type of dish on the pudding menu. I could be more specific and say that men of a certain age who went to public school are known to go misty-eyed at the sight of a rice pudding, steamed treacle pudding or jam roly-poly – and let’s not even get started on spotted dick. Being abandoned by your parents at an early age seems to create this need for comfort.

As I didn’t go to such a school, it wasn’t until I became a chef that I was made aware of this phenomenon. But even as far back as 1924, my Oxford Companion to Food tells me, the writer May Byron observed that “roly-poly pudding appeals to the masculine appetite,” especially in “City restaurants”.

I have always called the dessert course in a restaurant “pudding” although I think this is due to an early exposure to the U and non-U rules of the epic snob Nancy Mitford. I have always felt “dessert” was a bit prissy, and belonged to the world of doilies. Don’t even mention the term “sweet”: I reflexively cringe at its use. Pudding sounds more down to earth – liable to fill you up in a nurturing way.

Although the suet puddings of the 17th century were mainly savoury, sweeter versions began to exist in the Victorian era. The roly-poly pudding first appears in the early-to-mid-19th century; it is steamed in a cloth, which led to it being given all sorts of strange and occasionally morbid names. “Dog in a basket”, “dead man’s arm” or even “dead baby” are among the nicknames that this innocuous dish once attracted. I can only think that the cloth in which the pudding is wrapped reminded them of a shroud.

As if this wasn’t gruesome enough, the roly-poly pudding also features in Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, first published as The Roly-Poly Pudding in 1908. I can still remember being fascinated as a child by the sinister picture of Samuel Whiskers and his wife, busily rolling out the captured Tom Kitten, wrapped in dough, to get him ready for the pan. Tom is rescued before he can be cooked – but not before generations of young children have been scared out of their wits just before bedtime.

I like to cook the pudding in muslin, but you must remember to soak and then squeeze the cloth before dusting with flour. This prevents the pudding from sticking when you try to release it. If this is too much trouble, then great results can be achieved by baking the pudding, as this results in a crust. It does lose the slightly wet effect of the steaming, which I think is important in the end result, but some prefer this more Swiss roll-like finish.

I must admit, I hadn’t tried a roly-poly pudding for years and I was expecting to be overwhelmed by stodge, but it was light. I think the marmalade in the recipe helps to give it a bittersweet finish, which prevents it becoming too cloying.

As cold January progresses, this is the kind of pudding that will bring comfort to all of us, wherever we went to school.

Slowly add the milk, stirring well, until you have a dough that is rollable (you may need more or less milk, depending on how much the flour absorbs).

Roll out the dough on a well-floured surface into a 30x20cm rectangle.

Spread the marmalade or jam evenly over the dough, leaving about a 1cm border around the edge and resisting the temptation to spread it too thickly.

Starting with one long edge, and using floured hands, roll up the dough into a thick sausage shape, like a large Swiss roll.

Rinse the piece of muslin in hot water and squeeze it dry. Spread the muslin out flat on a work surface and dust with flour.

Transfer the rolled dough on to the muslin and roll it up, keeping the muslin slightly loose as the roly poly will expand while it cooks. Tie the ends with some string.

Prepare a steamer or a fish kettle (I place an upturned plate in a large cast-iron pan and set a normal flat plate on top of that, to put the roll on, with a solid lid on the pan).

Add some water to the pan (it shouldn’t come up above the upper plate) and bring to a simmer. Put the roll on the upper plate and put the lid on.

Simmer for an hour and a half; the roly poly will have expanded and will be cooked through.

Allow to cool slightly before removing from the steamer, then untie it and place on a chopping board to slice. Serve slices with either custard or thick cream.