Does anyone know where I can buy spotted dick in the US? Not the Heinz mix, but a the real thing already made.

I remember Allan Havey making fun of a tin of it on a segment on "Night After Night" years ago, and it supposedly came from a local grocery store. Now, as to whether you can find it outside New York or LA, I don't know.

The new fad in my area is worldly grocery stores. Trader Joe's, World Market, etc. I'm sure I could get some dick there

I know someone who is connected to the owners of Trader Joes somehow. Maybe I will ask if he can get me some dick.

I had a co-worker get me a can of Heinz Spotted Dick from the UK for my "Shelf of Weird Products" and he said it was tough to find so he wanted me to eat it. I told him I can't open the can so he got another. I ate it the other day, with authentic cane syrup from the UK (I forget the brand.) I sure hope the real dish is better than the canned variety. The syrup saved the day, and I was able to stall until he got the syrup. I guess he doesn't know we have cane syrup in the US as well...
The best part is the instructions for opening: "To prevent spurting, hold cloth over..."

I guess he doesn't know we have cane syrup in the US as well...

Perhaps he just didn't know what it's called in the US -- I'm assuming that this is the stuff called "golden syrup" in the UK, yes?

Peter

I'm assuming that this is the stuff called "golden syrup" in the UK

He referred to it as cane syrup. Maybe it's a perception thing and he thinks the stuff from home tastes better to him. He declined to try the spotted dick claiming he'd had enough at school in the UK...

You could always make it yourself, of course; it's not difficult.

http://www.be-ro.com/recipe/showrec.asp?rec=124

Don't pay any attention to any recipe you see on the net that uses margarine or butter instead of suet. It's got to be suet.

Peter

Suet - The hard fatty tissues around the kidneys of cattle and sheep, used in cooking and for making tallow.

OK, so that would be lard I'm guessing? I don't think I've ever seen suet in the super market.

If you don't pay attention to any recipe that uses butter or margarine, I fear you'd be ruling out about 70% of all recipes

Butter is my friend. My delicious, delicious friend

Suet [...] so that would be lard I'm guessing?

Lard, at least in the UK, refers to any pig fat, and isn't the same thing as suet at all.

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=117724f1.0112211849.2e1b4683%40posting.google.com

Beware of vegetarian imitation suet: http://www.britishsupermarket.com/shop9.htm (and nor should you be paying five bucks, ideally; it should be a dirt-cheap byproduct of the beef industry)

http://www.tripewriting.org/archives/2001/12/000038.html (if you have to make the suet from scratch then I guess it's suddenly not such an easy dish to make)

Peter

Butter is my friend. My delicious, delicious friend

There speaks a man who does not know suet...

Peter

More suet links I've just found.

http://www.aristotle.net/~asca/suet.htm "Suet is available, usually free, from the butcher at the supermarket", apparently. But you might have to fool him that you're going to make bird feed out of it...

http://nuthatch.birdnature.com/suet.html again fails to mention that it's good for feeding humans too.

Peter

Hmmm. I will get this together and make it some day. I don't have time this week to hunt down beef kidney fat. I would also have to devise a way to steam it. Would a rice cooker work?

I think you can steam the spotted dick in a covered pyrex bowl placed in a saucepan with a little water in the bottom. Simply put the lid on the saucepan and steam for the required time.

I would rather starve than have to order one of these in a crowded U.S. restaurant.

I think you can steam the spotted dick in a covered pyrex bowl placed in a saucepan with a little water in the bottom. Simply put the lid on the saucepan and steam for the required time.

With lots of water in the bottom. The pyrex bowl has to be floating, otherwise the bottom of the pudding will stick to it and burn. But for, ahem, best realism, spotted dick should be cylindrical rather than basin-shaped. Perhaps a big Chinese-style bamboo steamer?

As all the web pages I've found seem to imply that the use of suet is nearly unknown in the USA, there must be a business opportunity for the first company to market suet products successfully. A jam roly-poly, or a steak-and-kidney pudding, just isn't the same made with butter or margarine in the dough instead of suet. All you need is a suitably grandiose American-sounding name, like maybe First National Sueteria, and you, yes you robricc, could be the Mrs Fields of suet pastry. Once you've got your market used to jam roly-poly, spotted dick, and steak-and-kidney pudding, you can graduate them to the more advanced stuff such as Sussex Pond Pudding...

Peter

I would rather starve than have to order one of these in a crowded U.S. restaurant.

Well, first you'd have to find the restaurant with it on the menu, eh?

/me ...envisioning waitress at Chilis wearing "Ask About Our Drowned Baby!!" button

All you need is a suitably grandiose American-sounding name

Or one that doesn't make you giggle and/or embarrassed to order.
Spotted dick = Spotted Richard?

Perhaps at the next european meet (I will be coming) we could have a suet tasting event. Similar to wine tasting. If we don't like it, we can spit it out. But, I would imagine only the americans would have a problem with such things as steak-and-kidney pudding.

and you, yes you robricc, could be the Mrs Fields of suet pastry.

Of course, to be successful with selling suet in America, you must call it something else. People would immediately google "suet" and find out it's birdfood. The idea of eating kidney fat isn't that appealing either. We like a lot of buzzwords for our food since FoodTV has become such a hit. Perhaps "Naturally flavored buttery infused chutney salsa" would be good?

I'll keep you guys posted on how the Spotted Dick search/baking goes. I think I may have found a brit that will get it or cook it.

Or one that doesn't make you giggle and/or embarrassed to order.
Spotted dick = Spotted Richard?

Spotted Richard is good. But perhaps for added effect you could find a word that's widely used for "dick" in the UK but not the US? Todger? Dong?

The Oxford Companion to Food, which everyone should own IMO, suggests "Spotted dog" as the usual euphemism. (And there certainly is a dalmatian look to the finished product.)

I would imagine only the americans would have a problem with such things as steak-and-kidney pudding.

I can't decide whether the US term "variety meats" is more or less off-putting than the English one "offal".

Perhaps "Naturally flavored buttery infused chutney salsa" would be good?

How about "Storecupboard Shortening"? One useful property of suet is that it contains so much saturated fat that you don' t need to keep it in the fridge. (At least at UK temperatures -- Arizona etc. might be different...)

Peter

We know about dongs over here. Perhaps you remember the controversy surrounding the nomination of our Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas and the porn ``star'' involved: ``Long Dong Silver''

And the whole concept of trying to sell something intended to be this high in saturated fat to the American marketplace is laughable. It just won't work. You'd have to hide it, and I'm pretty sure that that wouldn't work in this case. I'm sure that you can find it in some specialty stores, though.

And the whole concept of trying to sell something intended to be this high in saturated fat to the American marketplace is laughable. It just won't work.

Yeah, I thought about mentioning that. But I think that's painting the marketplace too broadly. Sure, it won't sell to Californian fitness freaks, but something tells me standards of food faddiness vary from place to place in the US.

Peter

Even in the deep south, you don't see uber-fatty cooking so much as you did twenty years ago. Given, I live in a fairly urban area, but it's hard to find streak-of-lean and fatback anymore.

Than again, I still know of restaurants that serve that sort of stuff, plus calves' brains and other southern delicacies. No chitlins, as far as I know.

I lived not too far from you in Rocky Mount for 10 years, Bitt, and there's still plenty of that stuff around if you know where to look for it. I directly recall a place that proudly advertised chittlins and fatback on their sign. Not to mention all the "mom and pop" joints that serve southern pork barbecue and fried chicken to all the local good 'ol boys.

Of course then there's Norman, Oklahoma, which has an entire food category for donuts.


Oh how I want to go to Norman Oklahoma...

mmmmmmmmmm.... donuts...

tripod sucks!

They are plenty of places I know of that you can get chitlins, but calve brains? never heard of that, and neither of these were southern delicacies. Being from the deep south, I eat a lot of southern food, but stuff like that is just disgusting.

I used to live 60 minutes south of Norman, to understand the category for Donuts you have to realize how excited they were when the got their first Krispy Kreme Donut store. Some youth teachers in the church drove all the way to Norman for donuts that day before church and then all the way back in time for Sunday School.

Crap. Thanks for the save. I just found the image online and didn't know Tripod were such bastards.