Dessert disaster: is the great British pudding dying out?

English Heritage has "sounded the alarm", said The Guardian. The "good old British pudding" is "facing extinction". If nothing is done to "stem the tide", the traditional homemade pud simply won't exist in 50 years' time.

'Shift in family dynamics'

Only 2% of British households have a home-cooked pudding, such as apple pie or fruit crumble, every day, according to research carried out for English Heritage. While half of those born before 1970 said their parents made puddings several times a week, that was true for only 26% of those born in the 1970s. And the downward spiral has continued ever since, with more than a quarter of 18 to 24-year-olds saying their parents have never made them a hot pudding.

The decline in pudding popularity coincided with more women entering the workforce, causing "a shift in family dynamics", said the historic-buildings charity. Homemade puddings are now replaced by "easy" cold desserts: fresh fruit is the most widely consumed option, closely followed by ice cream.

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Interestingly, few people named these easier options as their favourite afters choice – and a good third of those surveyed said classic hot desserts, like crumbles and steamed puddings, were actually their favourite.

'Mater's apple crumble'

"Troubled" by the pudding plummet, English Heritage is coming to the rescue with a baking book "full of classic recipes", said The Times. It includes many puds that have "become lost to time", such as soul cakes and cabinet pudding. The charity is also incorporating traditional-pudding flavours into the ice creams sold at its cafes, to try to whet the appetite of the young for old-fashioned puds.

"I fear that it might be too little, too late," said Alexander Larman in The Spectator. If you whisper the names of some puddings to "an Englishman of a certain age", you can bring back "near-Proustian reveries about their childhood". But younger people are "more interested in WhatsApping artfully lit naked pictures of themselves to potential paramours or fighting strangers on X" than tasting the "delights of mater's apple crumble".

The "original purpose" of many puddings was to "provide as many calories as possible, as cheaply as possible", said The Telegraph, but that purpose has been "overtaken by fast food". The "sturdier" puddings "belong to a less sedentary era" and they "might lie heavy on the insides" of modern people who are "not in the habit of running up the ratlines".

But I think "desserts might be the UK's best cultural pillar" said Amy Glover on HuffPost UK. British puddings show that "cheap, effortless, chuck-together-and-go dishes can be extraordinarily delicious if done well". A crumble has "no real laws and demands little effort", bread-and-butter pudding "costs pennies" and "relies on leftovers" and, "for the love of Nigella", you can make fudge in a microwave, "so, I beseech you – do!"