Rediscovering Carrageenan Pudding and Other Lost British Recipes
Have you ever encountered carrageenan pudding? Food content creator Annie Mae Herring had not until recently.
"It was awful,"says the 33-year-old from Essex.
"It was a soggy welly, with, like, Fairy Liquid and a bit of salt."
This milk-based dessert, resembling blancmange in appearance, uses carrageen moss—a type of seaweed found along coastal regions—to create its gelatinous texture.
"Maybe I did it wrong, and I will absolutely throw my hands up in the air,"Herring admits, adding with humor that the dish
"may die a fiery death."
This pudding is among many traditional dishes Herring has been preparing and sharing with her followers as part of a social media series dedicated to endangered and forgotten recipes from the UK and Ireland.
Other recipes she has explored include the Staffordshire clanger—a half-sweet, half-savoury pasty she describes as
"wonderfully strange"; Brown Windsor soup, historically associated with Victorian royalty; and chocolate concrete, a nostalgic school-dinner classic she pairs with a bright green custard reminiscent of her own school days.
Herring has been producing food content for ten years, but this recent series has captivated her audience more than any previous work. Many viewers recall enjoying these dishes during their childhoods.
"Thanks for the trip down memory lane: we used to have this at primary school - it was my absolute favourite,"commented one follower on a video featuring Sussex pond pudding, a steamed suet pastry encasing a whole lemon.
"Each table of six children had a whole one. One child was the server of the day, who sliced it into portions. We had a large slice each with custard poured by the pourer of the day."
Another viewer responded to a video of Eve's pudding—a cake batter baked with apples—saying,
"I think this is the dessert my grandmother always made for Sunday lunch! But as she grew up in the Depression and never had cream for the table, the family served it with milk. Now I just don't know how you could eat it if not with a splash of milk on top."
Herring remarks that while she anticipated some nostalgia, the emotional responses from viewers have been
"overwhelming just how emotional people have been."
Exploring Regional British Recipes
Herring is not alone in her culinary explorations. Shannon McCarthy, a self-described "goth baker" from Barnsley, has been investigating old regional recipes from across the UK.
Her repertoire includes panackelty, a stew made with potatoes, onions, and corned beef; Staffordshire oatcakes, a type of yeasted pancake; and Lancashire hotpot, traditionally prepared with mutton or lamb. These dishes have also elicited strong emotional reactions from her followers.
"People love them so much, they can't believe that other people haven't heard of them,"McCarthy says.
Dr Neil Buttery, a chef and food historian, notes that these "hyper-regional" dishes are among those most at risk of disappearing.
Other endangered dishes include jugged hare and flummery—an oat-based fermented jelly linked historically to farmhouse production and poverty.
Some endangered dishes are more familiar by name but less so by preparation or regular consumption, such as spotted dick.
While some of these dishes appear on menus at high-end restaurants specializing in British cuisine, Buttery argues that the true measure of whether a dish is endangered lies in whether it is still regularly prepared at home.
Preserving Culinary Heritage
Herring expresses concern that some of these rarer recipes may soon vanish entirely.
"It's important we know that these recipes exist before they entirely disappear,"she says.
"They provide a snapshot of a different time."
However, not all old recipes merit preservation, according to chef and restaurant owner Anna Tobias. She champions traditional British desserts, many of which feature on the menu at her restaurant Café Deco and are popular with customers.
Nonetheless, Tobias believes some recipes should remain in the past.
"Ultimately, the recipe has to be good – there are some really awful ones,"she states, referencing unusual combinations found in cookbooks such as banana and herring or lamb and crab.
"Classic dishes are classic for a reason,"she continues.
"Because they're good. Because they've been tried and tested - and accepted."
Commercial Success of Classic Regional Dishes
One business capitalizing on a classic regional dish is La Rondine bakery in Bedford, which sells chocolate toothpaste, a former school-dinner staple. This sweet tart is filled with a chocolate paste made from cocoa and milk powders.
Carlo Garganese, who operates the bakery with his father Salvatori, believes the tarts' popularity—selling 1,000 weekly—stems from fond memories among those who ate them during school lunchtimes in Bedford.
"I think that's carried over into their adulthood,"he says.
Conversely, Matthew Botley, head of operations at Kentish Mayde, a company producing steamed savoury suet puddings, expresses concern that nostalgia alone may not sustain these traditional puddings in the long term.
While the puddings remain popular with older customers, younger generations tend not to purchase them.
"I think we've got a few years of it yet, but I can see a time when the people who are eating them are no longer around,"Botley explains.
The Role of Nostalgia in Culinary Preservation
Dr Buttery emphasizes that while nostalgia plays a significant role in preserving endangered dishes, it is essential to pass these recipes down to future generations.
"You've got to pass it down, so that the next generation below you, or even the next one down from there, can also feel nostalgic about it in 50 years time,"he says.
