This question was submitted by none other than video poker luminary Bob Dancer, whose weekly column appears every Tuesday on our site, and who is generally more likely to be answering a QoD than submitting one, so we’re more than happy to tackle his question. We're only sorry that we found out too late that Tuesday was, apparently, officially "Penis Day", which would seem to have been the most appropriate date on which to address this one :-)
Spotted Dick is a steamed suet (that's beef fat) pudding from England, the first record of which dates back to around 1850, when it appeared in The Modern Housewife cookbook by French transplant Alexis Soyer. The book includes a recipe for "Plum Bolster or Spotted Dick."
The "spotted" part of the name stems obviously from the inclusion in the dough of currants and/or raisins, which look like little black spots. The origins of the rest of the name remain shrouded in mystery, however, with theories that "dick" is a corrupted abbreviation of "pudding," or of "dough," but no one knows for sure. The pudding is also traditionally cylindrical in shape, so some people have posited a phallic explanation for the name, but that seems far less likely, although that word was being used in its current slang form prior to the pudding's existence. There's also a variation of the dessert that uses plums instead of currants and is called "Spotted Dog."
The addition to the name on the Queen Vic's menu noted by Bob is, of course, a joking reference to Queen Victoria's beloved husband Prince Albert (who is erroneously credited with pioneering the male genital piercing style that bares his name today). The Queen Victoria or Queen Vic is a common name for English pubs, the most famous of which is the centerpiece for the long-running BBC soap opera "Eastenders."
Anyway, we digress, so back to the pudding... In addition to the suet and dried fruit, the main ingredients are flour, dark brown sugar, lemon zest, salt, and milk. You combine them all into a soft, elastic dough, roll it, then wrap it in a damp cloth and steam it for a couple of hours. It's usually served with custard.
Back in 2001, Spotted Dick gained some modern notoriety when hospital managers at Gloucestershire NHS Trust (which, coincidentally, happens to be the U.K. county from whence the current writer originates) were overtaken by some form of political correctness gone mad and insisted on changing the name of this venerable English pudding to "Spotted Richard" when it was served in hospital canteens. A year later, they evidently realized the foolishness of their ways and restored the original name.
