Carrot pudding is a dish traditional to a wide range of cultures around the world. It can be served either as a savoury pudding (as an accompaniment to a regular meal) or as a sweet dessert.
An English recipe, published in 1591, describes "pudding in a Carret [sic] root"[1] that is essentially a stuffed carrot with meat, shortening, cream, eggs, raisins, sweetener (dates and sugar), spices (clove and mace), scraped carrot, and breadcrumbs.[1] In The Oxford Companion to Food, writer Alan Davidson believes that carrots were used in Europe to make sweet cakes.[2] These were a predecessor to the carrot cake. Carrot pudding has been served in Ireland since at least the 18th century.[3] It was also served in the United States as long ago as 1876.[4] Because sweeteners were rationed during the Second World War, carrot pudding was seen as an alternative in the UK. Later on, carrot cake was seen as a 'health food'.[2]
