Our Californian dinner guest was horrified: "That's pure carbohydrate and sugar!" "We call it stodge," I said, regarding the satisfying swirl of red and white with some pride. "Are you going to try some?"
Clearly jam roly-poly has never caught on in the US but for me, a child of the 70s, it was one of a triumvirate of childhood puddings along with sticky toffee pudding and spotted dick. Jam roly-poly was a favorite of mine for lots of reasons: its comforting blend of sweet and stodge, its satisfyingly nursery rhythmical name, plus its delightfully gory pseudonym – Dead Man's Arm! My 10-year-old son likes it for the same reasons.
The dish was invented in the early 19th century and comprises a flat suet pudding spread with jam, rolled and steamed. Kate Colquhoun, the author of Taste: The Story of Britain Through its Cooking, says: "It's all part of a very English tradition of boiled and steamed suet puddings, which began with haggis and sausages and dates back to the middle ages." It was, she adds, the last hurrah for suet puddings.
Originally puddings were savoury, not sweet as we think of them now. The word pudding is believed to come from the French boudin, originally from the Latin botellus, meaning "small sausage". They were formed by mixing various ingredients with a binding ingredient such as suet, then baked, steamed or boiled.
Steak and kidney, yorkshire and black puddings are all reminders of their savoury origins, as is the mincemeat in Christmas pudding, which traditionally contained actual meat rather than the mixture of dried fruit, spirits and spices we tend to get now.
By the 19th century sweet puddings were in vogue. Treacle pudding, Sussex pond pudding and plum duff all served to warm and fill up, and were regarded as examples of famous British cuisine by European visitors. Jam roly-poly arrived on the scene in 1845, courtesy of Eliza Acton. Her recipe was for a rolled suet pudding with jam, marmalade or mincemeat. Mrs Beeton produced another, 15 years later, recommending jam "when fresh fruit is not obtainable."
Thereafter it became a staple of the British menu and featured large in literature from Enid Blyton to Beatrix Potter. In The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or the Roly-Poly Pudding, Tom Kitten narrowly escapes becoming the filling for one.
The past few years have seen a renewed interest in British cuisine and many traditional dishes – including jam roly-poly – are staging a comeback. Colquhoun says: "We've started accepting that British food is not and never was dull or bad but that we have a great tradition for innovatory cuisine which is very much admired by the rest of the world.".
Jamie and Nigella both serve JRP. It's on the menu in numerous gastropubs and on the shelves of Waitrose, Tesco and various other supermarkets. And it's easy and fun to make, especially if, like me, you eschew the "steaming in a cloth" method and go for the simple baked option.
"It's good," says our Californian friend, tucking in with gusto after his first tentative mouthful. "But I don't think it will catch on back home."
