Finally captured on a photograph -- yes, this, my friends, is the infamous "moon pudding" which has been a tradition in my family for generations. I've described this stuff to practically everyone I've ever met, an no one can quite picture it in mind, so here it is in all its glory.

This English dessert looks like some kind of cake or fudge, sure. But keep in mind this is a traditional ENGLISH (read, "kinda disgusting") dessert. It isn't made like cake at all.

The primary ingredient in moon pudding is suet. Yes, suet. Just like the stuff you feed the birds, sans the birdseed. This suet is ground and mixed with flour and raisens. The fatty blob is then plopped on a towel, which is wrapped up and tied at the top. The towel is then put onto a plate, and the whole works is then submerged in boiling water, where it cooks for literally something like two days.

Traditionally, I am told, there is a hard sugar sauce made with apple juice which is supposed to go on top of the moon pudding. But this tradition has been lost in my family. Instead, everyone has developed their own style of eating moon. Most eat it plain. Newcomers generally do not think of it as a dessert as it is greasy and not very sweet by American standards, and so they eat it with gravy. Some wait until the next day and fry it in butter. Some eat it with powedered sugar or Reddi Whip.

The horrific story that goes with moon is that one year my mom was transferring the boiling-hot towel blob to a different pan, and the towel suddenly split open, spilling scalding grease all over the dog's back. Let me tell you, hot uncooked moon pudding is a lot like napalm. It sticks and burns and there's not much you can do about it. It burned the dog pretty badly and the dog lived for about another 10 or 12 years with a bald back.

As for me, I rather like moon. I mean, a cannonball-sized chunk of low-grade fat, complete with raisens? Shaw. How can you go wrong?
--------