Bakewell Pudding (1837)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   OED has 1845 for "bakewell pudding."
   There are 873 Google hits.  Surely, we can trust the web:

http://www.bakewellpuddingshop.co.uk/
These delicious puddings were first made by accident at a local inn (the then White Horse) in the market town of Bakewell, Derbyshire, around 1860. It seems clear that the recipe was originally something of an accident, the result of a misunderstanding between Mrs Graves, Mistress of the inn, and her cook. Visiting noblemen ordered strawberry tart, but the cook, instead of stirring the egg mixture into the pastry, spread it on top of the jam.

The result was so successful that a Mrs Wilson, wife of a Tallow Chandler who lived in the cottage now known as the Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop where candles were made, saw the possibility of making the puddings for sale and obtained the so-called recipe and commenced in a business of her own.


http://www.epicurus.com/food/bakewell.html
Great British Dishes
 Bakewell Pudding
 by Carol Wilson

 The town of Bakewell in Derbyshire is well known for its famous pudding, often, incorrectly called 'Bakewell Tart'.

  Legend has it that the pudding was created by accident in the nineteenth century.  The story goes that the cook at the Rutland Arms in the centre of the town was making a jam tart and absentmindedly poured the egg mixture intended for the pastry on top of the jam instead.  The guests enjoyed the new pudding so much that the cook was ordered to make it regularly.

   Intriguing though the story is it's very doubtful.  A much more likely explanation is that Bakewell pudding was a variation of the popular 'transparent' puddings of the eighteenth century, in which a layer of fruit or jam was covered with a mixture of sugar, butter and eggs before baking.  These puddings only sometimes had a pastry case and were more usually baked in a dish without the pastry.  The famous cookery writer Eliza Acton recorded the first known recipe for Bakewell pudding in 1845 in 'Modern Cookery', and wrote that it was 'served on al holiday occasions', although there was no mention of pastry.  Mrs Beeton's recipe appeared with a puff pastry case in 1861.

  The neighbouring county of Staffordshire has a very similar pudding, called 'Staffordshire Yeomanry Pudding' which originated in 1838 and was a speciality of the Swan Hotel in Lichfield.



   I found the following by "accident."

(AMERICN PERIODICAL SERIES ONLINE)
      Tapioca-pudding
       Anonymous.       The Family Magazine; or, Monthly Abstract of General Knowledge (1833-1841).       New York: 1837.                   p. 359 (1 page)
       _The Bakewell Pudding._--Having covered a dish of thin puff paste, put a layer of any kind of jam about half an inch thick, then take the yolks of eight eggs and two whites, half a pound of butter melted, and almond flavour to your taste; beat well together; pour the mixture into the dish an inch thick, and bake it about an hour in a moderate oven.