[food] today's adventures in EYB indexing: The National Trust Book of Puddings

[kaberett]

Subtitle 50 irresistibly nostalgic sweet treats and comforting classics... featuring "Trinity burnt cream":

Also known as crème brûlée, old recipes for versions of this pudding are found in various parts of Britain and Europe. Its association with Trinity College, Cambridge goes back to at least the nineteenth century.

Despite my documented interest in crème brûlée and, you know, having grown up in Cambridge, I had somehow never come across this before?! And yet it's inexplicably clearly attested on Wikipedia. Nominally this means I should probably be indexing the "Ethnicity" of the dish as "English" as well as "French" but, frankly, je refuse, and even Trinity have the grace to say:

The story that crème brûlée itself was invented at the College almost certainly has no basis in fact.

It's not even like the National Trust is making a point of having all the recipes in this book be of British origin! Clearly-identified non-British culinary sources include Italy, Latvia, and Russia! (... the Welsh- and Scottish-origin puddings have headnotes mysteriously quiet on said origins, though.) AND YET. Crème brûlée! Trinity! Really.

Comments

[kaberett]

Context for more recent arrivals: my undergraduate college was Trinity Hall, Trinity's smaller, older, poorer (... by Cambridge college standards) next-door neighbour. See the paragraph on names over at wikipedia (and mind how you go with the subsequent section on sexual misconduct allegations).

[hilarita]

I've encountered Burnt Cream before (IIRC it was a meal in Cambridge, but whether it was a college thing or a restaurant I have no idea now). I've even made it :-)
I don't recall it being "Trinity" Burnt Cream though - I definitely didn't encounter it in Trinity, as I don't think I've ever had a dinner there! I now am wondering if Trinity College Dublin also has an extremely tenuous "claim" to the name ;-)

[cjwatson]

IIRC when I was at Trinity it was normally titled "Trinity Cream" on menus when it appeared at dinner.

[emperor]

I had heard this story before, but I can't remember from where (which I guess means it could have been a NT recipe book)...