Is this the end for British pudding? - News + Articles

Sep 11, 2025

The traditional pud is crumbling under the pressure of contemporary living.

The classic British pudding is under threat. So says research from English Heritage – a UK charity that cares for historic buildings, sites and objects across England – which revealed that only two percent of British households are now making a daily homemade pudding, with 62 percent rarely or never making one at all.

According to the research, the decline of the British pudding has been a slow and seemingly inexorable one, beginning in the 1970s, when more women began entering the workforce (how very dare we) instead of staying at home and making lovely puddings for our husbands.

Sticky date pudding — Boozy sticky date pudding with brown butter sauce

The Great British Break-Up

Of those surveyed for the research, almost half (49%) of all respondents born before 1970 said that their family had homemade puddings several times a week, even during the hottest days of summer; only 25 percent of those born in the 1970s enjoyed homemade pud. This downward trend has continued – only 14 percent of Brits born in the 2000s said their parents made puddings several times a week, and 28 percent said their parents never made homemade puddings.

Overall, 62 percent of British households make puddings once a month or less, and 35 percent of households never make any pudding at all. If this decline continues, English Heritage says that we can expect the classic British pud to “all but vanish” within the next 50 years.

Classic hot puddings such as crumbles, pies and steamed puddings remain the most popular of the puds consumed today, followed by cake. But fresh fruit is now the most common dessert to be found in UK households, closely followed by ice cream.

Scone but not forgotten

Another survey by kitchen appliance brand Ninja went a little more granular, looking at classic British dishes that are at risk of extinction and using internet search trends to calculate an estimated date that they may disappear altogether… unless someone suddenly decides to make a video about them on TikTok, while coating them in pistachios and kataifi pastry.

These are some of the classic British sweets they say are at risk of extinction, and when:

Rock cakes – predicted extinction date: 15/02/2026
Chelsea buns – predicted extinction date: 09/08/2026
Victoria sponge – predicted extinction date: 23/05/2027
Scones – predicted extinction date: 30/01/2028
Rhubarb crumble – predicted extinction date: 29/10/2028

Highly scientific, of course. Sorry, Ninja, but the CWA scone recipe remains one of the highest-ranking on our site. And as if rhubarb crumble will ever go out of style.