Pudding is either of two general types of food, the second deriving from the first. The older puddings were foods that were presented in a solid mass formed by the amalgamation of various ingredients with a binder that may or may not have been a gelling agent, including the use of blood. The best-known example of this is the Yorkshire pudding. This older type of pudding, still commonly made today in the British Isles, was often a main-course type of dish.
The newer type of pudding is almost exclusively a dessert-type dish. The usual form is for milk with sugar and other added ingredients to be solidified by means of some gelling or structural agent, including cornstarch, gelatin, eggs, tapioca (cassava), and other starches. Forms of these include custard and blanc-mange. Related foods include gelatin desserts such as Jell-o and aspics.
More generally, a pudding may mean a dessert of any type.
