Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1911 — BIRTH OF SUCCULENT "DUFF" [ARTICLE]

BIRTH OF SUCCULENT "DUFF "

Pudding That Is the Favorite of Balt- ~ ore Given Name by Illiterate . Boatswain’s Mate. Captain Turner of the Mauretania recounted the other day the birth of plum duff, the dish of sailors. “Duff,” he said, “had a Christmas origin. One Christmas day, hundreds of years ago, at sea, a ship in a storm was swept by a comber that carried off her cook, her crate of chickens, her turkeys—in a word, the whole raw material of her Christmas dinner. But the sailors were determined to pudding. They knew nothing about cooking, and they drew lota for their new cook. The lot fell to the boatswain's mate. “This chap fished up a cook book from the bottom of his sea chest, ran over the pudding recipes, and chose one that began: “ ‘Make a stiff dough.’ “He made a pudding after this recipe. It was stuffed with Malaga raisins and covered with a rich sauce. The men were delighted. “ ‘Put a name to it,’ they said. ‘Put a. name to it.' “And the boatswain’s mate, knowing that, ‘r-o-u-g-h* was pronounced ‘rough,’ and thinking ‘d-o-u-g-h’ followed the same rule, answered readily: “ it’s called duff, mates,’ ”