Roadfood fruit dessert question.

I noticed that 27 per cent of people that have responded to the fruit dessert survey indicated that they did not know the difference in these desserts so I have tried to come up with a brief explanation of these desserts as I know them and from what I have read in my cookbooks.

Cobbler - baked dish consisting of fruit covered with a sweet biscuit or piecrust dough.


Crisp- fruit topped with a crumbled mixture of oatmeal (or flour or crushed graham crackers) and butter and sugar

Grunt- simmering fruit into which spoons of dumpling batter is dropped and cooked

Slump- fruit baked with biscuit type topping crust

brown betty- alternating layers of crushed bread or cracker crumbs combined with sugar and spices, and fruit and then baked

buckle- a rich biscuit dough spread on bottom of pan, covered with fruit and then a sweetened crumbed topping and baked

pandowdy - a baked dish consisting of fruit which is covered with a rich biscuit or cake batter topping and baked

Thank You. I had a general idea of what most of the choices were, but having definitions printed certainly helps me understand the differences.
Janet makes a fruit "Cobbler" but uses a cake mix for the 'cover' That would make it a "pandowdy", right?

While I answered that my favorite would be "cobbler", I'm now not 100% sure. I need someone to bake an example of each, and send them to me for further evaluation and live taste tests. Preferred flavors would be peach, tart cherry, blackberry, and apple.

No need to supply the ice cream, I can absorb that responsibility. Following receipt, I can post the subjective results here on this forum...

Al, I am not sure but I use what you described with cherries covered with a cake mixture and butter in a graham cracker crust. I have used it with peaches, blueberries and other fruits.

Sure does taste good.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Thanks Greymo..
I was one of the 27% that responded in that way.
Tara

This kind of information is one of the reasons I love Roadfood.com. I was going to ask about the differences on another thread when some of these terms were being put out there and I realized I didn't know what they were. Thanks Greymo. Fred

I'll add my thank you to the others', Greymo. I did not know the differences until your explanation.

I thought a grunt was a simmering Marine recruit.......gues I was wrong!

Yeah, thanks Greymo for the explanations. I'm not sure I've ever had any of those other than cobbler and maybe pandowdy, so I still can't cast a responsible vote. I'll have to get in line behind stlouisguy for the samples, I guess. (Peach, blueberry or blackberry will be fine with me).

Some of these polls have a regional emphasis or bias which leaves me unable to reply.

I prefer shortcake.

Slump, cobbler and pandowdy look as though they have almost the same ingredients, but being unfamiliar with slump and pandowdy (and I confess, I don't like the sound of slump, but pandowdy is a fun word), I think I'll stick with cobbler, which I grew up with. My parents were from Missouri and Oklahoma, so I do believe it to be a regional thing.

Good sleuthin', Greymo.

call it whatever you want..
it's all good to me

I'm sticking to my "crisp" answer. Especially an apple crisp in Upstate, NY during apple season and washed down with apple cider.

I agree with Scorereader, there's nothing better than a homemade apple crisp in the fall using fresh apples from a local farm market....