The clanger is an elongated suetcrustdumpling, sometimes described as a savoury type of roly-poly pudding. It was traditionally boiled in a cloth like other suet puddings, though some modern recipes use a shortcrust or other pastry and suggest baking it like a pasty, a method dating from a 1990s revival of the dish by a commercial bakery. Its name may refer to its dense consistency: Wright's 19th-century English Dialect Dictionaryrecorded the phrase "clung dumplings" from Bedfordshire, citing "clungy" and "clangy" as adjectives meaning heavy or close-textured. The dumpling can be filled with liver and onion, bacon and potatoes, pork and onions, or other meat and vegetables, and flavoured with the garden herb sage. While often savoury, the clanger was also said to have been prepared with a sweet filling, such as jam or fruit, in one end; this variant is referred to in a Bedfordshire Magazine of the 1960s as an "'alf an' 'alf", with "clanger" reserved for a savoury version. There is some doubt as to how much this was traditionally done in practice, though modern recipes often imitate the folklore by including a sweet filling. Historically, the clanger was made by women for their husbands to take to their agriculturalwork as a midday meal: it has been suggested that the crust was not originally intended for consumption but to protect the fillings from the soiled hands of the workers. Clangers could be eaten cold, or warmed by being wrapped in damp newspaper under a brazier. While sometimes associated with the hatmakers of the Luton district, the same dish was also recorded in rural Buckinghamshire and western Hertfordshire, where it was sometimes called the Trowley Dumpling after the hamlet where it was supposed to have originated. It is still available at various bakers and served at some cafes, restaurants and local places of interest. A similar dumpling was known in parts of Buckinghamshire, particularly Aylesbury Vale, as a "Bacon Badger". It was made from bacon, potatoes and onions, flavoured with sage and enclosed in a suet pastry case, and was usually boiled in a cloth. The etymology of "badger" is unknown, but might relate to a former term for a dealer in flour. "Badger" was widely used in the Midland counties in the early 19th century to refer to a "cornfactor, mealman, or huckster". The same basic suet dumpling recipe is known by a variety of other names elsewhere in the country; "flitting pudding" is recorded in County Durham, "dog in blanket" from Derbyshire, and "bacon pudding" in Berkshire and Sussex. A baked "clanger" featured as a signature bake in episode 8 of Series 8 of The Great British Bake Off.
