Sago pudding Sago pudding Sago pudding is a sweet pudding made by boiling sago with either water or milk and adding sugar and sometimes additional flavourings. It is made in many cultures with varying styles, and may be produced in a variety of ways. In Malaysia, "sago gula melaka" is a sago pudding made by boiling pearl sago in water and serving it with syrup of palm sugar ("gula melaka") and coconut milk. In the UK, "sago pudding" is generally made by boiling pearl sago and sugar in milk until the sago pearls become clear, and thickening it with eggs or cornflour.
Sago of raw sago are imported each year into Malaysia to support the keropok lekor industry. In 1805, two captured crew members of the shipwrecked schooner "Betsey" were kept alive until their escape from an undetermined island on a diet of sago. Any starch can be pearled by heating and stirring small aggregates of moist starch, producing partly gelatinized dry kernels which swell but remain intact on boiling. Pearl sago closely resembles pearl tapioca. Both are typically small (about 2 mm diameter) dry, opaque balls. Both may be white (if very pure) or colored naturally grey, brown or black, or artificially