Indian pudding

This recipe is very similar to Indian Pudding Recipe in "The Blue Grass Cook Book" by Minnie C. Fox.

"Boil 1 cup of meal in 1 pint of milk till it thickens. Add 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup molasses. 1 tablespoon of butter, i pint of cold milk, salt to taste.

Steam and serve with hard sauce."

"Hard Sauce Recipe from same Cook Book.

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter

Cream together and flavor with lemon, wine, or brandy."
 
Indian Pudding is an old American dessert. Native Americans introduced early settlers to cornmeal, and being in love with pudding, the English colonists soon learned to make a dessert which they sweetened with molasses. Thus, was born Indian Pudding.

This recipe is from Viola Lewis, who was food historian at Old Bedford Village in Pennsylvania.

Indian Pudding

1/4 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
2 cups milk
1 egg beaten
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 cup cold milk

Mix cornmeal, salt, water and milk in a saucepan. Boil gently 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from fire and add egg, sugar, molasses, butter, cinnamon, and ginger. Pour into buttered baking dish and bake for 1/2 hour. Then stir in extra cup of milk and bake until brown.

From: Sweet 'n' Slow", by Patricia B. Mitchell. pages 24-25.
 
Indian Pudding was one of the foods that received favorable comments from Union soldier correspondents and diaries. See Bell Irvin Wiley in "The Life of Billy Yank", 1943.

A recipe for Indian Pudding from 1863 ( "Civil war Recipes Receipts from the Pages of Godey's Lady's Book").

'Two quarts of boiling milk, with Indian meal enough to make a thin batter; stir in whole boiling hot. Add sugar, allspice, to your taste; also a teacup of cold milk. Bake five hours in a moderate oven."
 
That hard sauce is great for Christmas, too! The more brandy the better! If you steam fruit cake and serve it hot with hard sauce (which should be cold), it makes even fruit cake palatable.
 
From Wikipedia;

Indian Pudding

Indian pudding is a traditional New England dessert, "a cold-weather classic." Seventeenth-century English colonists brought hasty pudding to North America and transformed it completely. Lacking wheat, they substituted cornmeal, a grain they learned to cultivate from the indigenous peoples, which led to the new name Indian pudding, derived from their name for cornmeal, Indian meal. They substituted milk, which was plentiful, for water and added locally available sweeteners, either molasses or maple syrup, and spices when available, typically cinnamon and ground ginger. Other traditional ingredients include butter and eggs for a smoother consistency and raisins and nuts for flavor and contrasting texture. Finally, Indian pudding is baked in a slow oven for several hours, transforming its texture from the porridge-like quality of hasty pudding to a smoother texture more typical of custard puddings. According to Kathleen Wall, Plimoth Plantation's expert on colonial cooking, "The longer it cooks, the more liquid the gritty cornmeal absorbs, and the more it absorbs, the smoother the texture of your pudding." It was commonplace in the colonial era and enjoyed a revival as part of Thanksgiving Day celebrations in the late 19th century. It was found in most American cookbooks before 1900. The 20th century’s commercial puddings with their industrially perfect smooth consistency displaced Indian pudding, and its cooking time had little appeal for the modern home cook. It is still associated with autumn holidays and occasionally revived by restaurants. It is usually served warm and sometimes accompanied by vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.


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