flipIndian Pudding — Cornmeal and Molasses Pudding
Indian Pudding — Cornmeal and Molasses Pudding
Why this dish? Anne Royall lived and traveled through the South and Northeast of the United States, where Indian pudding was THE comforting dessert of winter evenings and more generous tables. When income allowed, this slow, fragrant pudding transformed humble cornmeal into a festive dish, simmered for hours by the fireside.
A melting pudding of cornmeal slowly cooked in milk, flavored with molasses, cinnamon, and ginger, golden from the oven. Sweet, spicy, deeply comforting.
Here is a dish that forgives poverty! With next to nothing — corn, milk, molasses — and plenty of patience by the hearth, you draw out a pudding worthy of a festive table. I tasted it at the home of New England farmers who had little more than I, and yet that evening one might have thought we were at a governor's. Let it cook slowly, never rush it, and add the molasses with a generous hand.
- •Milk — a pot (base)
- •Cornmeal — a handful (thickener)
- •Molasses — a good dash (sweetness and color)
- •Butter — a walnut-sized piece (richness)
- •Cinnamon and ginger — to taste (spices)
- •Eggs — one or two (binder)
Indian Pudding — Cornmeal and Molasses Pudding
A melting pudding of cornmeal slowly cooked in milk, flavored with molasses, cinnamon, and ginger, golden from the oven. Sweet, spicy, deeply comforting.
Why this dish? Anne Royall lived and traveled through the South and Northeast of the United States, where Indian pudding was THE comforting dessert of winter evenings and more generous tables. When income allowed, this slow, fragrant pudding transformed humble cornmeal into a festive dish, simmered for hours by the fireside.
Here is a dish that forgives poverty! With next to nothing — corn, milk, molasses — and plenty of patience by the hearth, you draw out a pudding worthy of a festive table. I tasted it at the home of New England farmers who had little more than I, and yet that evening one might have thought we were at a governor's. Let it cook slowly, never rush it, and add the molasses with a generous hand.
Ingredients (period version)
- Milk — a pot (base)
- Cornmeal — a handful (thickener)
- Molasses — a good dash (sweetness and color)
- Butter — a walnut-sized piece (richness)
- Cinnamon and ginger — to taste (spices)
- Eggs — one or two (binder)
Ingredients
- Whole milk — 1 liter (base)
- Fine cornmeal — 80 g (thickener)
- Molasses — 120 ml (sweetness and color)
- Butter — 40 g (richness)
- Cinnamon — 1 tsp (spice)
- Ground ginger — 1/2 tsp (spice)
- Eggs — 2 (binder)
- Salt — 1 pinch (balance)
Method
- Heat the milk (reserve a cup). Sprinkle in the cornmeal while whisking and cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes until thickened, stirring often.
- Off the heat, stir in the molasses, butter, salt, and spices.
- Beat the eggs with the reserved milk, then add to the slightly cooled mixture.
- Pour into a buttered dish.
- Bake at 150 °C for 1.5 to 2 hours: the pudding should set while remaining soft.
- Serve warm, optionally with a spoonful of cream.
How it was made : It was called 'Indian pudding' because cornmeal was called 'Indian meal' (the grain of Native American peoples). Lacking affordable wheat, colonists and later citizens of the young Republic adapted English pudding to corn and molasses. It cooked for hours in the residual heat of the bread oven after baking.
The contemporary twist : Serve it warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting on top — the hot-cold contrast makes it a timeless American bistro dessert.
Sources : Amelia Simmons, American Cookery (1796) · Lydia Maria Child, The American Frugal Housewife (1829)
Anne Royall · Charactorium
