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Boiled Indian Pudding
Warm a pint of molasses and pint of milk, stir well together, beat four eggs, and stir gradually into molasses and milk; add a pound of beef suet chopped fine, and Indian meal sufficient to make a thick batter; add a tea-spoon pulverized cinnamon, nutmeg and a little grated lemon-peel, and stir all together thoroughly; dip cloth into boiling water, shake, flour a little, turn in the mixture, the up, leaving room for the pudding to swell, and boil three hours; serve hot with sauce made of drawn butter, wine, and nutmeg.- Mrs. A. E. Brand, Minneapolis, Minn.
A boiled cornmeal pudding of the old New England type, richer than most because of the pound of suet. The cloth is the whole technique, and it rewards a little care.
- The hinge: the clothScald a large square of unbleached cotton or a linen tea towel in boiling water, wring it out, and dust the damp inside with flour — the flour and water form a skin that keeps the batter from leaking. Tie it with kitchen string leaving a good hand's width of slack, since the cornmeal swells considerably.
- Batter consistency"Thick batter" here means it drops heavily from a spoon but is not doughy; the recipe deliberately leaves the amount of meal to judgement. Add it gradually; cornmeal keeps absorbing for several minutes, so let it stand a moment before deciding it needs more.
- Indian mealPlain yellow cornmeal, medium grind. Not self-rising cornmeal mix and not masa harina. A stone-ground meal gives the coarser texture the recipe assumes.
- Beef suetRaw kidney fat from beef, sold by butchers on request and by mail as shredded suet for puddings. Frozen suet grates far more easily than chilled. Cold unsalted butter, coarsely grated, is the usual substitute, though the pudding will be softer.
- Boiling the puddingThe bundle goes into a large pot of water at a rolling boil, kept at a steady simmer and covered the whole three hours. Suspend it from a wooden spoon across the rim or set it on an inverted plate so it does not scorch on the bottom, and top up with boiling water as it evaporates.
- MolassesUse unsulphured baking molasses, not blackstrap, which is bitter at this volume. A pint is two cups — this is a strongly molasses-flavored, dark pudding.
- Drawn butter sauceDrawn butter in this period is melted butter thickened with a little flour and hot water into a thin sauce, then flavored — here with the wine of your choice (a sherry or madeira suits) and grated nutmeg. Not clarified butter.
- YieldA pint each of molasses and milk plus a pound of suet makes a very large pudding, enough for ten or twelve small servings. It is filling; slice it thin. Leftovers slice cold and fry well in butter.
"Indian meal" distinguished maize meal from the wheat, rye and oat flours an English cook took for granted, and boiled Indian pudding is a colonial adaptation of the English suet pudding boiled in a cloth, with cornmeal standing in for wheat flour or breadcrumbs. Baked versions were also in circulation by the time Buckeye Cookery appeared in 1877, so this contributed recipe from Mrs. A. E. Brand of Minneapolis preserves the older boiled method. The book's structure explains its presence: much of Buckeye Cookery is a collection of signed recipes from named contributors in various towns, which is why the same dish often appears in several forms and why a reader in Ohio could find a Minnesota household's version of a New England pudding.