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Indian Pudding
— Mrs. James Rider
Heat one quart of milk and in it stir three tablespoons of sifted meal; let this cook slowly for about fifteen minutes, stirring constantly. Beat three eggs, add a teaspoon of salt, half a cup of sugar, tablespoon butter, half a teaspoon of ginger. Stir these in gradually with the milk and meal, and put all while hot into an earthen pudding dish and bake in a moderate oven for an hour. Serve with any sauce you prefer, or with cream.
— Miss Harriet Trowbridge
A baked cornmeal custard of the plainest New England type, thickened on the stove first so it never separates in the oven. Two names attach to it in the original, presumably contributor and copyist.
- "Sifted meal" is cornmealIn a nineteenth-century American receipt "meal" unqualified means Indian meal, that is, cornmeal. Fine or medium yellow meal works; sift it as directed so it does not go into the hot milk in lumps.
- Three tablespoons is a thin puddingOne quart of milk to three tablespoons of meal gives a soft, spoonable custard rather than a sliceable pudding. If you want it firmer, go to a scant half cup of meal and expect a denser texture.
- Moderate ovenThe original gives no temperature; 'moderate' is usually read as somewhere around 325-350F. An hour at that heat should leave the centre just set with a slight wobble; the surface will brown lightly.
- Cook the meal properlyThe fifteen minutes of slow stirring is the hinge. Undercooked cornmeal stays gritty and no amount of baking fixes it. Keep the heat low and stir the bottom constantly, since the meal catches easily.
- Temper the eggsThe original says to stir the beaten eggs 'gradually' into the milk and meal. Whichever direction you work in, go slowly: dumped into hot mush all at once the eggs scramble.
- Earthen pudding dishAny 1.5 to 2 quart ceramic or stoneware baking dish. Earthenware moderates the heat; a metal pan will set the edges before the centre. A water bath is not called for but will not hurt.
- A teaspoon of saltFull for modern palates in a sweet pudding. Half a teaspoon is closer to current practice, particularly if you serve it with a sweet sauce.
- Yield and servingSix to eight small servings. Cream poured over is the usual accompaniment; a hard sauce, maple syrup or molasses all suit it. Good warm rather than hot.
Indian pudding takes its name from Indian meal, the colonial term for maize meal that distinguished it from English wheat flour, and the dish is essentially the old British boiled or baked milk pudding rebuilt around the one grain that grew reliably in New England. Long-cooked versions were left in a cooling brick oven for several hours with molasses and spice and came out dark and almost caramelised; this is the shorter, paler descendant, cooked on the stove first and finished in an hour, sweetened with white sugar and flavoured with ginger rather than molasses. Its appearance under two women's names is typical of the collected-receipt form: such books gathered household standbys that everyone already knew how to make, which is why the instructions assume you can judge a set custard by eye.