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Cerealine Pudding
4 cups scalded milk 2 cups cerealine 1/2 cup molasses 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 1/2 tablespoons butter Pour milk on cerealine, add remaining ingredients, pour into buttered pudding-dish, and bake one hour in slow oven. Serve with cream.
A cousin of Indian pudding built on a commercial flaked-corn cereal rather than raw cornmeal, which is why it bakes in an hour instead of the three or four Indian pudding demands.
- CerealineCerealine was a late-nineteenth-century brand of pre-cooked flaked corn, milled from the hominy portion of the kernel and sold plain and unsweetened. Unsweetened corn flakes, lightly crushed, are the closest stand-in; flaked or quick hominy grits also work and give a smoother body.
- Slow ovenRoughly 300F by modern reckoning; period 'slow' covered a range. The pudding should barely tremble in the centre when done; nothing here needs browning.
- Scalded milkBring the milk just to the point where steam rises and bubbles ring the pan, not to a rolling boil. The heat is there to soften the flakes on contact, so pour it over them at once.
- MolassesUse unsulphured cooking molasses, not blackstrap, which is far more bitter than the period product and will dominate the corn. Sorghum syrup is an acceptable substitute.
- SaltA teaspoon and a half in four cups of milk is assertive by modern taste but deliberate, since molasses and corn both want salt. Reduce to a teaspoon if the rest of the meal is salty.
- Dish and settingA 2-quart buttered baking dish is right. Standing it in a pan of hot water keeps the edges from setting hard before the middle cooks, a habit worth borrowing even though the original does not call for it.
- Yield and servingSix servings. It is served warm with plain cream poured over, not whipped; the pudding is only lightly sweet and takes the richness well.