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Steamed Indian Pudding
1 pint milk 1/4 cup cornmeal 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons oil 1 egg yolk 2 tablespoons molasses 2 tablespoons tapioca 1/2 cup raisins Heat one cup of the milk in a double boiler. Add the cornmeal, and stir till thickened. Cook ten minutes, then beat the egg yolk and the other cup of milk together, and add to the partly cooked meal, also add the remaining ingredients. Allow the mixture to cook in the double boiler till thick, then turn into an oiled brown-bread tin. Put on the cover, set into a steamer, and steam two or three hours. Serve hot with cream, or with boiled apple juice made by boiling together one pint apple juice and one-half cup sugar till a sirup is formed.
Diced apples may be used in the pudding instead of the raisins.
A small steamed cornmeal pudding, thickened twice over — first on the stove, then in the steamer. The critical step is the long, gentle steam, which is what sets the tapioca and softens the meal grains that ten minutes in a double boiler cannot.
- The brown-bread tinThis is a tall cylindrical mold with a clamped lid, sold for steaming Boston brown bread. A 1-pound coffee tin, a pudding basin, or a 1-quart heatproof bowl all work; cover tightly with oiled foil tied down with string if there is no lid, so condensation cannot drip in.
- Steamer setupSet the covered mold on a rack in a deep pot with boiling water reaching a third to halfway up the sides. Keep it at a bare simmer and top up with boiling water as it evaporates; letting the pot run dry is the likeliest way to spoil the pudding.
- TapiocaThe recipe does not specify a type. If you are using pearl tapioca, soak it in a little of the milk for half an hour first or it may stay gritty; quick-cooking (minute) tapioca can go straight in as written.
- CornmealFine or medium yellow cornmeal, not coarse polenta grind and not self-rising. A quarter cup to a pint of milk gives a very loose mush at the stovetop stage; that is correct, since the tapioca and the long steam do the real setting.
- The oilTwo teaspoons of a neutral oil stands in for the suet or butter of older Indian puddings. The oil, and the single yolk rather than several whole eggs, both point toward a health-reform kitchen.
- TemperingBeat the yolk with the cold second cup of milk before it meets the hot meal, exactly as written, and add it off the direct heat of the boiler. Straight into hot mush it will curdle.
- Steaming timeTwo hours is enough for a 1-quart mold; three gives a darker, firmer pudding. It is done when a skewer comes out clean and the surface no longer looks wet.
- Yield and servingServes four to six as a dessert. Let it stand five minutes before unmolding. The apple syrup — a pint of juice boiled down with half a cup of sugar — takes about 15 to 20 minutes and thickens further as it cools, so pull it while still pourable.