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Indian Pudding
1 quart milk 1/3 cup corn-meal 1/2 cup raisins 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ginger 1 egg Place the milk in a double boiler and when it is scalding hot add the meal, moistened with cold water, and stir constantly to avoid lumps. Cook for twenty minutes. Turn into a pudding-dish and add all the other ingredients except the egg. Stir well and when the mass has cooked somewhat stir in the beaten egg. Bake for one hour in a rather slow oven and serve hot with hard sauce or any desired sauce. One-half cup dates or figs may be used instead of the raisins.
A New England standard reduced to about an hour's baking rather than the traditional half day. The custard sets in the oven, so the mixing order matters more than the timing.
- Slow ovenThe book gives no figure; "rather slow" is generally taken as somewhere around 300F. Keep the heat gentle: too hot an oven curdles the milk and the egg.
- Corn-mealIndian meal is plain cornmeal, and yellow stone-ground gives the truest flavour. Avoid degerminated instant polenta or self-rising cornmeal mixes.
- Slurry firstMoistening the meal with cold water before it meets the hot milk is the hinge of the whole recipe. Dry meal dropped into scalding milk seizes into lumps that no amount of stirring will break up.
- Let it cool before the eggThe text reads "when the mass has cooked somewhat," apparently a misprint for "cooled." Stir the beaten egg in briskly once the mush is no longer scalding; egg added to near-boiling cornmeal can set in visible threads.
- VesselA pudding-dish is simply a deep baking dish; allow at least two quarts, as the milk plus additions come to well over a quart and go in loose. A water bath is not called for but does insure against a curdled edge.
- ConsistencyIt comes out of the oven soft, closer to a baked custard than a cake, and firms slightly as it stands. Do not bake it until a knife comes out clean or it will be dry and grainy.
- Hard sauceCreamed butter and powdered sugar, usually flavoured with vanilla or brandy, served cold so it melts on the hot pudding. Cold heavy cream poured over is another common New England accompaniment.
- YieldServes six, or four generously. It reheats well, covered, in a low oven.