Week 1—Baked Indian Meal Pudding (c. 1805)

Source: Glasse, Hannah. "A baked Indian Pudding." Recipe. The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. New York: Dover Publications, 2015, pp. 137. Book.

To start off this project, the thought was to try and keep it relatively simple.

There are more than a few recipes for a basic "Indian meal" pudding from around this time, and more than a couple of names for it, so one can definitely see how it was adapted based on the availability of the products and need. Due to the abundance of versions, this recipe from Hannah Glasse's 1805 cookbook The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy was chosen mainly out of its simplicity. While other recipes may add things they had around, like eggs or the rare spice, Glasse's recipe contains four basic ingredients I noticed remained relatively consistent across many different recipes: milk, molasses, "Indian meal" and salt.

So, why "Indian meal"?

"Indian meal" is an out-of-date term that primarily has to do with the fact the English word "corn" did not wholly have the same meaning that many from North America would attribute to it today, back in the 1800s. For the Europeans, the term would have been "maize," while they used "corn" simply to refer to their primary grain crop (wheat, barley, rye...) wherever they were. It was a bit of a "catch-all" term.

So, when the Pilgrims then arrived in America, and the native Squanto taught them about the cultivation of maize on American soil, they began to call it "Indian corn" since it was the "corn" (meaning the primary grain crop) of the "Indians" (the native people of America). As "meal" refers then to a coarsely ground product from a grain like maize, "Indian meal" is simply the product of "Indian corn," and was a name that stuck around for a significant portion of history. Some may even still recognize the term "Indian meal" today, although, for most, it is simply now known as "cornmeal."

Let's talk about pasteurization

Another essential thing to note with this recipe is the comment about "boiled milk."

When re-creating this recipe, this particular instruction stood out for me since, in the way that I interpreted it, the recipe also instructs to put the dish into the oven "when it is cold," seemingly in reference to the boiled milk. This comment got me thinking; why boil the milk at all, if only to use it when it is cold again? Then it hit me. Commercial pasteurization machines only began production in 1882. Pasteurization of milk was only made mandatory Canada-wide by Health Canada in 1991. Glasse's instruction to use boiled milk may have thus merely been for this exact purpose—to boil away any germs—while, in the modern sense, this particular step is now unnecessary considering our milk is already "pre-boiled" during the pasteurization process. I still used boiled milk in the recipe as this realization only came while waiting for the milk to cool, but I suspect this to be the case should anyone wish to try it on their own.

A tablespoonful, or maybe a teaspoonful?

Another issue that came about rather quickly with this recipe was the interpretation of the word "spoonful." At first, due to the amount of liquid involved, I suspected it had to mean "tablespoonful," as else there would simply not be enough to form any sort of pudding at all due to the amount of milk. Five tablespoons of cornmeal, though, was also not nearly enough.

This is where some family insight helped a lot.

Back in the day, things like flours and grains were often kept in little containers, as some even may still keep them today, which usually also had little scoops or other types of grain spoons that came along with them, a bit like these. When Glasse mentions "spoonfuls," it is quite possible that she is actually referencing these scoops. Otherwise, there would just not be enough cornmeal in this recipe. I ended up using about 16 modern tablespoons (or about a cup) of cornmeal in the re-creation.

So, onto the recipe. I've outlined the basic recipe from Glasse above but included my own notes and instructions learned from my recreation attempt.

Ingredients:

• One quart (4 cups) of milk

• About one cup of cornmeal

• One gill (about a 1/2 cup) of molasses

• Salt to taste

Note: I used an 8x8" Square Baking Dish for testing purposes, and lined it well with parchment. Evidently, this would not have been a step used in 1805, but it is just taking advantage of modern commodities to help with clean-up after the fact—you can choose to do this, or not. But, I would recommend it since this recipe gets a bit sticky around the sides and top once cooked. This recipe is also quite liquidy when put into the oven, so there will still be some leaking out onto the pan. However, I found the parchment still helped a lot with taking the pudding up and cleaning the pan after the fact.

Method

1. Preheat an oven to 350° F and prepare a pan for baking.

2. Mix together the milk, cornmeal, molasses, and salt.

3. Cook for just about 45 minutes. If you have a colder oven, I could see it taking upwards of an hour, but start checking at around 30 minutes! I noticed a lot of change in mine just around the end of the time in the oven.

4. Serve warm with molasses and a bit of butter.

The final taste is fine; nothing unexpected or offensive. It has a texture somewhere between bread and mashed potatoes, or a wet cake. You can definitely see how this is a basic recipe, meant just to fill people up when needed and not necessarily because anyone would have had a craving for it. It is also quite clear why there were so many versions of it available.