Baked Indian Pudding - my first time

leno...@yahoo.com

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Mar 2, 2019, 12:00:51 PM3/2/19

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I've learned to be skeptical when it comes to salt in recipes. This one - from the "The Old Farmer's Almanac Colonial Cookbook" (64 pages, stapled) - calls for a quart of milk and...1 tsp. salt. I thought "you've got to be kidding." I cut it to 1/2 tsp. and I'm very glad. Maybe it should be even less. I think there should be less than 1/2 cup molasses as well. Next time, we'll see.

Btw, in a certain large hardcover Amish/Mennonite cookbook, the brownie pudding - under some other name - also called for 1 tsp. salt. I doubt many would prefer it that way. It wasn't for a huge pudding, after all.

So here's the modified list for the first dish:

1 quart milk
1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup molasses
3/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Heavy cream (for serving with)

I grated my own nutmeg.

It called for a baking pan of 8" x 10", which I didn't have, so I used a larger one instead. (I cut the baking time from 2 hours to 90 minutes.) One also has to cook it in a double boiler for 25 minutes first.

Lenona.

Lenona.

jmcquown

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Mar 2, 2019, 12:20:06 PM3/2/19

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How old are those recipes? If they were truly based on Colonial-era
cooking I'm betting they made large quantities and added more salt to
account for long-term storage. Not being familiar with puddings, I'd
have to wonder are the results supposed to be custardy or bready?

Jill

leno...@yahoo.com

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Mar 2, 2019, 12:27:59 PM3/2/19

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On Saturday, March 2, 2019 at 12:20:06 PM UTC-5, Jill McQuown wrote:

> How old are those recipes? If they were truly based on Colonial-era
> cooking I'm betting they made large quantities and added more salt to
> account for long-term storage. Not being familiar with puddings, I'd
> have to wonder are the results supposed to be custardy or bready?
>
> Jill

I assume they're based on 17th & 18th century recipes. The book itself said 1982.

The result was custardy, as I expected. (It's a lot of milk.)

Lenona.

jmcquown

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Mar 2, 2019, 12:32:41 PM3/2/19

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On 3/2/2019 12:27 PM, leno...@yahoo.com wrote:
> On Saturday, March 2, 2019 at 12:20:06 PM UTC-5, Jill McQuown wrote:
>
>
>> How old are those recipes? If they were truly based on Colonial-era
>> cooking I'm betting they made large quantities and added more salt to
>> account for long-term storage. Not being familiar with puddings, I'd
>> have to wonder are the results supposed to be custardy or bready?
>>
>> Jill
>
>
> I assume they're based on 17th & 18th century recipes. The book itself said 1982.
>

Thanks! I love reading old books like that. :)

> The result was custardy, as I expected. (It's a lot of milk.)
>
>
> Lenona.
>

Okay, I guess I was thinking more bread-like. The excessive salt could
still be due to the fact that they didn't have much in the way of
preservation methods back then. <shrug> I'm sure you did the right
thing by cutting back on it. :)

Jill

songbird

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Mar 2, 2019, 3:49:38 PM3/2/19

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jmcquown wrote:
...

> How old are those recipes? If they were truly based on Colonial-era
> cooking I'm betting they made large quantities and added more salt to
> account for long-term storage. Not being familiar with puddings, I'd
> have to wonder are the results supposed to be custardy or bready?

good point on the salt. i was thinking at first that it
was because they worked a lot harder back then and sweated
it out...

songbird

Joy Beeson

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Mar 2, 2019, 6:37:02 PM3/2/19

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On Sat, 2 Mar 2019 15:48:17 -0500, songbird <song...@anthive.com>
wrote:

> good point on the salt. i was thinking at first that it
> was because they worked a lot harder back then and sweated
> it out...

Or it could be that the salt was coarse and a teaspoon of it wasn't
very much.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

Dave Smith

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Mar 2, 2019, 9:58:42 PM3/2/19

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If it is an old recipe it was probably meant to feed a large family, so
they would not be counting on long term leftovers.

Not being familiar with puddings, I'd
> have to wonder are the results supposed to be custardy or bready?

Puddings can run a range of consistency. Some, like rice pudding,
tapioca, can be very soft and almost runny. Chocolate, vanilla and
butterscotch are often very soft. They are are pudding cakes that have a
cake like texture sitting on top of a runny sauce. I made a sauced
fruiting that is a biscuit like texture in a sweet sauce. You mix up the
dry pudding, which is mostly flour, with some salt, baking powder, a
little sugar, shortening and milk. It goes into a greased bowl and
then you mix up some brown sugar, butter and boiling water, pour it over
the pudding and toss it into the oven.
>

leno...@yahoo.com

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Mar 3, 2019, 2:41:31 PM3/3/19

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On Saturday, March 2, 2019 at 12:00:51 PM UTC-5, leno...@yahoo.com wrote:

>
> Btw, in a certain large hardcover Amish/Mennonite cookbook, the brownie pudding - under some other name - also called for 1 tsp. salt. I doubt many would prefer it that way. It wasn't for a huge pudding, after all.

It was "Cooking from Quilt Country: Hearty Recipes from Amish and Mennonite Kitchens," by Marcia Adams, 1989.

More on it:

https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=_yx8XIb3JOjA5gKIjID4Cg&q=cooking+from+quilt+country&btnK=Google+Search&oq=cooking+from+quilt+country&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l2j0i22i30l3.958.6620..7066...0.0..0.114.2163.28j1......0....1..gws-wiz.....0..0i131j0i22i10i30.KXDXgZHZ67Q

I only hope that "hearty," here, doesn't match George Carlin's interpretation of that word...

https://medialiteracyguide4teens.weebly.com/media-blog/food-lingo

Lenona.