Indian Pudding Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is Indian pudding made of? ›

Indian pudding is a baked custard with milk, butter, molasses, eggs, spices, and cornmeal. The name is likely derived from the cornmeal, which was known as indian meal way back when.

Cornmeal pudding, also known as Indian Pudding and Cornmeal Pone - and similar to the English's hasty pudding - has existed in some form for hundreds of years. It was originally found in places where corn and molasses were easily accessible, such as colonial New England and Jamaica.

In the United States, puddings are nearly always sweet desserts of milk or fruit juice variously flavoured and thickened with cornstarch, arrowroot, flour, tapioca, rice, bread, or eggs. The rarer savoury puddings are thickened vegetable purées, soufflé-like dishes, or, like corn pudding, custards.

Its main ingredients are milk, cornmeal, molasses, and spices. Indian pudding is a classic New England dessert, which, according to culinary lore, dates back to the Pilgrims.

noun. a sweet baked pudding made of cornmeal, molasses, milk, and various spices.

An irresistible baked pudding that might just be America's oldest dessert! This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy. Indian pudding is a delicious historical dessert first made by American colonists with cornmeal gifted by Native Americans, and molasses.

Jamaicans believe that porridge makes babies strong and healthy and, for adults, it serves as an affordable, hot, and hearty breakfast that fills you up and sustains you for many hours.

Porridge is a food commonly eaten as a breakfast cereal dish, made by boiling ground, crushed or chopped starchy plants—typically grains—in water or milk. Pudding is a type of food that can be either a dessert or a savory non-sweet dish that is part of the main meal.

Baked, steamed, and boiled puddings

Depending on its ingredients, such a pudding may be served as a part of the main course or as a dessert. Steamed pies consisting of a filling completely enclosed by suet pastry are also known as puddings.

Pudding Ingredients

Cornstarch: Three tablespoons of cornstarch thickens the vanilla pudding. Salt: A pinch of salt enhances the flavor, but it won't make the pudding taste salty.

What is a natural thickener for pudding? ›

Thickening the Pudding

Using eggs: Eggs add richness to puddings, whether or not the recipe includes additional thickeners. To add eggs to a hot liquid, you need to "temper" them (see Tempering Eggs below) so they don't end up as scrambled eggs. Rice and tapioca also act as thickeners.

The eggs in the pudding provide some moisture, as well as acting as binding agents. Eggs can also make the pudding a little bit lighter and the main risk is that without eggs the pudding could be a little rubbery in texture.

Here's how to avoid one of the worst kitchen mishaps: overcooking. Egg-based puddings and custards can curdle if cooked beyond 185 degrees.

If you dish out some of the pudding and put the rest back into the fridge, liquid from the pudding will seep out of the pudding and collect in a low spot. Pudding is a custard and when you stick the spoon into the custard, you are disturbing the cells of the custard and causing them to release liquid.

American pudding from scratch is almost always a custard-based sweet dessert. Vanilla, banana, and chocolate puddings are most common but thanks to pudding mixes, many flavors are available.

The original pudding was formed by mixing various ingredients with a grain product or other binder such as butter, flour, cereal, eggs, and/or suet, resulting in a solid mass.

Ingredients for Making Pudding

It is simply milk and cream, sweetened and thickened by a brief bout of cooking on the stovetop or in the oven. Unbaked puddings, like this one, get their richness and thickness from a mixture of cornstarch and egg yolks.

Both scrapple and pudding are made from a mixture of pork, pork skins, pork livers, and seasonings. The main difference is that scrapple also has cornmeal and buckwheat flour added to this mixture. The cornmeal and buckwheat flour (both gluten free) help bind the various ingredients together.