November

Eliza Leslie’s Complete Cookery is a best seller cookbook of the 19th century. Miss Leslie gives us three Indian pudding options:  baked, boiled, and without eggs.

National Indian Pudding Day

(November 13)

Indian pudding does not originate with Native-Americans. It's a Western-hemisphere descendant of the British wheat flour-based hasty pudding. Indian pudding substitutes Indian meal, which is cornmeal. It dates back to colonial America and gives us an opportunity to highlight one of the older American cookbooks in the NAL Rare Book Collection.

Eliza Leslie's Complete Cookery is a best seller cookbook of the 19^th century.

Miss Leslie gives us three Indian pudding options: baked, boiled, and without eggs:

Leslie, Eliza. Miss Leslie's Complete Cookery in its Various Branches. 42^nd ed. Philadelphia: Henry Carey Baird, 1851. (NAL call no.: 389.25 L562 Ed. 42)

Just for comparison and good measure, here's a 20^th century recipe, from a USDA Farm Service pamphlet held in NAL's general collection:

Indian Pudding:

2 cups milk
3 tablespoons corn meal
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cane sirup
¼ teaspoon ginger

Cook the milk, corn meal, and salt in a double boiler for 20 minutes. Stir in the sirup and ginger, pour into a greased baking dish, and bake in a very moderate oven (300˚F.) for about 2 hours. Serve hot or cold with milk or cream.

USDA Farm Service Administration pamphlet (NAL call no.: 195 C16) c.1940