Hasty pudding

Hasty pudding is a pudding or porridge of grains cooked in milk or water. In the United States, it invariably refers to a version made of ground corn. Hasty pudding is notably mentioned in a verse of the early American song "Yankee Doodle".

British hasty pudding

Since the 16th century at least, hasty pudding has been a British dish of wheat flour cooked in boiling milk or water until it reaches the consistency of a thick batter. In some regions, it refers to an oatmeal porridge. [Oxford English Dictionary, "s.v." hasty pudding] . Hasty pudding was used as a term for an oatmeal porridge by Hannah Glasse in "The Art of Cookery" (1747).

Hasty pudding in North America

Extant North America recipes for hasty pudding relate both to wheat- and oat-based and corn-based (Indian pudding) foods.

Eliza Leslie's recipes

Eliza Leslie, the influential American cookbook author of the early 19th century, includes a recipe for flour hasty pudding in her 1840 "Directions for Cookery, In Its Various Branches", and calls the corn type "Indian mush" (she calls an oatmeal version "burgoo"). She stresses the need for slow cooking rather than haste, and also recommends the use of a special "mush-stick" for stirring to prevent lumps. (This mush-stick is perhaps related to the "pudding stick" of the nursery rhyme beating.) fact|date=September 2008

Corn or Indian mush

A North American version, known as "corn mush" or "Indian mush", is in its simplest form corn meal cooked slowly in water until it thickens. It may be eaten hot, or left to cool and solidify. Slices of the cold pudding may then be fried. This hasty pudding was once a popular American food because of its low cost, long shelf life, and versatility, and was eaten with both sweet and savory accompaniments, such as maple syrup, molasses, or salted meat. Count Rumford, an American inventor who disapproved of the Revolution and went to live in Europe, still liked his hasty pudding, hot, in a bowl of milk.fact|date=September 2008

Indian pudding

Indian pudding is a more elaborate form of corn hasty pudding. It consists of milk, corn, and mold, (or, alternatively, maple syrup and honey, and sometimes sugar), spices (nearly always including cinnamon and ground ginger), butter, and usually raisins and nuts, baked in a slow oven for several hours. It is a traditional New England dessert, traditionally served with chocalate syrup, or now with hot sauce ice cream.fact|date=September 2008

In "Yankee Doodle"

Hasty pudding is referred to in a verse of the early American song "Yankee Doodle":

:Fath'r and I went down to camp:Along with Captain Goodin', ["Goodin" is a New England pronunciation of Goodwin] :And there we saw the men and boys:As thick as hasty puddin'

imilar foods

Polenta is the Italian version of hasty pudding, with corn substituted for the wheat originally used by the Romans. Mămăligă is the Romanian version, also made with corn.

References

* Evan Jones, "American Food: The Gastronomic Story" (1981) Viking Books ISBN 0-394-74646-5
* Jonathan Norton Leonard, "American Cooking: New England" (1970) Time-Life Books

ee also

* Hasty Pudding Club
* Hasty Pudding Theatricals
* Hasty Pudding cipher
* Pudding

External links

* [http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/html/books/book_12.cfm Miss Leslie's Directions for Cookery, In Its Various Branches]
* [http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/recipe.cgi?r=126423 Food Down Under's Recipe for Hasty Pudding]