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Mush, or Hasty Pudding

A simple cornmeal pudding made by boiling water and gradually adding sifted Indian meal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Mush, or Hasty Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Bring 1 quart of water to a boil.

  2. In a separate bowl, stir ½ pint of sifted Indian meal into enough water to make a smooth mixture.

  3. Add salt to taste.

  4. Once the water is boiling, stir in 1 tablespoon of the Indian meal mixture and let it boil.

  5. Continue adding 1 tablespoon at a time, allowing it to boil each time.

  6. Gradually add more sifted Indian meal while stirring until the mixture thickens.

  7. Once thickened, the dish is ready.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Cornmeal thickens the boiling water into a porridge as its starch gelatinizes.
Water
Cooks the meal and carries it into a smooth, pourable mixture before it thickens.

The step that matters

Adding the meal gradually while the water boils. Adding meal in small amounts to boiling water keeps it from clumping. Each addition is dispersed before the next, so the starch swells evenly and the mixture thickens smoothly.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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