Indian pudding

Indian Pudding

Indian Pudding (pronunciation: /ˈɪndiən ˈpʊdɪŋ/) is a traditional American dessert, with origins in the early New England colonies. It is a baked pudding made from cornmeal, milk, molasses or maple syrup, and spices such as cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. The name "Indian Pudding" is derived from the use of "Indian meal," a historical term for cornmeal.

Etymology

The term "Indian Pudding" is believed to have originated in the 17th century. The word "Indian" in the name refers to the Native American's cultivation of corn, and "pudding" is a term used by the English settlers to describe a dish cooked by boiling or steaming. The dish was named "Indian Pudding" because it was a modification of the English hasty pudding, adapted to use the "Indian" cornmeal.

Related Terms

Cornmeal: A coarse flour ground from dried maize (corn). It is a common staple food.
Molasses: A viscous product resulting from refining sugarcane or sugar beets into sugar.
Maple Syrup: A syrup usually made from the xylem sap of sugar maple, red maple, or black maple trees.
Cinnamon: A spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus Cinnamomum.
Ginger: A flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine.
Nutmeg: The seed or ground spice of several species of the genus Myristica.
Hasty Pudding: A pudding or porridge of grains cooked in milk or water.