This was AWESOME! I really appreciate you sharing the first attempt. It is important to know that these don't always work out the way you expect. Showing how you troubleshoot is really helpful
YES INDEED, showing the less than desired result, then doing more investigation, some deciphering..., conducting the experiment a second time with the corrections... voila a nice dish. Thanks for the video!...
What we have to remember with old recipe books is that people left out details they thought would be obvious - because they were for the housewifes and cooks at the time. I guess this is what happened here aswell.
I was wondering why it would need to be cooked for hours, polenta cooks up much quicker than that. Porridge is kept warm overnight and rice pudding is cooked so long till the starch begins to break down. Maybe this is similar.
I am Italian. We make polenta in a pot with a stirrer at the bottom so it doesn't harden or burn at the bottom. Some of us have antique ones, they now have electronic ones
The long cook time reminded me of traditional Boston baked beans, where the colonists would bring their pots to the baker to put in the oven Saturday night so they would be able to eat on Sunday when work was forbidden due to the sabbath
That's actually a really old practise, at least as far back as the medieval age and people brought it over from Europe. Ovens used to be rare and things like Dutch ovens are from the modern age, but after the baker was finished baking people would put their pottage and pies in the bakers oven in the morning and bring them back for dinner at the end of the day. I've heard some bakers did it for free since it didn't cost him anything, he'd use the same amount of fuel and the food was cooked with residual hear from the oven and the people using it were likely all customers anyways. Boston baked beans are also a more modern version of pottage, which was just about anything made in a pot, but many of them were bean based with bacon or salt pork being common additives.
@@arthas640Dutch ovens aren’t “modern,” unless you’re specifically referring to the ceramic coated ones. Cast iron “bake ovens” with a lid (same as a Dutch oven) have been around since at least 1795 and were commonly used.
@@KateEileen "modern" is pretty vague since different people have different definitions but generally the "modern era/period" is when exploration of the new world started, so 1492, or sometimes the start of the reformation in the early 1500s. People usually refer to the 1500s, 1600s, and most of the 1700s as the "early modern era" to help differentiate it from the massive changes after the industrial revolution.
Thanks for including the troubleshooting process! In previous episodes, Jon has said things like "we did a test run, and it didn't work out, so here's what we're changing". But it's nice to hear his thoughts on why it didn't work and how he would change or improve the recipe.
Sometime our failures yield more knowledge than our successes. So I think this was much more informative and entertaining. Most content creators wouldn’t show bad results I am glad you did. Keep history alive love the content.
What you describe sounds a little bit like the German "Servietten Kloss" . That is an old- fashioned dish made with wheat or spelt instead of maize. The cloth is greased, flowered and filled with your pudding mixture. Fold over the corners, make a knot and secure the knot with string. Stick a long wooden spoon through the knot and place the wooden spoon ends over a pot. The cloth should be suspended and hanging in the middle of the pot. Fill the pot with enough water to create steam, but not so much that it can reach the cloth even while boiling. The Servietten Kloss is not cooked in the boiling water, but in the steam. You have to refill the water to replace the evaporated steam from time to time.
Please never stop making videos. In between the cooking, making, creating, building and discussing, I get such joy whenever I see a new video has been posted.
I love Indian pudding, learned how to make it in home economics back in the 70s. We used almost the exact same ingredients but we would also throw dried fruits into our puddings like figs, raisins, cherries, etc.
@@Nyx773 only some. The colonists wouldn't have blanched their cherries nor would they have cut them in half. They would have pitted them and let them dry in the sun. Not nearly as much of vitamin loss in comparison to the way most people do it today.
1:30 Funny story. The word "corn" is still used in the UK to refer to any grain, but not a lot of people know this. I watched a free documentary on TH-cam on ancient Rome where the British host mentioned that the Caesar would occasionally give out free corn. One person commented that he didn't trust that documentary since corn (referring to maize) came from the new world. This then started a debate about how maize was possibly known in ancient Rome since travelers came from near and far to trade in Rome, etc, etc. It was quite funny.
It's the ingredients, I think. Today, flour, dried coconut, and even the fat used are different. My grandmother baked with lard rendered on her own farm. Butter was not used in baking as much as we do today. If I could ask my grandmother about it today I imagine she would talk about the lack of refrigeration. Lard and ghee (rendered butter) are shelf-stable longer than unrendered fats.
I have cornmeal porridge a lot, so this got my attention! I use 1/4 cup coarse cornmeal to 1 cup of water (standard recipe), but usually increase water to 1 1/4 cup to allow easier boil on stove top. Add cinnamon to water, and brown sugar (molasses if preferred) to sweeten. Some use salt, and butter at end for a more savory taste (minus the cinnamon)
chopped dates would be interesting. Makes a nice texture along with currants to keep your pallet guessing. Just my opinion. Great job John by not cutting out the flaws. That's how we learn.
@@TheGravityShifter certainly cozy looking. I'd hate to actually live back then though. Definitely not good times. But much like LARPing, there's nothing wrong with just looking at the good aspects of the Era. Just important to remember that it only appeals to us because it's different and because learning is fun.
@@harmonic5107 Yeah true. We've come a long way technologically speaking but at least we could live in those times today without much worry compared to back then. Not only that but I think it's just the fact it's history and we are just fascinated of things of back in the day brought to our time.
It's always fun when the failed attempt is included. It shows the stab in the dark nature of some of these recipes, and of history itself. There are always gaps, and we fill them in as best we can. Excellent stuff!
I grew up eating Indian pudding and it's the molasses flavor that makes it really good. I'm sure the other sweeteners are fine for some, but fresh from the oven or pot with a pat of butter on top and milk poured around the base, it's the original comfort food.
I enjoyed watching the process of figuring out this recipe. Jon you took us on a nice journey here. Thanks for another great program. Happy Holidays to all of you at Townsends!
Jon ~ My understanding is that in 18th century New England, corn pudding was often (if not usually) served as a starter course vs. dessert since it’s so filling - thus ensuring a roast could feed more people. In fact, one of the biographies of Abigail Adams indicated that throughout her life she was so frugal, she unfailingly served a corn pudding first at every supper - even when the Adams’ financial circumstances had improved to the point she could’ve dispensed with the practice. The incentive to eat the pudding was supposedly that the person who ate the most of it was thereafter rewarded with the largest portion of meat - a clever way to thwart overconsumption of the most costly food on the table. 🍖🍗
I have a mixed Slavic ancestry, including Ukrainian. Cornmeal is part of what we eat. It's very good. In the cold winter months, cornmeal is great. Also, Native North American foods, and recipes are great. Thanks for such awesome quality content, from over the years. I hope you have a Merry Christmas. Cheers!
I also have mixed Slavic ancestry. My Croatian side loves cornmeal made into polenta. It's amazing fried up in butter or animal fat and covered with cheese 🤤
This kind of “Indian pudding” is usually thought of as a New England dish. It’s commonly made with molasses instead of maple syrup, and cooked in an oven. But, as Jon demonstrates, you can make it even if you don’t have an oven.
I really enjoy seeing your learning process. I remember you saying years ago in a video that you weren't much of a cook, but you have turned into one! You have helped me grow into a better cook, too. I share your channel with anyone who likes cooking. I also share your catalog with anyone interested in history. Many people have told me that I make them hungry when I share recipes from your channel. You are a blessing to your fans, friends, and family. I hope to be enjoying your channel for many years to come. Thank you, and bless you.
One of my favourite episodes in a while , I love a good cooking episode with Jon ! Appreciate your effort digging through the books to make a complete and proper recipe come to light ! All the best !
I really appreciate that Jon acknowledges the failure, figures out what went wrong, and then tries again in the same video. He could have very easily filmed a second video from scratch with a perfect outcome, and we'd be none the wiser.
In Brazil, we have something similar (as in, we use the same ingredients), but we cook it in a pan till it thickens. It's called MINGAU DE FUBÁ. Sometimes we put cheese in it so it can have something a little savory in the middle. It's my comfort food for when it's cold & I'm unwell.
We (as creators and audience) learn a lot from mistakes. So it is very helpful (and honest) to show the first try and how it was changed to become at least edible. Thank you so much.
not sure how the metrics will go for this video but i personally like the concept of going through the process of deciphering the old recipes and figuring out how to make them work. i feel like we haven't seen one in this indepth into the process in a while.
this recipe reminds me of current day slow cooker grits / cornmeal mush... comes out so creamy and delicious and i cook mine for around 8hrs on low or 5 on high.
I've tried some of your recipes and I am very surprised at how often they're actually pretty good. I'm obviously not doing them authentically most the time, but I've tried the things I could. Johnny Cakes were fun, I actually found the mixed grain breads useful, and I've made the stale bread and cheese soup, but wow that macaroni and cheese recipe was really something else! The puddings in particular are really approachable. I wonder if I could make this with some purple corn I have on hand.
@@psalm91rdwlkfpgrl Lol I thought the same thing when I bought it... It's much grittier than the yellow or white corn I've bought even when cooked, and it has more of a sickly blue color when cooked than the robust purple blue one it has when in meal form. Honestly not recommended, I can see why it's not popular!
I do like how you leave your errors in, and explain how you work out what went wrong. Honest, and also very helpful to those of us who might try to do similar things one day.
I got really interested in indian pudding after watching the cooking marathon stream last friday. Molassed is really hard to find here but I do have maple syrup at home so I might try a combination of this recipe and the one from the christmas feast video
Sorghum can be used. It has a much stronger flavor than molasses, but i happen to like it! And i'm betting you can find molasses no problem in Amazon. I buy quite a bit of foodstuffs that are hard or impossible to source locally, online. If it's jarred or canned, no problem with it going bad.
I like that you left the failed attempt in the video and showed what you did to fix the problem. The historical recipes definitely need to be interpreted. I enjoy the process and experimentation to get the right taste and texture.
i'm glad you go over mistakes and don't just edit it out. i love your cooking episodes the most, and it makes it easier to learn when you explain and problem solve mistakes like this.
I grew up on cape cod and Indian pudding was very common around the holidays. It still is to some extent. You can even get it in cans in the supermarket here!
Pudding doesn’t automatically imply sweet and eating it cold; Yorkshire pudding being the main one that comes to mind. I think serving this warm with butter and more syrup would be heavenly for breakfast or even dessert.
Haven't seen one of your vids show up on my suggestions for a while, and glad it did . It's intriguing to see what others prepared and ate in different geography and times and how it was prepared.
Great video. I like that you showed us the initial failure so we can follow your thought process in finding the errors and deciphering how the recipe was meant to be interpreted.
Thank you for doing this. I have nothing against your cohorts, but when I watch a "Townsends" video, I want a Townsends in it. You are the main pull for your videos, and I wish you would be in more of them.
Thanks for showing the mistakes of the first try, and how with further research you were able to correct them. So refreshing to see it done this way rather than seeing a "picture perfect" result to display!
Thanks Jon for taking it well past the first iteration, and discussing the taste and texture after the 6 hour boil. I'm sure that some sweet fruits would improve the flavor significantly, but I will still wonder just why this was served as a dessert, and to whom. I mean, I don't care how long it boiled, corn meal mush, is corn meal mush! 🤨
Probably because they used sugar a lot less, at least among common folks, than we do today. Nowadays you'd struggle to find anything in a grocery store without some kind of sugar in it (whether cane sugar, corm syrup, or some artificial sweetener), but back in the day, sugar (as in cane sugar) was much more expensive. And the alternatives took a lot more effort or start-up cost (beehives and frames for honey, taps for syrups), so average folks used it more sparingly, often getting sweetness from fruits. So they'd find this sweetened corn porridge much more dessert-y than us.
I love your "lost leg" story! Laughing so hard. I hosted a bachelor party at my despicable dive of a house as a 20-ish boy person... and one guest passed out in the front lawn and lost his teeth (dentures) . I found them a week or so later with the lawn mower!!! CRUNCH.
I have truly fallen in love with this channel over the past year! Thank you for remastering these concoctions that otherwise would be more or less forgotten! ❤
It is always fascinating to me, that Americans call it "corn" or "maize". In German it is just called "Mais". "Korn" on the other hand is used in four different ways. It either means plain grain of any variety, or it means "kernel", as in a single kernel of any grain (maize/corn included), or it refers to a "Kornfeld" a field full of grain bearing plants. The last use is a little removed, as "Korn" can just refer to a wheat or rye schnapps/liquor.
I bet you have amazing family get togethers and holiday gatherings. God what a treat it would be to get to join in on such an occasion and get to learn from, and possibly experience a part of the lifestyle, of someone so knowledgeable and well versed in history. I never liked the subject at all and now I can't get enough of it. Obviously I know you most likely don't live like a poor person from the 1700s. But just to get to be around someone that can replicate it and teach about it is what I mean.
With the exception of a lot of people on this channel, I don't believe most people understand the importance of old recipes and cookbooks. It can sometimes be the only or best way to really understand the lives of everyday people that wouldn't normally make it into the history books. Thanks for another great video, Townsend.
Thank you so much! Love your channel and all the historic work you folks put into ti. Also love how you show the mistakes and explain it through! Great job!
The mixture reminds me of banaha (traditional dish of Indigenous folx of the SE). Banaha is usually cooked in tied up corn husks (like tamales), sometimes with fruit in the mix, and/or made with hickory nut milk for the liquid. I'd bet that the name comes not only from being made of "Indian corn," but from being an adaptation of an Indigenous dish! I really appreciate y'all including the first attempt & walking through the troubleshooting stage. Working out what an author assumed you knew without having to say it, printer's errors, and translation misunderstandings is both fun and frustrating.
Yes, though the indigenous maize would have been nixtamalized, giving it the taste of hominy. When new foods are adopted, people can easily miss the centuries of wisdom that surround the use of the food. Without nixtamalization, the colonizers suffered from pellegra if they relied on maize as a large portion of their diet. This vitamin deficiency disease was exported to Africa, sans wisdom. It would be like eating taro roots without thorough cooking because you didn't know better. Unprocessed corn is not a healthy food either.
@@GeckoHiker No, not for this dish, particularly as I’m relating it to banaha, which is not always made with masa, often just plain corn meal. The nixtamalized version of “corn pudding” is called “grits” and still very popular. Unprocessed corn is *perfectly healthy* and we managed just fine-Euro-American hybrid sweet corn is marginally unhealthy in high proportions, but it also is NOT one of the thousands of types of corn we developed ourselves. Not all corn was nixtamalized in Indigenous cuisine. Nixtamalization was not necessarily even the most common way to prepare corn, just *a* method. Indigenous diets in Turtle Island would not generally have suffered niacin deficiency, even with a maize-based diet-our food ways are structured around seasonality and variety, which do more than anything else to combat nutrient deficiency. Making hominy (for us) has more to do with changing the texture and taste of maize (as well as the dynamics of cooking it) than increasing nutritional value (though that is a nice bonus and was understood). My ancestors never needed to nixtamalize corn per se, they did it because they liked it. (Essentially every pre-columbian crop we cultivated *before maize came north* and never stopped growing after is a “rich source of niacin.” Pellagra was never a thing before colonization.)
@masonkicinski3277 Pellegra may not have been a regular thing before colonization because of the gift of nixtal. When maize became a subsistence crop anywhere, pellegra followed if nixtamalization wasn't also practiced. If your culture doesn't use maize as an unprocessed subsistence crop, then you might be spared. My people processed maize 99% of the time. We didn't have "sweet corn." The ears from the harvest, when more foods were abundant, might have been roasted in ashes. We might have popped old, unprocessed kernels in the ashes of a fire to amuse the children. I still soak my maize, my acorns, and all my dried beans...according to ancient wisdom. I know better than to eat a cassava root without processing because it's not in my cultural knowledge base and we have the internet today. Poor children in the American South didn't benefit from a millenia of gathered wisdom and suffered from pellagra as recently as the 20th century. As an indigenous American, I would never consume any hybridized "corn". My pantry contains only nixtamalized maize and masa harina. The same way wheatberries are eventually used to make a variety of breads, I use nixtal to make flatbreads, tortillas, hominy grits, and dumplings. No fry breads or high fructose corn syrup drinks in my house! We are healthy.
În România we make Mămăligă, (polenta translated in italian, but I don't know if is similar prepared like the italian polenta). We make diferent type of mămăligă, some has thicker texture, some has harder texture, depending on the amount of corn meal and the way we boiled the mămăliga. We also make a thicker mămăligă, with less corn meal than water, that we boiled for much short period of time than the usual mămăligă, and we called that Terci. It has a texture similar with pudding and after we put terci in a plate we add a little oil and sugar on top. We eat that like a dessert. Another dessert with mămăligă that we used to make, is to take slices of mamaliga made from a day before, and put that on a grill to obtain some crust on the both sides. After that we put some jam on top of grilled sliced mamaliga. We also make Layered mămăligă, this is like an aperitif cake, with smoked ham, sausages cheese and eggs. We also made Bulz with cheese, a ball of mămăligă stufed with cheese (brânză de burduf) that we put on grill. Also we have cookie with cornmeal that we bake in the oven. I just realized that we used a lot of cornmeal in our traditional kitchen. We also add cornmeal in our fasting cabbage or wine leaves roll, or fasting stuff bell pepper. We also use corn meal when we fry fish and eat the fish with mămăligă. And we have pufuleți made from extrudet corn meal. What can I say, we love our corn meal, we also have songs with mămăligă. :) And some italians had whriten in books about our olders traditional kitchen that we did not have corn on our land, and we use to consume other granes, I don't trust them... because we have so many recipe with corn and corn meal.
Awesome video, and books like that make you realize what the passage of time does to interpretations of original recipes. Whether it be going from one language to another or just someone trying to translate old world English into a modern context
What I love is how you show your mistakes and I myself appreciate that unlike other cooking shows/channels always try to show perfection which is fine but it shows to me that even the best are never perfect. Love your videos.
I'm going to have to try this recipe. I have to say thank you guys, I'm watching probably dozens of hours of these episodes they gave me a Love of Cooking especially the bread series absolutely love baking breads and I owe it to this channel so thank you again
My tribe has a traditional food that is blackberry (or other berry/fruit) cornmeal dumplings - I think they'd be pretty similar to this though I've never actually made them. I should give it a shot!
I have the theory that if the recipe really implies fruits to be put in, the long cooking time will almost create little pockets of jam or jelly in there, where the fruits dissolve slowly over time. Sounds delicious!
0:06 Just saw A Sunderland pudding my surname is Sunderland, is there any information on the name I suppose it's named after the city. But if it was originally created by someone called Sunderland that would be fascinating
Jon, good video, I like the way you show your trials and tribulations through the recipe. As children our father would encourage us to plant different things in the garden so one year we grew Indian corn when it was time to harvest we promptly took it in to our mother and ask her to cook it for us, it was the toughest stuff we ever ate 😂
*ONE addition:* the reason why this was boiled and not cooked in fire is because the temperature of boiling is just 100 Celsius, which is much lower than most other methods. This is important for the dish to be as intended.
Back when I was starting my own dairy farm, I ate an awful lot of corn meal straight from the bin, cooked on the giant wood cook stove that came with the rented farmhouse. Corn and milk will feed you well in many different ways, particularly if it needs to!
Very good demonstration of resurrecting old recipes. The silly thing is, this is basic cornmeal mush cooked unnecessarily. Maybe Amelia Simmons thought it surely would have to be boiled like wheat flour puddings, that there was no way it could just be done on the hob in 15 minutes.
This reminds me of a Mexican drink called atole. It is not a pudding per se but it's basically just corn meal cooked and boiled till it's thickened and when it cools is usually does solidify depending on how much corn meal some people add. I know a lot of Latin countries have similar puddings depending on the thickness of the pudding it could either serve as a drink or as a dessert
My first thought was something more like a rice pudding. The way the second one worked reminds me of cooking in a thermos or thermal pot. With that kind of cooking it's all about putting the heat in there and just keeping it in and letting it work its magic.
Thanks for this! Made this several times so far and it is delicious every time. Tips: You can use a covered “pot” inside of an Instant Pot to cook this meal in about 30ish minutes. You can use crushed cornflakes in place of cornmeal. Eat it fresh off the heat for best texture and taste.
sounds similar of Polenta which is common in Italian Speaking countries Southern Switzerland in the Ticino and Italy of course, but it is cooked in water maybe milk too
Jon! Thanks so much for including all of the brain work in this. It's fascinating that you comparing recipes is a modern substitute for their common knowledge because they cooked like this ALL the time and knew it instinctively. Cool research--love to hear your though process. Thanks! And Merry CHRISTmas!!
I think the pre-boil phaze of cooking went on too long in the second attempt. If you try it again, do everything the same, BUT set it up to seal and boil as soon as it looks like it does at 10:27 Don't wait until it gets so dry like in the shot at 10:32 I think you will get a MUCH better texture. :)
Townsend, the recipe detective
😂
More like recipe archeologist.
The homecook historian
Reading is fundamental!
"There Is Always Only One Recipe" : Edogawa Townsand
This was AWESOME! I really appreciate you sharing the first attempt. It is important to know that these don't always work out the way you expect. Showing how you troubleshoot is really helpful
Agreed
YES INDEED, showing the less than desired result, then doing more investigation, some deciphering..., conducting the experiment a second time with the corrections... voila a nice dish. Thanks for the video!...
Absolutely! Mistakes are an integral part of learning and growing.
I was going to say the same thing. Thank you for posting your failures.
What we have to remember with old recipe books is that people left out details they thought would be obvious - because they were for the housewifes and cooks at the time. I guess this is what happened here aswell.
3:29 - Polenta (cornmeal mush) is traditionally cooked in a copper pot. I wonder if that's where the "brass or bell metal pot" came from.
I was wondering why it would need to be cooked for hours, polenta cooks up much quicker than that.
Porridge is kept warm overnight and rice pudding is cooked so long till the starch begins to break down. Maybe this is similar.
I am Italian. We make polenta in a pot with a stirrer at the bottom so it doesn't harden or burn at the bottom. Some of us have antique ones, they now have electronic ones
The long cook time reminded me of traditional Boston baked beans, where the colonists would bring their pots to the baker to put in the oven Saturday night so they would be able to eat on Sunday when work was forbidden due to the sabbath
Aha! Then it makes sense.
That's actually a really old practise, at least as far back as the medieval age and people brought it over from Europe. Ovens used to be rare and things like Dutch ovens are from the modern age, but after the baker was finished baking people would put their pottage and pies in the bakers oven in the morning and bring them back for dinner at the end of the day. I've heard some bakers did it for free since it didn't cost him anything, he'd use the same amount of fuel and the food was cooked with residual hear from the oven and the people using it were likely all customers anyways. Boston baked beans are also a more modern version of pottage, which was just about anything made in a pot, but many of them were bean based with bacon or salt pork being common additives.
@@arthas640Dutch ovens aren’t “modern,” unless you’re specifically referring to the ceramic coated ones. Cast iron “bake ovens” with a lid (same as a Dutch oven) have been around since at least 1795 and were commonly used.
@@KateEileen "modern" is pretty vague since different people have different definitions but generally the "modern era/period" is when exploration of the new world started, so 1492, or sometimes the start of the reformation in the early 1500s. People usually refer to the 1500s, 1600s, and most of the 1700s as the "early modern era" to help differentiate it from the massive changes after the industrial revolution.
Thanks for including the troubleshooting process! In previous episodes, Jon has said things like "we did a test run, and it didn't work out, so here's what we're changing". But it's nice to hear his thoughts on why it didn't work and how he would change or improve the recipe.
Sometime our failures yield more knowledge than our successes. So I think this was much more informative and entertaining. Most content creators wouldn’t show bad results I am glad you did. Keep history alive love the content.
What you describe sounds a little bit like the German "Servietten Kloss" . That is an old- fashioned dish made with wheat or spelt instead of maize. The cloth is greased, flowered and filled with your pudding mixture. Fold over the corners, make a knot and secure the knot with string. Stick a long wooden spoon through the knot and place the wooden spoon ends over a pot. The cloth should be suspended and hanging in the middle of the pot. Fill the pot with enough water to create steam, but not so much that it can reach the cloth even while boiling. The Servietten Kloss is not cooked in the boiling water, but in the steam. You have to refill the water to replace the evaporated steam from time to time.
Please never stop making videos. In between the cooking, making, creating, building and discussing, I get such joy whenever I see a new video has been posted.
I love Indian pudding, learned how to make it in home economics back in the 70s. We used almost the exact same ingredients but we would also throw dried fruits into our puddings like figs, raisins, cherries, etc.
I think the fruit would not only taste good, but add to the vitamins and minerals
in the food.
@@debbralehrman5957 especially cherries which were high in vitamin C and helped a lot during winter 👍
@@debiesubaugher Water soluble vitamins evaporate when fruit is dried.
That's all vitamins except the fat soluble (A, D, E, and K)
@@Nyx773 only some. The colonists wouldn't have blanched their cherries nor would they have cut them in half. They would have pitted them and let them dry in the sun. Not nearly as much of vitamin loss in comparison to the way most people do it today.
@@debiesubaugher Doesn't matter the method. Without water, there cannot be any water soluble vitamins
1:30 Funny story. The word "corn" is still used in the UK to refer to any grain, but not a lot of people know this. I watched a free documentary on TH-cam on ancient Rome where the British host mentioned that the Caesar would occasionally give out free corn. One person commented that he didn't trust that documentary since corn (referring to maize) came from the new world. This then started a debate about how maize was possibly known in ancient Rome since travelers came from near and far to trade in Rome, etc, etc. It was quite funny.
'Tis the season for trying to decipher mysterious, vintage recipes. I still can't quite get my grandma's coconut cake perfect.
It's the ingredients, I think. Today, flour, dried coconut, and even the fat used are different. My grandmother baked with lard rendered on her own farm. Butter was not used in baking as much as we do today. If I could ask my grandmother about it today I imagine she would talk about the lack of refrigeration. Lard and ghee (rendered butter) are shelf-stable longer than unrendered fats.
I have cornmeal porridge a lot, so this got my attention!
I use 1/4 cup coarse cornmeal to 1 cup of water (standard recipe), but usually increase water to 1 1/4 cup to allow easier boil on stove top. Add cinnamon to water, and brown sugar (molasses if preferred) to sweeten. Some use salt, and butter at end for a more savory taste (minus the cinnamon)
Interestingly, "Indian Corn" is very close to how we call maïs over here in Québec, using the name "Blé d'Inde", or "Indian Wheat" to be specific.
Where in Quebec? I’m in Montreal, Châteauguay to be precise. 👍
Pretty much everywhere I have been to, including Montréal, where I lived for 10 years.
chopped dates would be interesting. Makes a nice texture along with currants to keep your pallet guessing. Just my opinion. Great job John by not cutting out the flaws. That's how we learn.
I just can't get enough of these period cooking videos he is making. As always, top-notch content!
I love this channel. It's such a source of coziness. Perfect for Christmas. Much love from Portugal!
The good times of the Colonial Era always really does look so cozy. As an American myself, it just feels right.
@@TheGravityShifter certainly cozy looking. I'd hate to actually live back then though. Definitely not good times.
But much like LARPing, there's nothing wrong with just looking at the good aspects of the Era. Just important to remember that it only appeals to us because it's different and because learning is fun.
@@harmonic5107 Yeah true. We've come a long way technologically speaking but at least we could live in those times today without much worry compared to back then.
Not only that but I think it's just the fact it's history and we are just fascinated of things of back in the day brought to our time.
It's always fun when the failed attempt is included. It shows the stab in the dark nature of some of these recipes, and of history itself. There are always gaps, and we fill them in as best we can. Excellent stuff!
I grew up eating Indian pudding and it's the molasses flavor that makes it really good. I'm sure the other sweeteners are fine for some, but fresh from the oven or pot with a pat of butter on top and milk poured around the base, it's the original comfort food.
I enjoyed watching the process of figuring out this recipe. Jon you took us on a nice journey here. Thanks for another great program. Happy Holidays to all of you at Townsends!
Jon ~ My understanding is that in 18th century New England, corn pudding was often (if not usually) served as a starter course vs. dessert since it’s so filling - thus ensuring a roast could feed more people. In fact, one of the biographies of Abigail Adams indicated that throughout her life she was so frugal, she unfailingly served a corn pudding first at every supper - even when the Adams’ financial circumstances had improved to the point she could’ve dispensed with the practice. The incentive to eat the pudding was supposedly that the person who ate the most of it was thereafter rewarded with the largest portion of meat - a clever way to thwart overconsumption of the most costly food on the table. 🍖🍗
I have a mixed Slavic ancestry, including Ukrainian. Cornmeal is part of what we eat. It's very good. In the cold winter months, cornmeal is great. Also, Native North American foods, and recipes are great. Thanks for such awesome quality content, from over the years. I hope you have a Merry Christmas. Cheers!
I also have mixed Slavic ancestry. My Croatian side loves cornmeal made into polenta. It's amazing fried up in butter or animal fat and covered with cheese 🤤
This kind of “Indian pudding” is usually thought of as a New England dish. It’s commonly made with molasses instead of maple syrup, and cooked in an oven. But, as Jon demonstrates, you can make it even if you don’t have an oven.
I find it so curious how commen corn is as a foodstaple in eastern europe, how it came to spain is pretty obvious after all
My dad’s side of the family is Polish/Czech and my grandmother used to cook ethnic foods but I don’t recall cornmeal being on the menu 🤔
@@Marlaina I'm also Czech and I don't really recall anyone using cornmeal either. Perhaps it's more part of the more eastern European countries.
I really enjoy seeing your learning process. I remember you saying years ago in a video that you weren't much of a cook, but you have turned into one! You have helped me grow into a better cook, too. I share your channel with anyone who likes cooking. I also share your catalog with anyone interested in history. Many people have told me that I make them hungry when I share recipes from your channel. You are a blessing to your fans, friends, and family. I hope to be enjoying your channel for many years to come. Thank you, and bless you.
One of my favourite episodes in a while , I love a good cooking episode with Jon ! Appreciate your effort digging through the books to make a complete and proper recipe come to light ! All the best !
I love these cooking videos. Thanks for this one. Congratulations on 2 million. Cheers to many more
I really appreciate that Jon acknowledges the failure, figures out what went wrong, and then tries again in the same video. He could have very easily filmed a second video from scratch with a perfect outcome, and we'd be none the wiser.
In Brazil, we have something similar (as in, we use the same ingredients), but we cook it in a pan till it thickens. It's called MINGAU DE FUBÁ. Sometimes we put cheese in it so it can have something a little savory in the middle. It's my comfort food for when it's cold & I'm unwell.
We (as creators and audience) learn a lot from mistakes. So it is very helpful (and honest) to show the first try and how it was changed to become at least edible. Thank you so much.
not sure how the metrics will go for this video but i personally like the concept of going through the process of deciphering the old recipes and figuring out how to make them work. i feel like we haven't seen one in this indepth into the process in a while.
this recipe reminds me of current day slow cooker grits / cornmeal mush... comes out so creamy and delicious and i cook mine for around 8hrs on low or 5 on high.
Grits are so good. Shrimp and grits is even better.
I love this episode and how it shows how to figure out "what went wrong" with these recipes.!
We still have the best Indian puddings here in Massachusetts! Except it's ALWAYS done with molasses, not maple syrup.
I love gulab jamun, my favourite Indian pudding 😍
True❤
Since molasses is from sugar cane, maple would have been more available to the colonies, I imagine.
@@HLBear I would also say that molasses flavor would be to dominant, I would rather use maple syrup.
@@iheggis86 wrong Indian. Actually this pudding is colonial and thus neither Indian or Native American
I've tried some of your recipes and I am very surprised at how often they're actually pretty good. I'm obviously not doing them authentically most the time, but I've tried the things I could. Johnny Cakes were fun, I actually found the mixed grain breads useful, and I've made the stale bread and cheese soup, but wow that macaroni and cheese recipe was really something else! The puddings in particular are really approachable. I wonder if I could make this with some purple corn I have on hand.
i don't see any issues with using purple corn. it would also make it prettier, imo🙂
@@psalm91rdwlkfpgrl Lol I thought the same thing when I bought it... It's much grittier than the yellow or white corn I've bought even when cooked, and it has more of a sickly blue color when cooked than the robust purple blue one it has when in meal form.
Honestly not recommended, I can see why it's not popular!
I do like how you leave your errors in, and explain how you work out what went wrong. Honest, and also very helpful to those of us who might try to do similar things one day.
I got really interested in indian pudding after watching the cooking marathon stream last friday. Molassed is really hard to find here but I do have maple syrup at home so I might try a combination of this recipe and the one from the christmas feast video
Sorghum can be used. It has a much stronger flavor than molasses, but i happen to like it! And i'm betting you can find molasses no problem in Amazon. I buy quite a bit of foodstuffs that are hard or impossible to source locally, online.
If it's jarred or canned, no problem with it going bad.
I like that you left the failed attempt in the video and showed what you did to fix the problem. The historical recipes definitely need to be interpreted. I enjoy the process and experimentation to get the right taste and texture.
i'm glad you go over mistakes and don't just edit it out. i love your cooking episodes the most, and it makes it easier to learn when you explain and problem solve mistakes like this.
I grew up on cape cod and Indian pudding was very common around the holidays. It still is to some extent.
You can even get it in cans in the supermarket here!
Pudding doesn’t automatically imply sweet and eating it cold; Yorkshire pudding being the main one that comes to mind.
I think serving this warm with butter and more syrup would be heavenly for breakfast or even dessert.
Haven't seen one of your vids show up on my suggestions for a while, and glad it did . It's intriguing to see what others prepared and ate in different geography and times and how it was prepared.
Great video. I like that you showed us the initial failure so we can follow your thought process in finding the errors and deciphering how the recipe was meant to be interpreted.
Thank you for doing this. I have nothing against your cohorts, but when I watch a "Townsends" video, I want a Townsends in it. You are the main pull for your videos, and I wish you would be in more of them.
Thanks for showing the mistakes of the first try, and how with further research you were able to correct them. So refreshing to see it done this way rather than seeing a "picture perfect" result to display!
Thanks Jon for taking it well past the first iteration, and discussing the taste and texture after the 6 hour boil. I'm sure that some sweet fruits would improve the flavor significantly, but I will still wonder just why this was served as a dessert, and to whom. I mean, I don't care how long it boiled, corn meal mush, is corn meal mush! 🤨
Probably because they used sugar a lot less, at least among common folks, than we do today. Nowadays you'd struggle to find anything in a grocery store without some kind of sugar in it (whether cane sugar, corm syrup, or some artificial sweetener), but back in the day, sugar (as in cane sugar) was much more expensive. And the alternatives took a lot more effort or start-up cost (beehives and frames for honey, taps for syrups), so average folks used it more sparingly, often getting sweetness from fruits. So they'd find this sweetened corn porridge much more dessert-y than us.
Sounds like a slow cooking crockpot 18th century style
I love your "lost leg" story! Laughing so hard. I hosted a bachelor party at my despicable dive of a house as a 20-ish boy person... and one guest passed out in the front lawn and lost his teeth (dentures) . I found them a week or so later with the lawn mower!!! CRUNCH.
I have truly fallen in love with this channel over the past year! Thank you for remastering these concoctions that otherwise would be more or less forgotten! ❤
It is always fascinating to me, that Americans call it "corn" or "maize". In German it is just called "Mais". "Korn" on the other hand is used in four different ways. It either means plain grain of any variety, or it means "kernel", as in a single kernel of any grain (maize/corn included), or it refers to a "Kornfeld" a field full of grain bearing plants. The last use is a little removed, as "Korn" can just refer to a wheat or rye schnapps/liquor.
I bet you have amazing family get togethers and holiday gatherings. God what a treat it would be to get to join in on such an occasion and get to learn from, and possibly experience a part of the lifestyle, of someone so knowledgeable and well versed in history. I never liked the subject at all and now I can't get enough of it.
Obviously I know you most likely don't live like a poor person from the 1700s. But just to get to be around someone that can replicate it and teach about it is what I mean.
With the exception of a lot of people on this channel, I don't believe most people understand the importance of old recipes and cookbooks. It can sometimes be the only or best way to really understand the lives of everyday people that wouldn't normally make it into the history books. Thanks for another great video, Townsend.
Love this channel! Peace and history in every video.
Thank you so much! Love your channel and all the historic work you folks put into ti. Also love how you show the mistakes and explain it through! Great job!
The mixture reminds me of banaha (traditional dish of Indigenous folx of the SE). Banaha is usually cooked in tied up corn husks (like tamales), sometimes with fruit in the mix, and/or made with hickory nut milk for the liquid. I'd bet that the name comes not only from being made of "Indian corn," but from being an adaptation of an Indigenous dish!
I really appreciate y'all including the first attempt & walking through the troubleshooting stage. Working out what an author assumed you knew without having to say it, printer's errors, and translation misunderstandings is both fun and frustrating.
Yes, though the indigenous maize would have been nixtamalized, giving it the taste of hominy. When new foods are adopted, people can easily miss the centuries of wisdom that surround the use of the food. Without nixtamalization, the colonizers suffered from pellegra if they relied on maize as a large portion of their diet. This vitamin deficiency disease was exported to Africa, sans wisdom. It would be like eating taro roots without thorough cooking because you didn't know better. Unprocessed corn is not a healthy food either.
@@GeckoHiker No, not for this dish, particularly as I’m relating it to banaha, which is not always made with masa, often just plain corn meal. The nixtamalized version of “corn pudding” is called “grits” and still very popular. Unprocessed corn is *perfectly healthy* and we managed just fine-Euro-American hybrid sweet corn is marginally unhealthy in high proportions, but it also is NOT one of the thousands of types of corn we developed ourselves.
Not all corn was nixtamalized in Indigenous cuisine. Nixtamalization was not necessarily even the most common way to prepare corn, just *a* method. Indigenous diets in Turtle Island would not generally have suffered niacin deficiency, even with a maize-based diet-our food ways are structured around seasonality and variety, which do more than anything else to combat nutrient deficiency.
Making hominy (for us) has more to do with changing the texture and taste of maize (as well as the dynamics of cooking it) than increasing nutritional value (though that is a nice bonus and was understood). My ancestors never needed to nixtamalize corn per se, they did it because they liked it. (Essentially every pre-columbian crop we cultivated *before maize came north* and never stopped growing after is a “rich source of niacin.” Pellagra was never a thing before colonization.)
@masonkicinski3277 Pellegra may not have been a regular thing before colonization because of the gift of nixtal. When maize became a subsistence crop anywhere, pellegra followed if nixtamalization wasn't also practiced. If your culture doesn't use maize as an unprocessed subsistence crop, then you might be spared.
My people processed maize 99% of the time. We didn't have "sweet corn." The ears from the harvest, when more foods were abundant, might have been roasted in ashes. We might have popped old, unprocessed kernels in the ashes of a fire to amuse the children. I still soak my maize, my acorns, and all my dried beans...according to ancient wisdom. I know better than to eat a cassava root without processing because it's not in my cultural knowledge base and we have the internet today. Poor children in the American South didn't benefit from a millenia of gathered wisdom and suffered from pellagra as recently as the 20th century. As an indigenous American, I would never consume any hybridized "corn". My pantry contains only nixtamalized maize and masa harina. The same way wheatberries are eventually used to make a variety of breads, I use nixtal to make flatbreads, tortillas, hominy grits, and dumplings. No fry breads or high fructose corn syrup drinks in my house! We are healthy.
I enjoy the trial and error aspect of tbis episode. Cheers mate
În România we make Mămăligă, (polenta translated in italian, but I don't know if is similar prepared like the italian polenta). We make diferent type of mămăligă, some has thicker texture, some has harder texture, depending on the amount of corn meal and the way we boiled the mămăliga. We also make a thicker mămăligă, with less corn meal than water, that we boiled for much short period of time than the usual mămăligă, and we called that Terci. It has a texture similar with pudding and after we put terci in a plate we add a little oil and sugar on top. We eat that like a dessert. Another dessert with mămăligă that we used to make, is to take slices of mamaliga made from a day before, and put that on a grill to obtain some crust on the both sides. After that we put some jam on top of grilled sliced mamaliga. We also make Layered mămăligă, this is like an aperitif cake, with smoked ham, sausages cheese and eggs. We also made Bulz with cheese, a ball of mămăligă stufed with cheese (brânză de burduf) that we put on grill. Also we have cookie with cornmeal that we bake in the oven. I just realized that we used a lot of cornmeal in our traditional kitchen. We also add cornmeal in our fasting cabbage or wine leaves roll, or fasting stuff bell pepper. We also use corn meal when we fry fish and eat the fish with mămăligă. And we have pufuleți made from extrudet corn meal. What can I say, we love our corn meal, we also have songs with mămăligă. :) And some italians had whriten in books about our olders traditional kitchen that we did not have corn on our land, and we use to consume other granes, I don't trust them... because we have so many recipe with corn and corn meal.
Awesome video, and books like that make you realize what the passage of time does to interpretations of original recipes. Whether it be going from one language to another or just someone trying to translate old world English into a modern context
I love it, thanks for including the first attempt. Goes to show it doesn't always go perfectly.
I like that you're also showing some of your failures and learning journeys. Thanks, guys.
This was great. When I cook, things do not always work out as planned. It's helpful to watch someone else have the same experience.
Your cooking videos are always the most interesting part. Keep em coming, even if they don't contain nutmeg!
What I love is how you show your mistakes and I myself appreciate that unlike other cooking shows/channels always try to show perfection which is fine but it shows to me that even the best are never perfect. Love your videos.
I'm going to have to try this recipe. I have to say thank you guys, I'm watching probably dozens of hours of these episodes they gave me a Love of Cooking especially the bread series absolutely love baking breads and I owe it to this channel so thank you again
It was really nice to see the discovery process unfold. Thanks for sticking with it and showing us the good and the bad.
i love the detective work required for this one!
My tribe has a traditional food that is blackberry (or other berry/fruit) cornmeal dumplings - I think they'd be pretty similar to this though I've never actually made them. I should give it a shot!
Man, I hope we get more episodes with Jon as the presenter, even if just on occasion
I have the theory that if the recipe really implies fruits to be put in, the long cooking time will almost create little pockets of jam or jelly in there, where the fruits dissolve slowly over time. Sounds delicious!
0:06 Just saw A Sunderland pudding my surname is Sunderland, is there any information on the name I suppose it's named after the city. But if it was originally created by someone called Sunderland that would be fascinating
We appreciate you showing us your "mix up" love this channel
Jon, good video, I like the way you show your trials and tribulations through the recipe. As children our father would encourage us to plant different things in the garden so one year we grew Indian corn when it was time to harvest we promptly took it in to our mother and ask her to cook it for us, it was the toughest stuff we ever ate 😂
Love that you showed the first attempt and the troubleshooting. That's an important part of life!
Fun presentation. I'm so glad you showed the process, especially your first-take.
What a find! I love this channel so much!
*ONE addition:* the reason why this was boiled and not cooked in fire is because the temperature of boiling is just 100 Celsius, which is much lower than most other methods. This is important for the dish to be as intended.
I cook Polenta for morning meal with pumpkin spice , five spice powder and coconut oil in water . Then I add nuts and dried fruit for a great meal.
Back when I was starting my own dairy farm, I ate an awful lot of corn meal straight from the bin, cooked on the giant wood cook stove that came with the rented farmhouse. Corn and milk will feed you well in many different ways, particularly if it needs to!
Fantastic video. I loved it Jon. Definitely gonna try this at home. Keep up the great work. Historical treasury.
I love that you show doing it wrong first! Makes it more relatable for the rest of us, ha. :)
I love the experimenting phase of this video!
Very good demonstration of resurrecting old recipes. The silly thing is, this is basic cornmeal mush cooked unnecessarily. Maybe Amelia Simmons thought it surely would have to be boiled like wheat flour puddings, that there was no way it could just be done on the hob in 15 minutes.
Highly appreciated that you were willing to concede that you messed up. That's a rare gift. Nowadays as well as back then.
I love these old recipe cooking videos 😊
what the! i love this! Thanks for sharing and all the work you and your team does!
the troubleshooting was super interesting! this was a real treat to watch
Yum! I haven't had this since I was a child in the early 60s. Thank you for reminding me, I'm eager to make some soon.
This reminds me of a Mexican drink called atole. It is not a pudding per se but it's basically just corn meal cooked and boiled till it's thickened and when it cools is usually does solidify depending on how much corn meal some people add. I know a lot of Latin countries have similar puddings depending on the thickness of the pudding it could either serve as a drink or as a dessert
How wonderful that you included the first (failed) attempt in the video, rather than merely considering it merely as preliminary research!
My first thought was something more like a rice pudding. The way the second one worked reminds me of cooking in a thermos or thermal pot. With that kind of cooking it's all about putting the heat in there and just keeping it in and letting it work its magic.
Thank you so much. Love watching your videos.
I love that you showed the “fix”. Very nice video.
I love the set dressing in the kitchen. I just volunteered at an event where I discussed the decorations of the time.
It was nice to see how you figured out the fix. 😊 The dough you put around the top of the jar was interesting as well.
Thanks for this! Made this several times so far and it is delicious every time. Tips: You can use a covered “pot” inside of an Instant Pot to cook this meal in about 30ish minutes. You can use crushed cornflakes in place of cornmeal. Eat it fresh off the heat for best texture and taste.
Interesting how our forefathers lived and ate. Thanks for sharing the history
sounds similar of Polenta which is common in Italian Speaking countries Southern Switzerland in the Ticino and Italy of course, but it is cooked in water maybe milk too
YOU add honey or syrup and butter....it can be pan fried like a pan cake....IT IS still made in the Southern states....corn meal mush....
I really live these videos. With the different savory and hearty dishes, in a way i would have loved to live then for that era. But thats me.
Jon! Thanks so much for including all of the brain work in this. It's fascinating that you comparing recipes is a modern substitute for their common knowledge because they cooked like this ALL the time and knew it instinctively. Cool research--love to hear your though process. Thanks! And Merry CHRISTmas!!
I think the pre-boil phaze of cooking went on too long in the second attempt. If you try it again, do everything the same, BUT set it up to seal and boil as soon as it looks like it does at 10:27 Don't wait until it gets so dry like in the shot at 10:32 I think you will get a MUCH better texture. :)
I appreciate you showing the flawed first attempt. We learned with you.
I wonder if removing the dough seal would allow the steam to plump up the cornmeal, like in Boston brown bread.
Enjoyable video as always!